July 14 - Brentwood to Goldstream (#33)

George Don and I set out from bretwood ferry terminal to paddle down to Goldstream. We went across the inlet and paddled down the west side and then came back the east side after a leisurely lunch at Misery bay. On our way past Spectacle creek, we found a young swallow floating. We took it on board, gavce it some water and allowed it to dry out in my deck bag. It seemed much better by the end of the day and George took it back to the nature centre. Great weather – I did get a few minutes sailing to test the sailing rig on the expedition at the end – even though I had to back track.

Don and I - the swallow is on my deck bag the swallow gets gatorade from George 

 the swallow comes out of the deck bag to check things out  George and his “parrot”

25 km, 13.5 NM, YTD 458 km.

The summer trip plans...

Pete, George and I plan to paddle on from where we ended last summer. We are not sure how far we will get, but it could be anywhere from Tofino to Victoria!

The proposed route is shown below:

July 12 - Elk Lake (#33)

George and I joined the VCKC practice session up at Elk lake and played around and helped a bit. George was working on his rolls and braces. I was taking out my new CD Expedition for its first spin – it is the boat we plan to take out next week on our west coast trip.

 

 4.5 km, 2.5 NM, YTD 437 km

July 8th - Darcy Island (#32)

David, Marie, Sandy, Malcom, Melissa and I set out from Island View Beach to paddle around Darcy. There was a bit of a breeze from the south, but not too much so we had a great day’s paddle. The breeze was behind us on the way back which made for a quick ride (some surfing) and a chance to use my sail. The winds were ranging from 5– 10 knots mostly with gusts to 15. (see the kelp reef reports below).

The wildlife sighting of note was a brown pelican – the first time I have seen one up here!

 

pelican   

17 km, 9 NM, YTD: 433 km.

July 6 - Gordon Head - (#31)

Pete and I set out at around 7:30 PM for a quick paddle from Telegraph Cove to Cormorant POint and back. It was abeautiful evening and we had a great paddle.

10.3 km, 5.5 NM, YTD: 416 km

July 5th - Elk Lake (#30)

George and I went to Elk lake to join the VCKC Thursday night practice that Neil organised. Great turnout and a nice chance to practice some strokes and rolls in warm fresh water! I did not use my GPS (!) so estimate 1 km paddled during the 2 hour session.

YTD 406 km

June 30th-July 1st - D'Arcy Island (#29)

Monica, Jenny and I paddled out to d'Arcy Island from Island View Beach for an overnight camp. We had beautiful calm conditions and the camp site to ourselves. Bill and Heather paddled out later to join us. I tried to paddle back to IVB to meet them, but somehow missed them completely – hard to believe one can miss kayakers crossing such a calm section of water! On Sunday morning I paddled out to Kelp reef – to see all the weather station gear – and there was quite a current. The paddle back was uneventful and pleasant, by way of Little d'Arcy and Sallas rocks. On the trip we saw porpoises, raccoons, eagles, guillemots, oyestercatchers, rhinoceros auklets and seals. jenny and I paddled the Passat G3 and Monica paddled the Shadow.

41.4 km, 22 NM, YTD 405 km.

 My/Our track – you can see I was going pretty fast on the way to kelp reef – over 13 kph!

    

Some of Monica’s shots:
 Camp Jackson  the beach at d’Arcy
 Bill and Heather arriving a pirate ship?

June 24th - Discovery Island (#28)

Mark and I set off from Cadboro Bay on a nice morning with a light breeze from the SE. We had a nice but uneventful paddle out to 10 mile point and around Discovery Island. We did not see many paddlers which was suprising for a nice summer Sunday. The wind did pick up a bit from the SW in the afternoon.

16.4 km, 9 NM, YTD: 364 km

Race Rocks - June 16th - #27

Craig, Mike and I went to Race rocks launching from Taylor Road. We had a nice ebb building to help us down to the islands and then had some fun playing in the current waves. We went back via Bentink Island and had a brief stop for lunch neir Wier beach.

Some video on youtube: too come…

 

   

20.5 km, 11 NM , YTD:350 km  Two versions of the track

May 25th and 26th - paddling north of 60! Yellowknife (#25, 26)

I was up in Yellowknife for a Geology conference/workshop and had a great time. A highlight of my visit was borrowing a kayak from Greg Loftus of Tundra Sails (http://www.tundrasails.ca/), distributor for Pacific Action Sails ( I had bought one earlier this year) and heading out for a couple of padddles on Slave lake. There was still quite a bit of ice on the lake, though it was disappearing quickly, which made for interesting paddling. One of the neatest things was hearing the tinkling of the “candled” ice as my wake went past it. I went for a longer solo paddle on the first evening and went round both islands. On the 26^th I joined 3 colleagues in a canoe (Eileen, Christy and John) and we paddled around the smaller island.

    
   

25^th: 7.5 km, 4 NM; 26^th: 5 km, 2.3 NM

YTD 340 km

May 19-22 2007 - Deer Group (21-24)

Beth Anne and I led a group of grade 11 students on their outdoor leadership trip to the deer group. We were lucky with the weather, encountering heavy rain only on Friday and Saturday nights – some showers and drizzle at other times but generally good weather. Due to strong winds on the firsdt day, we did not make it to the Stud Islets and instead camped on the Ross Islets – a great spot.

On Saturday we paddled from bamfield to the Ross Islets, on Sunday we paddled around Fleming Island with a side trip to Marble cove and Swiss Boy island. On Monday we paddled around Helby and Diana Islands with a lunch stop on Edward King. On Tuesday we paddled back from the Ross Islets to Bamfield. A great trip with a great group. I managed to get the sails up a couple of times. The swells were big off Kirby point…

Track Plots:

May 19 and 22 (out & back): May 20 (Fleming) May 21 (Diana and Helby)

You can view an interactive version of the trip plot with Google maps at: http://www.islandnet.com/~mjackson/google/deergroup2007b.htm

51.5 km 28 NM, YTD: 318 km (The students paddled 48 km)

 

 

May 6 - VCKC towing clinic (#20)

8 of us arrived at the second parking lot at Thetis lake to do a towing clinic that I was leading for VCKC. Weather was overcast to sprinkling but really quite pleasant and not enough rain to interfere. We discussed tow types and towing gear and then went and practised a number of different tows: contact, short, intermediate and long, in line and V tows with a supporting paddler etc. Everyone had a chance to test out their gear and learn a few new tricks (including me!).

4.3 km, YTD:266 km

May 5th - VCKC energizer - Agate Beach to Gordon Head (#19)

I lead a group of 20 VCKC paddlers on a paddle from Agate Beach in Cordova Bay to Gordon Head. There was an ebb tide to help us in the morning, turning to a flood in the afternoon, but this was eclipsed by a steady breeze from the south which was in our face all the way out. We made steady progress along the shore until Gordon Head, where we decided to stop for lunch. After lunch we made a very speedy return to Agate beach with the wind at our backs. I popped up the spirit sail for a little added boost! I was ably assisted by Neil and Tony.

The lunch beach:     Shots by Gary:   

Neil’s group shot:

14.6 km, 8 NM, YTD 262 km Neil’s (agate2)and my (agate)  tracks compared!