Kayaking day 2

The day started out clear in our little inlet but there was heavy fog in the Goletas channel where we did most of our paddling for the day. Looking at these two images you can see how far we had to move the kayaks because of the difference in the tide. (I don't remember reading that in the travel brochure) :-) You can also see the challenge of fitting all our gear back into the kaykas, we knew it had to fit since it fit the first day!

Even though Vancouver Island is only a mile or so across the channel we did not see it all day. We felt we were on a great adventure not seeing any land other than the island (Nigei Island) on which we were camping. We paddled against a stiff current and breeze most of the day. I took my turn at paddling from the back of the boat. I had to quickly learn how to turn with the rudder. This is fairly easy once I got the hang of it. It was harder getting my feet into the stirrups used to control the rudder than actually controlling the rudder.

We made it to our next camping spot in the early afternoon allowing us to set up camp then go down the island a half mile or so to explore the beach. You can see a few of the finds along the beach. On Kara's pinkie finger you can see the shell of a sea urchin.

It had turned nice by that time although the low fog remained. We saw many tide pools with crabs and sea anemones. Bald eagles seem to be all over the place. What started out as ‘LOOK THERE’S A BALD EAGLE!!!” turned into ‘There’s another bald eagle’ by the end of the trip, still a sight to behold.

By the time we were finished touring the beach we returned to our campsite just in time to watch the fog roll in. It was a heavy mist for the rest of the night with occasional drizzle. I don’t think we could see much more than 1/10 of a mile for most of the night. Kara and Sara with some help form Terry made our meal that evening. We just had to make do with our teriyaki chicken, cashew rice, broccoli, fruit salad and carrot cake. Once we finished eating Kara, our lead guide, laid out the trip for the next day. On to Vansittart island, one of the very few islands with remaining old growth forest.

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark

Kayaking day 1 continued

As I looked through my photos I thought the first ones I posted would not do the trip justice. I am still considering the Flicker thing I’ve just been too busy to do it.

We camped at Port Alexander. There is a short trail over to another small port which goes through a dense forest. This area of Vancouver Island is considered a rain forest so the smells in this forest are a wonderful earthy smell. You just don’t get that smell in New Mexico. One of our guides took us on the trail, she pointed out more plants, mosses and mushrooms than I knew existed. What would be a normal 20 minute walk oblivious to all the life in the forest turned into a 1 hour educational trip. Here you can see Chicken of the Woods mushrooms. This was one of many of our finds.

We had to move our camp site off the beach and into the forest because of the 15’ difference in elevation between low and high tide. We also moved our kayaks on to the driftwood so they would not float away during the high tide. We set up our tents on the forest floor. The mosses are so soft you almost don’t need a mattress to sleep on. I did use one to protect me from the occasional stick snuck under my tent during the night :-)

I thought I'd include a photo of what a not-so-well dresses kayaker wears these days. It did keep me warm and dry though!

Thank you for stopping by.

Mark

Vacation is good!

Hi all,

I’m made it back from my kayaking vacation. I can’t wait to go again! Had a great time. There were a total of 15 people including 3 guides. We were gone a total of 6 days and 5 nights changing locations each night. We were on the north end of Vancouver Island paddling the ‘Wilderness Islands Tour’ with Sea Kayak Adventures through God’s Pocket Marine Provincial Park in British Columbia. I plan to include links for each of the tour operators as the photos appear.

I have included some of my images from the 1st day of the kayaking trip. I have many more images to include but will send them out as I edit them. Along with the kayaking trip I did an Orca day trip and a Grizzly bear day trip. The day between I drove to San Josef Bay in the Cape Scott Provincial Park. In addition I stayed one night in Vancouver walking around Stanley Park. Each of these different trips will be a separate posting. (I have to make this last as long as possible.)


Enjoy the images

Here we are stacking all the stuff; food, water, kitchen utensils, personal stuff and wine to put into the kayaks.

Here's our transportation for the next 6 days. We used double kayaks so we had more room for packing than single kayaks.

The beach for our first lunch,

One of the areas we paddled through,

The evening view from our first campsite,

and the same view the next morning!

Overall the weather was great. We had fog a few days, a little light rain mainly at night and a few partly cloudy to sunny days. Temperatures were quite comfortable; mid 60's during the day and 50's at night.

Thank you for stopping by

Mark