today we are kicking off the trip that we've been wanting to do for a very long

time a road trip across the length of Vancouver Island Sam grew up on the west

coast but moved away when he went to university and I had never been there so

it was high time we both visited to make things even more special when our dads

heard we were traveling to Vancouver Island they both decided to come along

so we embarked on this road trip as a gang of four also I need to mention that

flying from Vancouver to Victoria we experienced our shortest flight ever 11

minutes in the air across the strait of Georgia it was pretty cool

your attachment

my business well hello hello guys and Vancouver island vancouver island this is

where I grew up I was born on the island and I lived here until I was 18 born and raised and

when was the last time here oh my gosh it was 2007 and before that 2002 so

basically in almost the last 20 years yeah I've only been here twice visiting

so it has been ages since I've been here like way before I met you as last time I

wait here and you know what Sam has been talking about wanting to come back to

Vancouver Island for years yeah so this summer we finally planned a road trip we

are doing a two-week road trip and partnership with trover trover is a cool

travel and Photography app where you can find geotagged images of cool places to

visit and like discover new things to do so we're going to be exploring the

island and using the app to kind of find new things yeah I'm so excited because

you know even when I lived here there's so many things that I didn't actually do

especially touristy types of things and so I'm really looking forward to

visiting some like some really cool small towns checking out some cool

different restaurants doing some hike oh my gosh I'm just so excited to be back

here I can't believe I'm actually here it feels a bit surreal and I'm super

pumped to be here for the very first time and also we have two special guests

our dad because he says I've been in Canada for 50 years and have never been

out west the vancouver island yeah and your dad and my dad because he basically

he's lived a third of his life out here on the island and so this is uh this is

a homecoming trip for him as well so it's gonna be great to rediscover the

island this is gonna be really my first time to see it kind of with adult eyes

well we hope you guys will join us for the road trip we're gonna be filming

lots of videos as we travel the length of the island and yeah let's get to it

Vancouver Island guys

we had a bit of a drive ahead of us to reach Mount Washington which would be

our base for the next few days so we decided to break up the journey by

making a few stops along the way first up the town of chemainus which has

managed to transform itself from a former logging and mill town to a

tourist town thanks to its numerous murals visiting chemainus is like

walking through a giant outdoor gallery with paintings that help tell the town's

story it's a place we would definitely want to experience with a bit more time

we then continued our Drive north taking a little detour along the way to see the

natural wonder that is cathedral grove next Macmillan Provincial Park when we

were looking for places to visit on this drive heading north one of the places

that we found on trover is cathedral grove where you have old-growth forests

and just giant towering trees these beauties we've just entered the trail

and we're already like

cathedral grove is part of an ancient douglas-fir ecosystem with trees that

are around 800 years old some of the trees stand 75 meters tall and measure 9

meters in circumference with a trail network that weaves through the forest

we arrived just before sunset so it was pretty magical seeing the sunlight shine

through the hanging moss and danced across a carpet of ferns

so we have arrived at cathedral grove the place i had been most wanting to

visit yeah MacMillan Park it is impressive size of the trees here it's

just unbelievable and they're just behemoths you cannot describe this in

words it's amazing they look like they're fake it's so big they're maybe

one of the greatest free attractions we've ever been to it's great no no fee

what I want to say about this place is that if you leave a sight a good sight

like this alone for a long long time it's gonna be called old growth this is

old growth this is a Douglas fir and then we also have some massive cedar

here too okay it's a beautiful Drive it's so cool so

close to Port Alberni the good thing is that they they were

preserved for the future generations to enjoy because these to cut this it's

just a crime against humanity that's the way I see it these things like this

cannot disappear from this planet remarkable we need to preserve this

need to preserve them we have a bit more hiking

this is what you would call a max forest and what I mean by that is that it's

been left undisturbed for so long that it's come to this you know this these

are the the cedar and the fir are the two max species that occupy here there's

hardly any underbrush is just a few sword ferns maybe everything has been

left like it is and if you do that then you get what you call the highest level

of the forest and this would be a max forest right here Wonderland it's going

here Wonderland yeah without Alice

alright guys so we've arrived at our accommodations here in Mount Washington

thanks for driving all day we're up the hill not down the creek yeah we have the

paddle you know no problems getting up here yeah we're able to stop at the

grocery quality food store and get whatever we wanted this is what we're

having for dinner like a little indoor picnic bass yeah yeah do it your cheese

reaps veggie platter lots of meat pumice and some presen

presen bread and we have wine from Spain Cheers

yeah we decided against the cooking a meal tonight we are so tired looking a

long day 11:30 hour of Toronto 830 3 hours less but we are we're under goal from

what four o'clock this morning yeah we were up at 3:00 you have to get up

earlier than everyone and past midnight inside your tents it was our first day

so what were your first impressions of the island stunning it is beautiful oh

my goodness like we must have driven about three

hours today heading north and we went through forests and like these winding

little rows I really love that I that area with the air mature forest is the

the Colossus of the forest when they told me all their huge I figured well

you know like a man you think of a big tree but to assert the next BAM but when

you go and you see a three that is a thousand years old and you can't even

see the top it's no I some of them are like 75 80 meters tall that's a big tree

I'm impressed beyond you know my wildest expectations anybody that goes there

that wasn't a tree hugger before they're definitely gonna be a tree hugger after

even though they can't wrap their arms around the tree take three or four

people to join together so yeah you have to give it a group that's a great start

to our trip and we've got a two more weeks so stay tuned so we'll see you

guys tomorrow yes we are well instead Cheers

cheers to you

and that's a little taste of her first day on the island this was mostly a

travel day but in the next episode we go hiking with friends and Strathcona

Provincial Park we spot our first black bear and we get stuck on a ski lift so

we'll see you soon with more Vancouver Island adventures

you