July 18th - Cadboro Bay (#51)

I went for a quick morning paddle, hoping to beat the wind, but it was fairly strong from the south and I decided to turn around at "island 7". I got in a little extra distance by touring the RVYC marina!
I also got to catch some nice waves coming back into the bay!

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6 km, YTD 402 km

July 13th - Buttle Lake (#50)

After spending three nights at Ralph River Campground in Buttle lake we stopped at the Buttle Lake boat launch and I went for a short paddle through the narrows. Conditions were very nice and I had fun exploring some of the islets. I could easily have spent more time, but we were on our way back home! Nice to have made it to 50 paddles in the year! I don't expect to make it to 1000 km or 100 paddles this year as I will be away travelling quite a bit!

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7 km, YTD 396 km

July 9th - Discovery Island (#49)

I went for an early morning (before breakfast!) paddle out around the Islands. It was nice and calm and there was not too much current. It was nice being out so early - very few others out other than a few sport fishing boats in Plumper passage. Lots of rhinoceros auklets around, and I saw some with fish in their beaks.

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15 km, YTD 390 km

July 8th - Catlle point (#48)

I went out for an evening SUP paddle to Cattle point and back. It was a gorgeous calm sunny evening with very few people on the water. I could see both Mt. Rainier and Mt Baker in the distance. Along the shore there were several large schools of tiny (one to three inches long)baitfish. One school was rippling the surface for 50 m and about 5 m across! I can't imagine how many thousand fish were in that school. There is a nice big sailing yacht moored in the bay - Tristan from Newport Beach, CA.
I saw a couple of black oystercatchers, a single marbled murrelet, a single great blue heron (if I ignore the ones across the street!) and a bunch of Canada geese. It was a nice change to go a bit slower (the SUP seems to cruise comfortably at about 4.5 kph, compared to 6.5 for a sea kayak and over 7.5 for the surf ski)

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5 km, YTD 375 km

July 7 - MEC paddlefest Willows Beach (#47)

I spent the day around Willows beach instructing three clinics for the MEC paddlefest. conditions were pretty good and I had a good time - I forgot to reapply sunscreen in the afternoon...
The clinics were: intermediate edging, intro to rolling, and an intro to Greenland-style paddling.

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4 km, YTD 370 km

July 6th - Chatham and Discovery Islands (#46)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the islands. Great conditions again with calm waters, sunshine and little current. On our way out we saw a fire on Chatham and eventually discovered that it was from a beach fire on the beach at Puget Cove - probably the result of a boat party last night. It had spread through the logs on the beach. There was a guy from C-Tow using a pump to put water on the fire and he blamed the fire on "irresponsible kayakers", which did not sit well with Dan or me. We continued our way around the islands and ran into Cheryl and had a good chat. We also met Mike B who is a regular visitor to the islands. On our way back across Pumper Passgae/Baynes Channel, we saw the SISKA group heading over for the campout. We made a short detour to chat with them too!

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16 km, YTD 365 km

July 5th - Cadboro Bay (#45)

I went for a quick morning paddle around the bay. Fabulous conditions! Calm, sunny and a little current. I sawthe usual suspects again: rhinoceros auklets, marbled murrelets, pigeon guillemots, pelagic cormorant, bald eagles, great blue herons and many Canada geese! Some nice yachts moored in front of Uplands...

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7 km, YTD 349 km.

July 2nd - Discovery Island (#44)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle around the islands - the first time in quite a while it seems. It was great to get out. Conditions were good and there were a lot of power boats out and about! I saw Canada geese, rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, pelagic cormorants, bald eagles, marbled murrelets, harlequin ducks and great blue herons.

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15 km, YTD 342 km

June 18-28 Haida Gwaii (#s 41-43)

While on board MV Swell as naturalist for Maple Leaf Adventures, I managed to get out for 3 paddles. One in Hutton Inlet on the first trip, one in De La Beche Inlet in the second trip and one at Moresby camp in the evening of our changeover day. 3 nice little paddles in a beautiful area!

Hutton inlet - 3 km - click to enlarge

De La Beche Inlet - 5 km - click to enlarge

Moresby Camp - 4 km - click to enlarge

South Moresby Island overview - click to enlarge

12 km, YTD 327 km