I arrived in Port McNeill after about 400 km and 80 bucks of gas. Plus a ferry ride. Took me about 4 hours to get here, from Nanaimo. I took it easy. I was in no rush. I averaged 10.7 L/100 km according to the ol’ Ford Exploder trip computer. Doesn’t seem too bad to me.

It was raining on and off, the entire trip. And not that eternal gray drizzle garbage Vancouver calls rain. This was like soaker shower turned on full blast downpour. Almost enjoyable.

Got here, walked around a bit. Kaila is at work somewhere. Got there in a helicopter. Yeah, being in med school is *that* fun.

Bought some food (Paleo diet is never gonna work on a camping trip…) and then drove to some little campsite. Went for a walk along the beach.. Was super nice. Just rugged, pristine. I saw a single piece of garbage: a AA battery. And I like batteries.

The dog was off leash using her fancy new collar. It isn’t working very well.. Need longer prongs to get through all that fur? But it worked well enough. She did great, other than the rolling around in sand, rubbing it all over herself… Sand, I was to find out shortly, that reeked of rotten fish. Nice work, dog.

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View from the end of the campground. Very nice.

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500 km from home on a new beach in the middle of nowhere and she lays down to chew the very first stick.

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Ocean dog loves that water.

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The Exploder made it this far, anyway!

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This is my “before” shot. Gonna try (!) to get away with not shaving all month, haha. Get an early start on Decembeard.