Monkfish at Pike Street Market fishmonger...suprisingly tasty if cooked well.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Kayaking Johnstone Strait and Broughton Archipelago
Alright...posting from the road was a dismal failure, so here it is...the trip report from Johnstone Strait.
August 15th:
Our kayaks didn't make it from lovely old England in time for the trip, but Alder Creek was kind enough to lend us two Nigel Dennis Explorers; the same model we had ordered. After a refresher course at Alder Creek on solo and group-assisted rescues, we loaded up the Subaru and started the two day trip north to Telegraph Cove in British Columbia, stopping in Port Angeles along the way to visit Dan and Steph...unfortunately, Steph was out of town and Dan had duty at the airstation. So it goes.
August 16th:
We ferried across to Vancouver Island on the 16th and spent most of the day driving north, picking up supplies and obtaining permission from the Mamalelqala Que'Qwa'SotEnox Band Office in Cambell River to visit Village Island. The supply run and long search in Campell River for the Band Office caused us to miss our tide at Telegraph Cove and we had to spend the night at Alder Bay. Still, it gave us a chance to more carefully organize gear and enjoy listening to the woman in the campsite next to ours whose heart would apparently stop beating if she ceased talking for even one second at any time during the long, pleasant cool evening on such a gorgeous beach overlooking the cutest islands that just had to be there for...well, you get the idea.
August 17th:
Underway at last (but late again). We bucked a little current-driven confused water traveling from Alder Bay to the Pearse Islands; nothing challenging, but a good wake-up to the dangers posed by ignoring tide and current predictions around Vancouver Island!
We paddled around the Pearse Island for about three hours, getting comfortable with the boats and waiting for slack water to cross Johnstone Strait. Around 1230 or so, we made the crossing in a choppy, wind-driven sea to Hanson (Yukusam) Island...a little challenge that, while expected, raised awareness again! We paddled in calm water along the north-eastern side of Hanson Island to get to a camping area near Blackfish Sound. Although not the most attractive campsite (especially in the rain), it was dinner time and we were ready to stop for the day. We took a hike along the trail near the campsite to examine the lookout marked on our charts. The trail was easily followed and showed extensive signs of human use. Then we spotted our first British Columbia woodland wildlife...hippies! Yes, it's true...they are still there. What we happened upon was an old, secret anti-logging activists camp. First Nation tribes and these activists successfully limited old-growth logging on Hanson Island after plotting the location of numerous culturally modified tree's; tree's whose bark had been stripped by First Nation's for baskets and other cultural artifacts(click here and here for descriptions). Walrus and his younger assistant provided us a tour of the site, describing the history of the First Nation tribe that had occupied the island, the history of the anti-logging camp, and modern efforts to limit logging and resource extraction in the area by training First Nation descendants to identify culturally modified tree's.
August 18th:
We left the Hanson Island campsite without looking back...in addition to not being particulary attractive, it was also littered with soggy cardboard boxes from the encampment. We crossed Blackfish Sound bound for Village Island and the remains of a 1930's village that was the site of the last potlach in British Columbia. The event was raided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police under anti-potlach laws (source: Kayak Routes of the Pacific Northwest). Crossing Blackfish Sound was our first interaction with significant marine traffic...this small area is a funnel for all major shipping traffic traveling the Inside Passage. We sat and waited off Hanson Island for a large tug and tow to pass before we started our crossing. We meandered through the islands as we paddled towards Village Island, watching porpoises transit past and examining the sunlit kelp beds. Camping isn't permitted on Village Island, so we stopped near Ralph Island to explore several small islets (read large rocks!) as potential campsites. One rock looked perfect... great views, barely enough room for two tents, dry driftwood, and a great place for a campfire. We stopped to pitch the tents and decided to push Village Island off until the 19th...the beauty of being on vacation!
We spent a nice night on the islet...a good dinner was consumed, s'mores were prepared, sunset was observed...
August 19th:
We woke to a foggy morning...ahhh, the many moods of British Columbia! No reason to rush...we started slowly and enjoyed our coffee while the fog lifted. We had barely started away from the island when we were overtaken by more transiting Harbour porpoises. We stopped to watch again as they came by. It's very cool to sit in near complete silence on the water, listening as porpoises break the surface and breathe heavily. We continued on towards Village Island, landing on the broad beach facing the village. Although our guidebook suggested an easy walk around the village, we found it heavily overgrown with blackberries (delicious blackberries...). The beach was littered with broken glass and many of the houses showed similar signs of beer-fests. Still, the attractiveness of the village was evident and we found two beautiful, aged totem poles on either end of the village...now barely recognizable as such without closer inspection.
From Village Island, we paddled northeastward towards Broughton Archipelago. We started our search for campsites towards evening, focusing our search for a beach facing the sun. We spotted numerous small islands some distance ahead, and given our success with the small island the previous night, we elected to push onward. As we paddled up to the islands, we could tell we had found somewhere special. More birds (and a greater variety of species) were winging their way around the islands as we approached, we saw more seals here than anywhere else, and at least one very large sea lion (the only one we saw on the trip) was sighted. Finding an island with a tent spot was a challenge...our marine recreation map didn't extend this far and our marine chart didn't provide sufficient scale. After 45 minutes of searching, we found somewhere we figured would work. We hopped out to check; there were no signs of a rookery and the island appeared unsuitable for a seal haul-out. There was a tiny flat spot on the island where we figured two tents would just fit. Perfect. The take-out could only support one person at a time, so we began a caravan of dry bags out of each kayak one at a time before hauling them up the rocks.
Although we practiced minimal-impact techniques throughout our trip, we were particularly careful here...the area was rich with marine wildlife, the island we camped on was extremely small, and due to it's exposed, isolated nature seemed to be rarely visited by humans. I won't publish it's location here...like us, you will have to explore a little to find it!
We whipped up a salmon alfredo with pasta for dinner and watched humpback whales blowing heavily as they swam by at sunset.
August 20th:
We woke to the sounds of heavy breathing...ORCAS! We scrambled for clothes and leapt out of the tents. The islands were ringed by very, very deep water and we watched for about a half-hour as three or four Orca's circled the island, apparently fishing. The water was clear enough to see them as they swam underwater, barely 100 feet from where we were standing. It was a spectacular sight and made for a great start to my 27th birthday. Not being experienced enough to distinguish between a resident pod of whales that feeds almost exclusively on salmon and a transient population that prefers seals and sea lions, we elected to linger over breakfast and a second cup of coffee to be sure that (a) we didn't disturb the Orca's, or (b) become the first recorded case of a wild-Orca attack on humans.
Once things had settled down, we proceeded towards Berry Island to explore a promising mark on our charts..."petroglyphs." We landed on the north side of the island and quickly found the trail. Unfortunately, he headed out the wrong direction and found only a resort. Backtracking to our starting point and hiking the other direction led us to a promising area sealed off with a sign identifying a First Nation site closed to public access. So, we had a nice two-hour hike in the woods, but saw no petroglyphs. We paddled on from Berry Island and hauled out at Compton Island. Although this is one of the few islands where a camping fee is levied, it also had great campsites set back in the woods that were relatively dry...a nice break from the rain we had experienced for most of the day...and some log benches that were a nice change from rock seats! Meg whipped up some enormous Enchiladas for dinner and broke out several small birthday cakes she had squirrelled during our supply run on Vancouver Island.
There might be better places to be on your birthday, but I can't think of any :)
August 21st:
While we packed the kayaks in the morning, waiting for our tide to cross to Blackfish Sounds, we were treated to an unusual sight. A deer had decided to brave the not-insignificant current in the channel between Compton and Harbledown Island. He narrowly missed a collision with several salmon fishermen (who evidently lacked deer licenses, or I suspect he never would have made it!) and after a 5-10 minute swim hauled himself out on Compton Island a little ways down the beach, calmly shook off, and meandered into the woods. Evidently, deer can swim. We paddled "straight out of Compton" shortly afterwards and made an uneventful crossing of Blackfish Sound to Hanson Island. We tucked into a lee on the south side of the island for a second review of the weather.
Winds for the next day were predicted to build late in the afternoon to strong to moderate as a high pressure built over the forecast area. That's it. "Outlook: strong to moderate northwesterly's."We sat around discussing the situation for a few minutes...the crossings we had made previously were in light to moderate winds. Scott spoke up first...given his previous experience with Johnstone Strait where and and Fisher never made it out of Telegraph Cove due to weather, we decided to bag the trip a day early. We didn't want to attempt a crossing of Johnstone Strait after a reasonable duration of wind over a long fetch had a chance to work on the surface, nor did we particularly want to get stuck on Hanson Island waiting out the weather.
We proceeded from our lee to the crossing, reaching Vancouver Island near Kaikash Creek and turned towards Alder Bay. Perversely, the weather improved throughout our paddle, ultimately becoming glass calm with no wind at the take out. Still, we felt no need to tempt the weather gods in what might easily have been the calm before the storm. We unpacked the boats and loaded the car. A bittersweet moment...it was a great trip, and I was ready for a shower and a beer, but it also meant that this vacation in the Pacific Northwest and it was about time to leave home and return to the South.
We never looked back to Johnstone Strait to verify the veracity of the forecast and evaluate our decision...better to let such things go.
----------------------------------------------------
I didn't spend a lot of time with the camera in hand, mostly due to challenging conditions during crossings that made photography unwise, or because I was too busy enjoying the view. You can find the pictures we did take on the trip here:
August 15th:
Our kayaks didn't make it from lovely old England in time for the trip, but Alder Creek was kind enough to lend us two Nigel Dennis Explorers; the same model we had ordered. After a refresher course at Alder Creek on solo and group-assisted rescues, we loaded up the Subaru and started the two day trip north to Telegraph Cove in British Columbia, stopping in Port Angeles along the way to visit Dan and Steph...unfortunately, Steph was out of town and Dan had duty at the airstation. So it goes.
August 16th:
We ferried across to Vancouver Island on the 16th and spent most of the day driving north, picking up supplies and obtaining permission from the Mamalelqala Que'Qwa'SotEnox Band Office in Cambell River to visit Village Island. The supply run and long search in Campell River for the Band Office caused us to miss our tide at Telegraph Cove and we had to spend the night at Alder Bay. Still, it gave us a chance to more carefully organize gear and enjoy listening to the woman in the campsite next to ours whose heart would apparently stop beating if she ceased talking for even one second at any time during the long, pleasant cool evening on such a gorgeous beach overlooking the cutest islands that just had to be there for...well, you get the idea.
August 17th:
Underway at last (but late again). We bucked a little current-driven confused water traveling from Alder Bay to the Pearse Islands; nothing challenging, but a good wake-up to the dangers posed by ignoring tide and current predictions around Vancouver Island!
We paddled around the Pearse Island for about three hours, getting comfortable with the boats and waiting for slack water to cross Johnstone Strait. Around 1230 or so, we made the crossing in a choppy, wind-driven sea to Hanson (Yukusam) Island...a little challenge that, while expected, raised awareness again! We paddled in calm water along the north-eastern side of Hanson Island to get to a camping area near Blackfish Sound. Although not the most attractive campsite (especially in the rain), it was dinner time and we were ready to stop for the day. We took a hike along the trail near the campsite to examine the lookout marked on our charts. The trail was easily followed and showed extensive signs of human use. Then we spotted our first British Columbia woodland wildlife...hippies! Yes, it's true...they are still there. What we happened upon was an old, secret anti-logging activists camp. First Nation tribes and these activists successfully limited old-growth logging on Hanson Island after plotting the location of numerous culturally modified tree's; tree's whose bark had been stripped by First Nation's for baskets and other cultural artifacts(click here and here for descriptions). Walrus and his younger assistant provided us a tour of the site, describing the history of the First Nation tribe that had occupied the island, the history of the anti-logging camp, and modern efforts to limit logging and resource extraction in the area by training First Nation descendants to identify culturally modified tree's.
August 18th:
We left the Hanson Island campsite without looking back...in addition to not being particulary attractive, it was also littered with soggy cardboard boxes from the encampment. We crossed Blackfish Sound bound for Village Island and the remains of a 1930's village that was the site of the last potlach in British Columbia. The event was raided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police under anti-potlach laws (source: Kayak Routes of the Pacific Northwest). Crossing Blackfish Sound was our first interaction with significant marine traffic...this small area is a funnel for all major shipping traffic traveling the Inside Passage. We sat and waited off Hanson Island for a large tug and tow to pass before we started our crossing. We meandered through the islands as we paddled towards Village Island, watching porpoises transit past and examining the sunlit kelp beds. Camping isn't permitted on Village Island, so we stopped near Ralph Island to explore several small islets (read large rocks!) as potential campsites. One rock looked perfect... great views, barely enough room for two tents, dry driftwood, and a great place for a campfire. We stopped to pitch the tents and decided to push Village Island off until the 19th...the beauty of being on vacation!
We spent a nice night on the islet...a good dinner was consumed, s'mores were prepared, sunset was observed...
August 19th:
We woke to a foggy morning...ahhh, the many moods of British Columbia! No reason to rush...we started slowly and enjoyed our coffee while the fog lifted. We had barely started away from the island when we were overtaken by more transiting Harbour porpoises. We stopped to watch again as they came by. It's very cool to sit in near complete silence on the water, listening as porpoises break the surface and breathe heavily. We continued on towards Village Island, landing on the broad beach facing the village. Although our guidebook suggested an easy walk around the village, we found it heavily overgrown with blackberries (delicious blackberries...). The beach was littered with broken glass and many of the houses showed similar signs of beer-fests. Still, the attractiveness of the village was evident and we found two beautiful, aged totem poles on either end of the village...now barely recognizable as such without closer inspection.
From Village Island, we paddled northeastward towards Broughton Archipelago. We started our search for campsites towards evening, focusing our search for a beach facing the sun. We spotted numerous small islands some distance ahead, and given our success with the small island the previous night, we elected to push onward. As we paddled up to the islands, we could tell we had found somewhere special. More birds (and a greater variety of species) were winging their way around the islands as we approached, we saw more seals here than anywhere else, and at least one very large sea lion (the only one we saw on the trip) was sighted. Finding an island with a tent spot was a challenge...our marine recreation map didn't extend this far and our marine chart didn't provide sufficient scale. After 45 minutes of searching, we found somewhere we figured would work. We hopped out to check; there were no signs of a rookery and the island appeared unsuitable for a seal haul-out. There was a tiny flat spot on the island where we figured two tents would just fit. Perfect. The take-out could only support one person at a time, so we began a caravan of dry bags out of each kayak one at a time before hauling them up the rocks.
Although we practiced minimal-impact techniques throughout our trip, we were particularly careful here...the area was rich with marine wildlife, the island we camped on was extremely small, and due to it's exposed, isolated nature seemed to be rarely visited by humans. I won't publish it's location here...like us, you will have to explore a little to find it!
We whipped up a salmon alfredo with pasta for dinner and watched humpback whales blowing heavily as they swam by at sunset.
August 20th:
We woke to the sounds of heavy breathing...ORCAS! We scrambled for clothes and leapt out of the tents. The islands were ringed by very, very deep water and we watched for about a half-hour as three or four Orca's circled the island, apparently fishing. The water was clear enough to see them as they swam underwater, barely 100 feet from where we were standing. It was a spectacular sight and made for a great start to my 27th birthday. Not being experienced enough to distinguish between a resident pod of whales that feeds almost exclusively on salmon and a transient population that prefers seals and sea lions, we elected to linger over breakfast and a second cup of coffee to be sure that (a) we didn't disturb the Orca's, or (b) become the first recorded case of a wild-Orca attack on humans.
Once things had settled down, we proceeded towards Berry Island to explore a promising mark on our charts..."petroglyphs." We landed on the north side of the island and quickly found the trail. Unfortunately, he headed out the wrong direction and found only a resort. Backtracking to our starting point and hiking the other direction led us to a promising area sealed off with a sign identifying a First Nation site closed to public access. So, we had a nice two-hour hike in the woods, but saw no petroglyphs. We paddled on from Berry Island and hauled out at Compton Island. Although this is one of the few islands where a camping fee is levied, it also had great campsites set back in the woods that were relatively dry...a nice break from the rain we had experienced for most of the day...and some log benches that were a nice change from rock seats! Meg whipped up some enormous Enchiladas for dinner and broke out several small birthday cakes she had squirrelled during our supply run on Vancouver Island.
There might be better places to be on your birthday, but I can't think of any :)
August 21st:
While we packed the kayaks in the morning, waiting for our tide to cross to Blackfish Sounds, we were treated to an unusual sight. A deer had decided to brave the not-insignificant current in the channel between Compton and Harbledown Island. He narrowly missed a collision with several salmon fishermen (who evidently lacked deer licenses, or I suspect he never would have made it!) and after a 5-10 minute swim hauled himself out on Compton Island a little ways down the beach, calmly shook off, and meandered into the woods. Evidently, deer can swim. We paddled "straight out of Compton" shortly afterwards and made an uneventful crossing of Blackfish Sound to Hanson Island. We tucked into a lee on the south side of the island for a second review of the weather.
Winds for the next day were predicted to build late in the afternoon to strong to moderate as a high pressure built over the forecast area. That's it. "Outlook: strong to moderate northwesterly's."We sat around discussing the situation for a few minutes...the crossings we had made previously were in light to moderate winds. Scott spoke up first...given his previous experience with Johnstone Strait where and and Fisher never made it out of Telegraph Cove due to weather, we decided to bag the trip a day early. We didn't want to attempt a crossing of Johnstone Strait after a reasonable duration of wind over a long fetch had a chance to work on the surface, nor did we particularly want to get stuck on Hanson Island waiting out the weather.
We proceeded from our lee to the crossing, reaching Vancouver Island near Kaikash Creek and turned towards Alder Bay. Perversely, the weather improved throughout our paddle, ultimately becoming glass calm with no wind at the take out. Still, we felt no need to tempt the weather gods in what might easily have been the calm before the storm. We unpacked the boats and loaded the car. A bittersweet moment...it was a great trip, and I was ready for a shower and a beer, but it also meant that this vacation in the Pacific Northwest and it was about time to leave home and return to the South.
We never looked back to Johnstone Strait to verify the veracity of the forecast and evaluate our decision...better to let such things go.
----------------------------------------------------
I didn't spend a lot of time with the camera in hand, mostly due to challenging conditions during crossings that made photography unwise, or because I was too busy enjoying the view. You can find the pictures we did take on the trip here:
-- Johnstone Strait and Broughton Archipelago Pictures --
(I recommend using the slide show feature)
(I recommend using the slide show feature)
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