From Chilliwack to Shirley: A Hay Move Across Land, Sea, and Southern Vancouver Island

While many moving jobs are within city limits, such as a house in Victoria, an apartment in Langford, or an office switch in Saanich, other relocations go way past these well-known neighbourhoods into areas that feel more like the wilderness.

Two Small Men mover Paul Quinn had this very experience when he started working on a moving job outside of Vancouver Island.

“There was this one time we were doing a move from Chilliwack to Shirley,” Paul recalls.

Chilliwack itself is tucked into the Fraser Valley amidst big highways and farms that produce most of the feed for the livestock of BC. Vancouver Island, meanwhile, is known more for its coastline roads and forest-covered hills, where there is distinctly less farming and agricultural resources in general.

“It was kind of like local moves,” Paul says. “Because we do them in one day most of the time.”

While the move seemed relatively simple, it would ultimately involve a very long drive, ferry rides and vaguely mysterious end location far beyond Victoria. A small community along the coast just west if Sooke, Shirley can be found along Highway 14 where the forests stop and the shoreline begins. While visually stunning, it's not the easiest to navigate with several fully-loaded trucks.

“We were going to Chilliwack to pick up hay,” Paul explains. “Apparently there’s no hay on Vancouver Island,” Paul says. “Yet there are farms and stuff, so I guess what farmers are doing is picking it up in Chilliwack.”

Although it's not the heaviest substance in the world, hay can take up a huge amount of space, and so the Two Small Men team had to make adequate preparations.

“We took three trucks with us,” Paul says. “We drove down to Chilliwack and filled all three trucks with hay.”

More difficult to move than normal furniture or neatly-packed boxes, bales of hay are both bulky and abrasive and require special coordination in order to maintain balance and airflow inside the trucks.

“I think it was six guys,” Paul says. “Loading three trucks in a day.”

Hay is so difficult to move, actually, that it gets its own classification. Stored under the wrong conditions, heat can build up and the bales can catch fire.

“That was the first and only time I ever did a dangerous goods move,” Paul says. “Hay can spontaneously combust. We had our best trucks."

When they had collected and loaded all the hay, the crews began to head west. They ventured from the Fraser Valley to the coast and eventually onto BC Ferries to make it across the Salish Sea. Just trying to coordinate the ferry schedules for three trucks loaded with hay was it's own issue.

“You guys have to take the ferry,” Paul laughs. “And then the one back."

And the trip wasn't even finished once they made it back to Vancouver Island. They then needed to get the trucks past Victoria, through Langford and Colwood, then west toward Sooke where the roads became more narrow along the coast. And all of this went down during some of the hottest days of the summer.

“It was hot, and we were all sweating," Paul says. "Like, gross sweat. Some of the other guys had allergies,” Paul says. “They were complaining about it when the truck was still smelling like hay.”

And what's a dozen problems without one more?

“Probably should have worried more about bugs,” Paul admits.

With grim determination, the team kept going, keeping their cargo safe and staedy until they finally made it to Shirley.

“It got done,” Paul says. “And the guy was happy.”

On that day, Paul and the rest of the crew learned an important lesson about adapting to far-off travel on challenging routes and hazardous cargo. It's par for the course when it comes to what Two Small Men will do for clients.

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