May 21 - Telegraph Cove (#16)

Dave and I led a small group of SISKA paddlers on another intertidal exploration paddle. We originally planned to operate out of Willows Beach but we decided to move to Telegraph Cove due to the winds and the possibility of lumpy water. We had a beach talk about tides and intertidal life followed by an exploration of the low tide area by kayak. We ended up pretty much avoiding any significant wind and saw many seaweeds and marine invertebrates. A lovely day on the water!

We also saw a lot of purple "ochre stars" - more than I have seen around here in some time!

click to enlarge

4 km, YTD 231 km

June 2-6 - Broughtons (#s 37-41)

Together with Beth Anne and Pete, I led a group of seven grade 10 students on a 5 day, 4 night,  paddling trip into the Broughtons. We had excellent conditions with dry weather, light winds  and weak or favourable currents (possibly the best of any of these trips I have done!). We saw plenty of wildlife (humpback whales, Steller sea lions, harbour and Dall's porpoises, Pacific white-sided dolphins as well as plenty of birds including several active bald eagle nests). I also ran into an old friend, Mike D, from Galapagos days, who was working at Orca Lab. We also had a great visit to Alert Bay and the Umista Centre.

click to enlarge

72 km, YTD 392 km

May 31-June5 - Broughtons (#s42-45)

I went on my almost annual trip with our grade 10 experiential program to the Brougtons. We had some great days of paddling - three 17 km days - and a day visiting alert Bay via water taxi as well as a beachbound day due to wind and lumpy waters. On our first day of paddling we saw several humpbacks, a pod of orcas, several groups of Dall's porpoise, Steller sea lions and pacific white-sided dolphins. We had good visits to Village Island and to the Earth Embassy CMT camp. The students were great and it was fun to be leading with Sarah and Beth-Anne again.

Day 1 Telegraph to Compton -  click to enlarge

Day 2 Compton to Village Island and back - click to enlarge

Day 3 - Compton to Hanson and then to Blinkhorn - click to enlarge

Day 5 - Blinkhor to telegraph - click to enlarge

56 km, YTD 467 km

December 23rd - Margaret's Bay (#117) Made it to 1000 km!

I joined Jim, Alex, David, Debbie and Kari for a "Wednesday" paddle, organised by Jennie, out of Telegraph Cove. The winds were forecast from the SW, so it should have been quite protected, but the winds seemed like they were more from the S and SE. The seven of us headed south to Ten Mile Point to see how conditions were there, but by the time we could see the Ten Mile Point weather Station, it was fairly lumpy and windy (for much of the trip it was 10-15 knots). We encountered some wind and lumpy water on the way back and I had some fun playing in the partial clapotis by the shore.
I wanted to make it to 1000 km today, so I had to do an extra 1.5 km loop at the end to make it! A nice paddle to reach my annual goal with!
We "debriefed" at Olive Olios for coffee and I treated myself to a celebratory raspberry-chocolate scone!

click to enlarge

16 km, YTD 1000km

June 3 to 8 - Broughton Archipelago (#s 50 to 55)

Sarah, Jamie and I led a group of 11 students on a multi-day paddling excursion in the Johnstone Strait/Broughton Archipelago area. We had great weather and paddling conditions and wonderful wildlife sightings (Sea Otter, Humpback whale, Dall and harbour porpoise, black bear, mink and many bird species. I enjoyed hearing the Swainson's thrush song again - a call that I associate with west coast summer camping!
Day 1 was from Telegraph Cove to Compton Island, day 2 was a day trip to Village Island, Day 3 was a day trip around Swanson Island, Day 4 was a trip to Hanson Island and the Earth Embassy and to a campsite on the south side of Hanson, Day 5 involved crossing Johnstone strait to Blinkhorn where we too a water taxi ride to visit the Umista centre at Alert Bay, and Day 6 involved paddling back to Telegraph cove. We checked out intertidal and forest life, fish farms, first nations communities and sites and an old fishing resort, Farewell Harbour Resort, that is for sale.

click to enlarge - our whole route

756 km, YTD 486 km

May 28-June 2 - Broughton Archipelago (#37-42)

I helped lead a group of SMUS grade 10 students for a week's experiential education  adventure in the Broughton Archipelago. I was leading with Beth Anne and Meredith and had a great group of six students along. While on the trip, we had great sightings of black bears (one mother with two cubs feeding on a carcass on the beach and another swimming across the bay at our Compton Island Camp), a humpback whale in Blackfish Sound, a nice visit to the Earth Embassy on Hanson Island, an outstanding morning of intertidal exploration and a visit to the abandoned village of Malalilicula. This trip was the only one I can remember with no rain!

Click to enlarge

64 km, YTD 388 km

August 18-22 Broughton Archipelago (#s 62-66)

Ater our Kyuquot trip, we figured that we were far enough up island that we should do a trip in the Broughtons, so we took Natural C-lection  for a 6 day cruise amongst the islands and channels north of Johnstone Strait. We had our two Feathercraft Wispers on the boat's roof rack and found that the boat and wispers worked very well as a "mothership" system. We managed to get in 5 paddles during our 6 days. I had previously paddled as far as Echo Bay with the SMUS experiential groups and it was neat to see some of the areas further afield.We were blessed with decent weather and minimal winds throughout our trip.

August 18 Sophia Islets

Monica and I anchored in Growler Cove and launched the Wispers for a paddle out to the Sophia Islets.This was our first attempt at "mothershiping", and it was very successful (except that I forgot my GPS!)

click to enlarge

6 km (est), YTD 768 km

August 19 Village Island/Mamalilaculla

After a foggy morning in Blackfish Sound and a visit to the earth embasy on Hanson Island, Monica and I went to Village Island to visit the abandoned village of Mamalilaculla on Village Island. I had been here several times with the SMUS groups and it was good to see this spectacular sight again. Quite reminiscent of places we saw in Haida Gwaii.

click to enlarge

2 km, YTD 770 km

August 20 Burdwood group

After a night in Echo Bay marina, we went to the Burdwoods for a paddle. We had the "kayaker beach" to ourselves that day, shoretied the boat with our anchor buddy and went for a nice paddle around several of the islands in the group. The camp site is an excellent one. The seals around here seem much darker than in Victoria.

5 km, YTD 775 km

August 21 Lacy Falls

After spending the night in Watson Cove and going for a short hike to see an old cedar we paddled back to look at Lacy falls again close up. These falls are very pretty. we noticed that the flow was noticeably less this morning than it had been the afternoon before.

click to enlarge

5 km, 780 km

August 22 Booker Lagoon

At the recommendation of Anca and Max of Kwatsi Bay Marina, we went into Booker Lagoon at high slack, set our prawn trap, found a private cove and then went of a paddle to explore the lagoon. I went a bit further than Monica and chatted with another boat (Y-Knot) that was anchored in another cove on the SW arm of the lagoon. The prawning was successful and we had an amazing bear watching experience after dinner in our cove. A sow was teaching her two cubs to turn over rocks for crabs and such. They were only a couple of hundred feet away from us and completely ignored us for about an hour!

click to enlarge

7 km, YTD 787 km

May 31 to June 4 - Broughtons (#s 39-44)

I went up to the Broughton Archipelago again this year with our school's grade 10 experiential programme - co-leading with Nick and Toni.
Before heading up to Telegraph Cove, I was a bit worried about the weather, especially the heavy rains predicted. As it turns out, we were blessed with pretty good conditions and basically only rain at night (some showers by day).
Our first day was very windy for our water taxi ride to Echo Bay, but we did eventually nmake it after a very slow crossing of Johnstone Strait. Echo Bay was great as usual and we had a nice visit with Yvonne who was looking after Billy Proctor's museum while Billy was away checking out a nearby river after the storm.
Our second day (first paddling day) was spent paddling from Echo Bay to Owl Island, stopping to check out and discuss a fish farm operation north of Midsummer Island. There was a cougar alert for Owl Island that we found out was actually from last summer.
The third day had strong predicted winds, so we did a morning paddle around Owl and spent some time looking at intertidal life and rocks.
The fourth day was spent paddling to Village Island and then on to Mound Island to camp. Village island was as overgrown as ever but we saw some garter snakes sunning themselves on a plank amongst the bear poo piles! I made a detour after lunch to check out an alternate campsite near the Hail Islets and met the group by Berry Island where we checked out the petroglyphs before making camp at mound. I managed to go for a dip at Mound Island and it felt good to get clean(er) after 3 days.
Our fifth day was spent paddling from Mound to Hanson Island where we visited David Garrick at the Earth Embassy and learned about culturally modified trees and first nations use of the land. Our last camp spot was by Weynton Island which we reached after an idyllic afternoon paddle in sunny calm conditions. There was a 17.6 ft high tide at night and a 0.6 ft low tide the next morning, so we saw a huge tidal range.
Our last morning involved a paddle over to the Blinkhorn Peninsular to look at pillow basalts and then on back to telegraph Cove where we started our adventure. Thanks for the great times Nick and Toni!
Here is a link to some photos from the trip:

2012-06-01_broughtons

The overall Route - click to enlarge

paddling day 1 - Echo Bay to Owl - click to enlarge

Paddling day 2 - Owl Island - click to enlarge

paddling day 3 - owl to village to Mound - click to enlarge

paddling day 4 - Mound To Hanson - click to enlarge

Paddling day 5 - Hanson To Blinkhorn to Telegraph Cove

Day 1 - Echo to Owl - 21 km
Day 2 - Owl Island - 9 km
Day 3 - Owl to Village to Mound - 21 km
Day 4 - Mound To Hanson - 12 km
Day 5 - Hanson to Telegraph Cove - 9 km

Trip total: 72 km
year to date: 540 km

June 1 to June 5 - Telegraph Cove (#s 38-41)

I went up to Telegraph Cove again this year with our school's Grade 10 experiential programme students and had a great few days of paddling. We went by water taxi to Echo Bay and then paddled our way back to Telegraph Cove. We finished a night early due to 40 knot wind forecasts in Johnstone strait (that never materialized). On the way up in the water taxi we had great sightings of Pacific white-sided dolphins. In echo Bay we had a wonderful visit with Billy proctor and toured his "museum". On our way ti Owl Island we visited a salmon farm to learn a bit about the business. The next day we went to Village Island where we met the other group and also toured the old village site. A visit to the "Earth Embassy" to learn about the traditional use of cedar took up most of the next day. Our last paddling day followed the south coast of Hanson and then ferried over in the current to look at the pillow basalts on the Blinkhorn pennisula. We decided to head back rather than risk being wind bound the next day. We went for a nice hike up to a viewpoint above Bauza Cove the next day.The weather for the trip was excellent - virtually no wind and only some rain during the first night!

click to enlarge

65 km, YTD 466 km

June 1 to 8 - Broughton Archipelago (#s 42-46)

(click to enlarge)

I co led a school trip to the Broughton archipelago again with two other leaders and eight students. We had excellent conditions overall - favourable currents, little wind and a bit of rain on the first day.
We took a water taxi to Echo Bay (great visit to Billy Proctor's museum) and then made our way back to Telegrtaph Cove. We stopped in the Fox group and on Owl Island (I took an extra 10 km paddle around Owl by myself late one afternoon) as well as Mound and Hanson Islands. We also visited Village and Berry Islands.
74 km, 40 NM, YTD: 556 km

April 11th - Telegraph (#26)

Gordin and I set out from Caddy Bay  for an afternoon paddle. Conditions were very nice, light northerly breeze, sunshine and not much current. We paddled the shoreline out to Cadboro and Ten mile points and then around to Telegraph Cove. The trip back had a bit of current in our favour and we were treated to X-rated otter action! There were lots of Harlequin ducks, Buffleheads, Great blue herons, Turnstones and more to be seen.

 10 km, 5 NM, YTD 356 km

Feb 14th - Cordova Bay (#16)

I joined David and Ken for a VSKN paddle out of Telegraph Cove to Cordova Bay - conditions were nice and flat with a bit of drizzle to start and then sunshine – did not seem like a winter’s day! We went up as far as Mt Doug creek and then back tyo Margaret’s bay for lunch. The sun stayed out for the rest of the paddle and we were blessed with calm conditions. I decided to head around 10 mile point and paddle back to the “home beach”. I took a detour via the RVYC to pick up a sea rescue crew bag.

18 km, 10 NM, YTD 226 km.

2010-02-14_cordovabay

June 9 - a week in the Broughton area (41-46)

I spent 6 days and 5 nights paddling around Johnstone Strait and the Broughton Archipelago with a group of 11 grade 10 students in our experiential programme. We had amazing weather and wonderful paddling conditions

• June 2 – drove to Telegraph Cove


• June 3 – paddled telegraph cove to Mound Island


• June 4 – paddled to Village Island and back to Mound


• June 5 – paddled to Hanson Island and back to Mound – visited the Earth Embassy


• June 6 – lazy day – did a short paddle around Berry Island – back to Mound Island


• June 7 – Paddled from Mound Island to Blinkhorn Penninsula


• June 8 – Paddled from Blinkhorn to telegraph cove – cleaned and packed gear

June 9 - drove back home.

close up of Mound Island area

Total Trip 72 km, 39 NM, YTD 499 km

Feb 15th - 10 Mile Point (#8)

I joined David Spittlehouse and several members of the VSKN group (Doug, David, Marg,Christie and Marvin) to paddle out of Telegraph Bay towards Cordova Bay. The wind was a stiff 10–15 knots out of the North and it was not looking suitable for a group paddle out of Telegraph Bay. David and the others decioded to launch in Cadboro Bay and I decided to launch at Telegraph and paddle/sail around and join them. We had a very nice paddle in sunshine and calm winds in the lee of 10 mile point. The paddle/sail down to Cadboro point was exhilarating and fast!

11 km, 6 NM, YTD 92 km.