2014 Run to Renfrew

2014 Run to Renfrew

by Bob Cuthill
Vancouver Island Director
June 8, 2014

Instead of a spring Mystery Tour we brought back an oldie but a goodie. It has been a while since we took a drive out to Port Renfrew on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Back then the road, although paved, was a bit of a challenge. Yes it was paved, but it was more like a paved logging road. There were relatively good sections but a number of stretches with frost heave and pot holes that could do a car a lot of harm. And where creeks and small rivers ran down to the shoreline, the road took some diving turns down steep grades and surprising one lane bridges which would pop out on blind corners at the bottom of the gulley. But that was a number of years ago. A lot of the bumps have been smoothed out and all but one of the deep valley one lane bridges have been replaced with new elevated, wide concrete structures that hide the true nature of the valley below.

We congregated at our regular watering hole, the Tim Horton’s coffee shop just north of the highway in Langford. A very good turnout this year, ten cars and twenty people. At the pre-start drivers meeting there were no printed handouts as the route was very simple. Head south down the road outside the parking lot, at the sixth stop light turn right where the signs say this way to Port Renfrew. Stay on this road and enjoy the scenery. If you end up in salt water you have driven off the pier just past the Port Renfrew Pub and Hotel where we were to have lunch. Fortunately, after about an hour and a half drive, all ten cars were safely parked in the hotel parking lot.

After a leisurely lunch and some sparkling conversation there were two options for the afternoon. The date and time for the drive had been chosen so that in the afternoon the tide would be going out at Botanical Beach where those so interested could check out the local fauna in the tide pools.

Option two was a drive on the back roads back to Victoria. It used to be 50 kilometers (30 miles) of unpaved and risky logging road to Honeymoon Bay where the route became a paved provincial road to Duncan and south to Victoria. However, now the road is paved all the way and safe to take our classic cars cruising. The choice was split about even and seeing as how Lucy and I had checked out the newly paved back road three weeks earlier during a route recce, we elected to drive out to the parking lot and take the 15 minute stroll through the woods down to the beach.All in all a successful day for the Island Volvophiles, fun driving, good lunch, sparkling conversation and terrific BC scenery. What more could we ask for.