First Camping Trip 2026, February 13 to 15

Valentines Day! First camping trip as a married couple and first trip after my knee replacement surgery (3 1/2 months ago)!

We decided to keep it simple and took Vincent to French Beach Provincial Park for two nights of peace and quiet in the forest! Well, more on that in a bit.

French Beach Park is a very well kept park that keeps one of its two "loops" open during the winter for off season camping. It's located on the ocean, between Sooke and Jordan Beach on the west coast road. The camp sites are about a 2 minute walk to the ocean but if it's windy and the waves are big enough, they can be heard easily from the camp. The campsites have the usual firepit and picnic table and are generally flat and are quite private (not too close together with a good amount of bush left between sites). The pit toilets are well maintained throughout the year and the rates are self-paid and reduced for the winter. The park operators visit daily to help people remember to pay and remind people to put their dogs back on leash.

It was quite cold and drifted toward zero a few times. It was also quite wet for the first day/night! But the VW has a little heater and we had firewood to burn. We managed to stay dry and as usual, ended the day with a few games of cribbage.

Meals were a little different this trip! We now have a Dutch oven intended for camp fire use. It has built in legs and the lid has a lip which you can pile coals onto in order to make the inside a hot oven. They can be used to make bread or cook a roast. On this initial trial, Holly make an amazing chicken and dumpling stew. The meat was so tender and the dumplings so hardy, the weather had no chance to dampen our spirits!

We did as many walks as my knee would allow and enjoyed sitting on a log by the ocean and supervising waves as they crashed enthusiastically onto the beach. We were surprised by how many people joined us this weekend. We have stayed here in the winter before but the camp sites were less than 50% occupied and few people came to the day-use. This Family Day Weekend was much different. The campsites were nearly full and the parking lot was also nearly full during the day. Note to selves... do not repeat this choice of dates (somebody wanted Valentines Day to be part of the weekend!).

On Sunday, we packed up and began our trip home. We drove to Port Renfrew which included a stop for a walk on the beautiful beach across from the start/finish of the West Coast Trail, and then to Lake Cowican. Along the way, there is an overlook that has breathtaking views of Harris Creek where we stopped for lunch. The entire herd of Roosevelt Elk were in the fields North of the golf course on highway 18.

The unpacking, clean up and drying out is always the hardest part of any trip but more so in the winter! But, we got through it and the bus is ready for its next adventure!