Monday, May 23, 2011

May 21-23 - Gulf Islands (#s 35-37)

I co led a trip with our grade 11 students from Ladysmith to Portland Island. As I had to get to work on Tuesday, I left them behind at Portland and made my way to Swartz Bay.
We began the trip in drizzle in Evening Cove, near Ladysmith and paddled over to Thetis. Unfortunately the gap was dry and we had to do a short portage. We then went over to Reid Island where we saw a beutiful flower covered island that we decided not to camp on ( a combination of probable habitat damage and dificulty beaching kayaks). We made our way south to Chivers Point on Wallace which remarkably only had one other group there so there was plenty of room for us. An 18 km day. The next day we made our way south to Prevost Island by way of a stop at Walker Hook. The wind picked up a little bit in the afternoon, slowing down our progress. Camping at Prevost was excellent. A 19 km day. On the third day the group made its way to Arbutus point on Portland Island. We made excellent progress, arriving at Arbutus point (15 km) by noon. Peter paddled out to Arbutus point to meet me and we paddled on back to Swartz head (8 km). The rest of the group will make their way to Tulista Park on Tuesday.
Conditions were great, the group was great and I was working with two other wonderful guides Toni and Nick.
The whole route - click to enlarge

Day 1 - click to enlarge

Day 2 - click to enlarge

Day 3 - click to enlarge

The trip photo album
Total trip for me 60 km, YTD 445km

1 comment:

Paula Johanson said...

Terrific trip report! I liked the satellite photos showing your route. And wow, what a series of photos of your group of paddlers. So good to see the young faces smiling, the tired people resting, and the beautiful islands.