Happy Halloween!

When all else fails, your kayak paddle can make a great weapon against zombies!
Found this a little while ago on David K. Johnston's Paddling Instructor site and thought I'd save it for a Halloween post. In the game Dead Rising 2, you can use a kayak paddle with chainsaws attached on the blades as a zombie-slicing weapon. David's original post is pretty funny and you can read it here.

More Mega-Yacht Marina Mysteries

A reader over at Wavelength Magazine's blog created this picture that shows the proposed mega-yacht marina and all the traffic lanes in the harbour. The mystery here is where do kayaks go. Do you see any room for kayakers or other paddlers? As noted on the Wavelength blog, "the marina sits squarely on the only through way for non-motorized craft" which is along the north shore, effectively cutting paddlers in the Inner Habour off from the Outer Harbour, the Middle Harbour and the ocean and vice versa.
The mysteries continue over at Focus Online in their November issue which, in a story by Sam Williams, examines the mysterious and complicated question of who actually owns the land, the foreshore and water lots involved, and also dispels a belief by some patronizing members of the local media that the developer has a Supreme Court ruling allowing him to build the marina. It makes for some interesting reading (opens as a pdf).
To help stop this project, click here for Save Victoria Harbour.

Pedal Powered Plans

Greg Kolodziejzyk who, along with Jordan Hanssen, failed in an attempt to pedal around Vancouver Island beginning last week, has taken his stricken craft to Okanagan Lake where he "MacGyver-ed" a fix and put his craft back in the water. A pin had sheared off the drive gear when they paddled backwards to avoid a ferry on the first day of their circumnavigation attempt last week. On the way back to Calgary, Greg's team stuck a drill bit into the gear to replace the pin, and they decided to stop in Penticton for a few days to get some paddling on the lake.
Greg reports on his blog that once he pedaled out of the protected marina, he was facing four-foot breaking waves, but the craft handled them fine. He plans to return to Calgary for further testing before he pedals from Victoria to Hawaii next year.

Another Foot Found

I just can't make this stuff up. There's been another discovery of a human foot on a beach in the Georgia Strait. You can read about it here.
That makes six of these sad discoveries that have occurred in this general area since August 2007. There was also one foot discovered just south of the border on an American beach, and two hoaxes. Yep, twice someone thought it funny to set up a fake foot in a shoe for someone else to find.
We've written about the discoveries of these feet before on the Kayak Yak blog... it seems that all of them are found in sneakers because this type of shoe floats. The feet all appear to be naturally disarticulated through decay. One foot belonged to a woman. And only one foot has been identified, belonging to a man who went missing in 2007. The police and coroners are frankly baffled why so many feet have been turning up lately. The investigation continues.
In the meantime, since bodies and body parts like these feet do turn up from time to time in the paddling waters around here, it's worthwhile to remind kayakers to be prepared.

Pedal Plan Doesn't Go Far

Greg Kolodziejzyk and Jordan Hanssen's plan to circumnavigate Vancouver Island in a pedal-powered craft came to a quick end after launching on Saturday. Within hours their gear box had failed twice, the second time terminally. They are now talking the vehicle back to shop for repairs and to consider their future plans.
How this will affect Greg's plan to pedal solo from Victoria to Hawaii next year remains to be seen. You can follow his expedition here.

Leon and Shawna Rock! Part Two!

Paula beat me to the punch about last night's lecture by Shawna Franklin and Leon Sommé on their trip around Haida Gwaii. And since there aren't many more superlatives other than what Paula has already used to describe their engaging story and a great evening's worth of entertainment, I'll just post some pictures, starting with Leon and Shawna talking to Maureen, who ran the Queen Charlotte Islands Visitor Centre when they did their trip.


This is the kayak that they lent Justine Curgenven for the trip. It had already been around Iceland.
Don't let the empty seats fool you. By the time they started, the auditorium was nearly full, about 200 people we figure.


Leon and Shawna again, getting a little token from the president of SISKA, who organized the event.


And Paula won a door prize!

Leon and Shawna Rock!

What a great kayaking event! Friday night Oct 23 saw a lecture theatre at UVic crowded with what looked like over 200 paddlers, for an event sponsored by SISKA. This was an evening discussing the circumnavigation of Haida Gwaii by Shawna Franklin, Leon Sommé, and Justine Curgenven in 2007. Front and centre onstage was a kayak that had circumnavigated Iceland, and was loaned to Curgenven for this expedition.
Anyone who has seen any of Curgenven's videos such as This Is The Sea would be glad to see this discussion of the trip that was shown on her fourth This Is The Sea dvd. It was great to hear about this trip from the viewpoint of the other participants. Last year, my partner Bernie and I got to hear Shawna and Leon talking about their circumnavigation of Iceland. There was no way I was going to miss this story!
And they didn't disappoint. Shawna and Leon seem to have multiple talents -- they are kayakers who go out for practice into stormy weather that keeps me off the water, they run a kayaking business on Orcas Island, WA, called Body Boat Blade, and they do public lectures with grace and enthusiasm.
The evening opened with an introduction by Maureen Weddell, who ran the Queen Charlotte Islands Visitor Centre for two years. She had a lot of useful advice for people who want to visit the islands, whether kayaking or vacationing. After her talk and slideshow, SISKA drew door prizes including ball caps, t-shirts, and PFDs donated by local businesses. Then, a detailed talk and slideshow by Leon and Shawna, followed by a parade across Ring Road to the Faculty Club's Fireside Lounge.
They carried the kayak, in the dark at a dimly-lit portion of Ring Road. It's not enough for drivers on that road to acknowledge that pedestrians really must have the right of way, or that students all seem to major in Wearing Black Clothes with a minor in Jaywalking At Night. Now there are black kayaks to look out for, as well!

Insider Influence on the Mega-Yacht Marine Proposal?

The Tyee sure thinks so. They're reporting that 3000 pages of documents were obtained using freedom of information requests by the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria and Save Victoria Harbour. The papers show correspondence between well-known Liberal party supports (including a local defeated Liberal MLA) acting as unregistered lobbyists for the proposal, and provincial Liberal cabinet ministers long before plans were released to the public.
There was so much correspondence that one ministry staffer asked, possibly rhetorically, "Is it normal for proponents to 'shop around' their project to Ministers during an ILMB process?" Sadly, no answer appears in the documents, but the documents also show that despite Transport Canada's public position that there are no safety concerns, behind the scenes it is a different matter. One Transport Canada official wrote to provincial officials back in 2006 that, "[w]e are very concerned about the marina proposal. From what we can tell it will completely block the access for recreational vessels along the north shore of the Middle Harbour. It could also potential [sic] interfere with our traffic management scheme that has been established in the last several years."
It's a good thing that our provincial government is the most open and transparent in history. Or so they keep telling us.

Spawning on Sunday

Yesterday, after a couple of weeks off, we returned to kayak the waters of The Gorge.

We are deep into autumn now. Many of the tress on the We(s)t Coast are evergreens so we don't see the dramatic changes in leave colours that occurs further east in Ontario and Quebec, but if you look carefully you see some shades of yellow and a splash of red here and there.

Richard returned after a summer of sailing, bike riding, and scootering. Something had to give and it turned out to be kayaking, but he's here today under a cool but sunny sky, putting his boat in the water and about to discover if he remembers how to do any of this kayaking stuff.
While Louise and Paula got ready, Richard and I took a quick paddle down to Tillicum Bridge to check out the current.


We rejoined Paula and Louise and started down towards Portage Inlet. It wasn't long until Paula spotted....

...a deer on the shore. Louise and I saw a deer in our backyard a couple of days ago, and now there's this one across The Gorge on the edge of a house construction site. I'm not sure if it's the same one; this one seems to have a bigger rack on it. Although there are lots of trees, shrubs and green space in this area, it is an urban area so I hope these deer are able to find their way back to a more suitable area before they become someone's hood ornament. And I hope we leave enough land undeveloped so they don't have to come wandering into urban areas looking for food.


And soon after that we saw cormorants in a tree. One was posing in a very seasonal Hallowe'en style. Was he trying on his bat costume? Maybe he thought he should go as a cat this year and was trying his best to make himself look big.
Most likely he was just drying his wings. But they must have been very wet because he kept them outstretched like that for the entire time it took us to paddle by him.


As we moved into Portage Inlet from The Gorge, we noticed how high the water was. We were on a flood tide, plus we'd just had a couple of days of monsoon rain. So conditions were right to try to paddle up Colquitz Creek.

Richard and I pulled a little further ahead, but soon the way was blocked with brambles and bushes...

...and since none of us had machetes handy, we headed back.


Back in Portage Inlet, we found the swan family, two adults and three juveniles, enjoying the lovely morning.


With the water high, we decided to head to Craigflower Creek and see if we could get around the tree trunk and into the tunnel. We had tried a couple of months ago, but our big boats couldn't sneak through the narrow channel between the tree trunk and the shore. But it appeared that since then part of the bank collapsed just enough that we poke our way through. Richard made it through...

...as did Louise.

Then the tunnel awaited.

It goes under the Trans Canada Highway just east of Helmcken Road. The highway is about six or seven lanes wide at this point.

We made it through to the other side....

...when Paula said that she saw a fish swim by. Louise saw one, too. I saw a splash. Oh crap, it's a salmon stream! Coho salmon were taking a break here before heading further upstream to spawn. We quickly turned around...

....and headed back down the tunnel.


As we paddled back towards the inlet, the surprise discovery of salmon in this stream (and it is a surprise -- 40 years ago The Gorge was so polluted you would rarely find any fish in it, let alone salmon) also solved another mystery we were seeing -- harbour seals. We'd seen four or five seals in The Gorge heading into Portage Inlet. Seeing the occasional seal in The Gorge is not unheard of, but Sunday it was almost like rush hour. We realized that they were chasing the salmon. In fact we saw a couple of seals splashing around hunting down some salmon on the far side of the inlet. No pictures, alas.



Trip Length: 16.11 km
YTD: 336.25
More pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.

Spawning!

We had an awesomely terrific paddle today, in good weather made even better by contrast with the last week. And we learned something important that we really should have figured out before stumbling into someplace where we shouldn't have been paddling. It's salmon spawning season, people!
There's been days of rain that have the Beach House surrounded by an informal moat, here in the low land by Cadboro Bay. But this morning dawned bright as I hopped onto the bus to meet John and Louise and Richard for paddling on the Gorge.
There are plenty of pictures from this outing that John will probably post later. What may or may not show in the photos is how full of rainwater the creeks and rivers are around here, after days of rain. We paddled into Portage Inlet, and then up Colquitz Creek, a little river that comes across the Panama Flats after it drains Beaver and Elk Lakes. We were able to get quite far upstream into Cuthbert Holmes Park, behind the parking lot for Tillicum Mall, Silver City movie house, and Pearkes Arena.
It was a great day to be out, and we saw more wildlife than expected. First was a buck on the Gorge shoreline, then many Canada geese and mallard ducks on the way to Colquitz Creek. The water moved from time to time, but we couldn't see what was moving in the cloudy water of the stream.
John realized that as it was near high tide, and the creeks were running with rainwater, that we'd probably be able to go up Craigflower Creek all the way under the highway. We crossed Portage Inlet, and he was right! This creek too was swollen with rain and cloudy with silt in the water. We were able to go easily under the Helmecken Road bridge, and snuck around a fallen log to get towards the tunnel under the highway. Even surprising something under the water wasn't enough to cue me to what we'd been seeing in the creeks. I was looking around to see if a muskrat was swimming nearby, when Richard called out what he was seeing at the rocks that barred our passage further upstream.
Salmon.
Craigflower Creek is a salmon spawning stream! And apparently, so is Colquitz Creek.
Augh! And we were paddling among salmon that were resting in this pool before struggling upstream to the rocky area where they could spawn. We got out of there quickly. And on our way back through the Inlet and the Gorge, we saw at least four seals, one of whom seemed to be hunting salmon with a great deal of splashing.
I hadn't thought that either of these creeks had spawning salmon in them... little creek fish like sculpins, sure, but salmon coming up to spawn? These streams have muddy bottoms where we paddle near the estuaries, and salmon need gravel for spawning. I'd thought any local salmon runs had been wiped out by pollution when this area was being farmed and then subdivided into small lots for housing. But thinking about it, I should have known better and kept us out of the streams in autumn. There are salmon enhancement and conservation programs going on all over the south end of Vancouver Island. People are cleaning local streams. The local newspapers made a big deal out of salmon returning to Douglas Creek in Mount Douglas Park after decades of pollution keeping them out.
So, we've learned our lesson. We'll go exploring up streams in late winter, when the rain fills the streams, not in autumn.
Memo to all kayakers in their own home waters in this part of the world: Stay out of any creeks and streams and little rivers from half-past September through to the end of October! That's spawning season. And in May and June, keep away from baby seals on islands and shorelines in the ocean!

Vancouver Island Circumnavigation Attempt by Pedal-Power

Last week we told you about Greg Kolodziejzyk's plan to pedal a craft solo from Victoria to Hawaii next June, a distance of about 4,500 km. Today he announced a warm-up trip; the first pedal-powered circumnavigation of Vancouver Island, a trip of about 1,120 km.
Next Friday, Greg and Jordan Hanssen will launch from Comox on the east coast of Vancouver Island, and they expect the trip to take two to three weeks. The current record for a human-powered circumnavigation of the Island is held by kayaker Sean Morley, who completed a paddling trip around the Island in 17 days, 4 hours, and 49 minutes in September, 2008. (Former record holder Joe O'Blenis is looking to retake the kayaking record when he attempts another circumnavigation next June.)
You can follow Greg on his current record attempt and his preparations for his solo crossing to Hawaii on his blog, or his expedition web site. He's raising money and awareness (and bikes) for Kimberlee's Bikes for Kids.

Blog Action Day 2009 - Climate Change

Just in time for Blog Action Day 2009 comes this piece of news: Canada's rivers are at risk due to climate change and growing demand for water.
Canada is blessed with a huge supply of fresh water but this WWF-Canada report concludes that "...even seemingly remote northern waters like the Mackenzie are at risk. As temperatures rise, and industrial water withdrawals and interest in hydropower increase, we must start planning now to protect river flows to ensure water security for the communities and economies that depend on them." We are sowing what we have reaped, of course. Years of criminal inaction by our government has resulted in Canada being dead last in the world at meeting its paltry Kyoto commitments.
From the seat of my kayak I can offer anecdotal evidence that the climate is changing. Spring and Autumn used to be full-fledged seasons, now they are short three-week transition periods between Summer and Winter. Winters seem to be milder, although some may argue that as they recall last December's month-long barrage of below zero temperatures and snow. But that was the first significant snowfall in the region in 12 years. In the 1970s and early 1980s, I remember that we would get at least one or two good snowfalls every winter; now, we don't get snow at all. Summers are warmer and dryer, and I'm not the only one who thinks so.
Readers of this blog will know that my old van finally died a few weeks ago. I'm struggling with the decision of what to replace it with, or to even replace it at all. I don't want to be limited to one put-in, namely The Gorge at the bottom of my street, but traveling the island with our big kayaks requires a vehicle of some heft. Not an SUV necessarily, but something more than the fuel efficient environmentally friendly car that I should be aspiring to. I find myself feeling tremendously guilty when I look at cross-overs or mini-vans. I want to Do The Right Thing, but I don't want to sacrifice My Lifestyle to do it. I've already decided to never fly again, the carbon footprint from a jet plane is just too huge, yet I can't help but feel jealous when co-workers tell me stories of the week they've just spent in New York or of their Mexican vacation even though I know of the environmental damage wrought by their flight, and that they are either oblivious to it or just don't care.
But this is just the beginning of this kind of hard choice that we all are going to have to make if we are to survive. As Churchill said, we are entering a period of consequences.
I've been hearing about the so-called "greenhouse effect" since I was a child in the 1960s. Climate change is not a new issue, but has been dismissed as something future generations will have to deal with and solve, but the effects of climate change are with us today. The future is now. The time to act was 20 years ago.
We and our leaders have ignored it at our peril.

A Video For Thanksgiving

In lieu of actual kayaking this Thanksgiving Day weekend, how about some virtual kayaking?
A few weeks ago, Bernie had his video camera out and we shot some stuff around Cadboro Bay. Bernie's working on his own cut of the footage, but here's mine. Enjoy!

To Hawaii on Foot Power

Yesterday's post about the HEPAV reminded me of another human-powered vehicle that we had mentioned on the blog a couple of years ago. Adventurer Greg Kolodziejzyk had planned to pedal this vehicle (seen here in sea trials off Tofino in 2008) across the Atlantic Ocean.
That particular plan seems to have gone by the wayside, but in June of next year Greg plans to pedal a new and improved craft from Victoria to Hawaii, a distance of about 4500 km. You can follow his blog here, or his expedition web site here. He's raising money and awareness (and bikes) for Kimberlee's Bikes for Kids.
Check out the video of the new boat's first lake trial:

For Your Feet Only

If James Bond was really serious about reducing his carbon footprint, he'd ask Q for one of these.
This is a HEPAV - a human powered electric amphibian vehicle, or as this Wired article describes it, "it's a actually just a trike with electric assist encapsulated in a buoyant waterproof shell that allows cyclists to pedal their way into rivers and ponds."
The inventor, David Buchwaldek, wanted the vehicle to be similar to a kayak, able to be carried in a car but easily pedaled to the shore. Sadly, because of its expensive and labour-intensive construction needs, it's likely to remain a one-off and not enter mass production.
On his website, you can find lots of pictures and info about his other creations, both human and electric powered.
Of course, the ultimate question is, does it float? The video below should answer that question.

Backbone

I've been out in my inflatables a lot these past months! If you've been reading Kayak Yak, you've seen photos of the inflatable kayaks in our little fleet of boats. They're from Advanced Elements, and you can check them out online at http://advancedelements.com/

These kayaks are sold locally through Pacifica Paddlesports in Brentwood Bay and Sidney, BC. I bought the Dragonfly from West Marine (who call it a Skedaddle), and have been raving about it ever since. The new version of this versatile little rec boat is called the Lagoon -- check it out! The only thing this kayak lacks is a full-length keel, so some users have been known to put a broomstick inside the hull, under the floor.
The Lagoon's big brother boats do have an option for a keel, though. It's called a Backbone. It's a take-apart bar with two shovel-shaped ends that fits comfortably inside the hull and under the floor. As I've mentioned before, there are different lengths for Backbones made to fit the Lagoon2, the AdvancedFrame, the Expedition, and the AdvancedFrame Convertible.
The recent gift from Lee of a Backbone has really been welcome. I've tried it a couple of times now, and have realized something important about Advanced Elements kayaks -- I'm pretty darned small and light compared to their designs. When these boats are listed as carrying up to, say, 250 pounds, that means that a husky fisherman, tackle box, cooler and a depth finder or somedamnsuch. A 160-pound paddler really needs some heavy gear inside the Expedition, and should only benefit from adding a few gear bags or water bottles.
Installing the Backbone inside my Expedition means that the kayak feels more rigid. It doesn't ripple as much, front to back, during its supple ride across the top of little waves. As well, I sit at least an inch or more higher than without the Backbone. There are some reviews on the discussion forum at http://advancedelements.com/ that praise the feeling of sitting higher. I didn't like that feeling any more than riding without the Backbone. But now I understand why some paddlers like sitting higher: they're used to fishing out of sit-on-top kayaks.
I'm not. I'm used to sitting inside a hardshell kayak. With my blue Old Town Adventure kayak, I even got Bernie to take out the seat and put in a Necky foam seat that glued directly to the inside of the hull. But I don't mind this ride, sitting higher with the Backbone. It's not as if it can be felt under the inflatable floor. What I can feel is the Expedition around me as a more rigid frame. It's easier to press against the footrest bar, and that makes paddling a full-body experience instead of just flailing with my arms. That's terrific!
The extra weight of the Backbone isn't a big problem for me. When I want a very light, portable boat, I use the little 8'4" Dragonfly anyway. But where a 13-foot kayak is the right choice, it's worth bringing along the Backbone. It's less work and more fun to paddle with it, and the Expedition glides better.
What makes these inflatables work for me is not just that I can carry them on the bus or stuff them into a car trunk -- though the portable quality is a big plus. What works for me is that paddling these inflatables feels like what I'm looking for most of the time when paddling any kind of kayak. These aren't stiff toy dinghies or pool toys. And as our paddle group keeps saying, "Whatever gets you on the water."

Road Trip!

We gave kayaking a rest this weekend and headed over to Salt Spring Island for the 11th Annual Apple Festival. If you like apples, this is the place for you. Or so we hear.
First we have to get there. Salt Spring Island is a 35 minute ferry ride from the Swartz Bay Ferry terminal north of Victoria.


Louise, Paula, Bernie and I boarded the MV Skeena Queen for the short hop. Although it was clear and sunny, we were buffeted by 20 knot winds, so it was probably a wise decision to skip the kayaking today.


Our trip wasn't totally devoid of kayaking related activities. We were also going to take the opportunity to hunt down some put-ins, and the first one we found was in Fulford Harbour, near where the ferry docks. Follow the road around the north-west end point of the harbour and you come to a small park, a perfect spot to launch from, with parking and easy beach access.

Also at the park is a petroglyph...

...which Paula cleaned up and took a rubbing of.


From there, it was a quick jaunt to the Fulford Harbour Hall and the first stop on the Apple Festival Tour. Here we found a zillion different varieties of apples on display, as well as info booths, tour maps and 4-H Club displays. There was also some delicious-looking pies for sale, but the line-up for those was just too long.


From there we headed to Ganges, the largest town on the island. Home to a weekly summer market, Ganges is your prototypical we(s)tcoast town -- quaintly charming and old school, but containing enough shops, restaurants and activites to keep the tourists entertained, such as Island Escapades, a kayak shop right on the water in downtown Ganges.

Driving through town, if you stick close to the water you'll pass another kayak store, Salt Spring Adventure Co., and there's a nice put-in here with plenty of parking. (Or if you feel like commando kayaking, Salt Spring also has transit service timed to coincide with ferry arrivals and departures.)

If I may be allowed to digress for a moment, many people have asked me for advice in regards to taking great pictures. Here's some tips. First, always make sure your subject is in a flattering pose. Next, make sure that nothing is blocking their face. And if all else fails, at least make sure that your subject is facing the camera.


From Ganges, we headed north through the village of Vesuvius on our way to the north part of the island. At Vesuvius, we stopped at a roadside lemonade stand. Paula and Bernie may be ex-hippies, but they are entrepreneurial ex-hippies and always stop at lemonade stands. "It's a rule," says Bernie.


At the northern tip we reached the next stop on the tour, Blue Horse Gallery.

Salt Spring is home to a wide variety of artisans and here we discovered a small art gallery and lunch spot which served a warm and wonderful apple, blueberry and lemon tart. We also spotted a few of the rare Salt Spring Drift Wood Salmon.


From there we headed south and scouted out another kayak put-in at the ferry terminal at Long Harbour. The terminal sits on the narrow isthmus of Welbury Point that splits two bays. On one side is Long Harbour where the ferry to the other Gulf Islands and Vancouver docks. There's not really a good location here to launch a kayak (and of course BC Ferries frowns upon it), but literally right across the street is Welbury Bay.

Here there's a short but steep walkway down to a small but servicable beach.
And someone has set up some wheels to presumably assist people with kayaks or canoes down the path. It is a cramped beach, so if you're in a group, you'll be launching one at a time.


We continued south to Neptune Farm. While Louise and Paula checked out the produce and yummies, Bernie and I explored a bit, discovering this cool straw and mud building...

...and Chester, the one-eyed cat.

Okay, I don't really know if his name was Chester, but for some reason giving a one-eyed cat the name of Chester seems to work for me. At Neptune Farm, they also offer yoga and meditation services. And they had yummy baked goods. I had a fresh apple cinnamon bun, while Paula had a, er, um, actually, I don't remember what she had. But I bet it had apples in it.

Here, we also bumped into national Green Party leader Elizabeth May who will be running here in the next federal election. She seemed pretty down to earth for a politician, and yes, she drives a Hybrid.

Salt Spring Island is an interesting community. It markets itself as a "tree-hugging community" but there is a sizable portion of "tree-killers" on the island as well. The property next to Neptune Farms had a sign up in the yard saying, "Please Chant Louder. I Can Still Think." On another part of the island we saw a sign that was a little less subtle: "Private Property! No Trespassing! No Fucking Hippies!"

There were 18 farms taking part in the Apple Festival and there was just no time to see them all. Our final stop (after a quick stop at another lemonade stand) was AppleLuscious Organic Orchard, where they grow something like 200 varieties of apples, and many of which had samples laid out for the tasting...

...as well as some chickens wandering around.



We made our way back to Fulford Harbour...

...to await the ferry to carry us back towards Victoria.

And what sort of sea kayaking blog would this be without at least one picture of seals?