Helby Island is located in Barclay Sound just north of Bamfield on Vancouver Island, at about 48.85N 125.17W - see Google satellite view
The island is subdivided into 24 lots of recreational property, plus an Indian Reserve and a central common lot. Some of the land has been logged in the past, but the island is covered with thick undergrowth, salal, and areas of temperate rainforest; (e.g. photo). Although lot corners are marked with iron posts, lot boundaries are not very clear, especially along the inland edge bordering the central road allowance (dirt road). In August 2005 I attempted to map some of the island using a consumer-grade GPS. I ended up locating two of the points from the original survey marked by lead plugs, and deriving the location of other survey marks from these. The ring of numbered survey points around the shoreline appears to be accurate; it closes with an error of about 4cm. The secondary survey points in the interior of the island are less accurate; in some cases there is a 30 metre discrepency in position calculated from different starting points (or in my interpretation of the plans).
GPX GPS Exchange Format file was generated from survey data, with the syntax empirically designed to match that produced by Garmin MapSource software. It can be uploaded into Garmin devices to show survey points and lot boundaries as waypoints and routes, and should be compatible with other software that understands GPX version 1.1
Lead plug probably consists of a hole drilled or punched into hard surface filled with lead and centred with a tack. The hole should be at least 8 mm in diameter and at least 15 mm deep.
Iron posts are about 12mm in diameter and typically protude about 10cm from ground. Concrete nails would probably have been a few mm in diameter and would have rusted away since the survey in 1978
Primary survey marks photographed 14-AUG-2005, locations recorded with consumer GPS set with WAAS to accuracy of about 10 metres. The photos may help others to locate the marks; they are hard to find.
IP49 N48 51.073 W125 09.790 LP photo, photo IP50 N48 51.110 W125 09.840 LP photo, photo Secondary survey marks: L15A N48 51.089 W125 09.824 15/16 shore photo, photo L14A N48 51.058 W125 09.774 14/15 shore photo, photo L15B N48 50.983 W125 10.031 15/16 land photo, photo
July 2012: created a Facebook Group Helby Island
