Canada Day on the Gorge

A beautiful sunny morning greeted us as we rolled the kayaks down the hill, and it was only going to get better. Forecast to be the hottest day of the year so far, it's also Canada Day. So Happy 147th Birthday to us!

Every Canada Day, Gorge Road is closed for a mile-long block party. It starts with a parade.



Ace Mascot, the mascot of the local Saanich police came by and surprisingly did not try to arrest me, but gave me a high-five before joining the parade.


Paula joined Louise and I for our quick little jaunt up the Gorge.


And we're off!


We weren't expecting to see much wildlife today, and we didn't. With all the hustle and bustle, we've come to expect that the wildlife in the area will go into hiding on Canada Day. But we did see a couple of swans enjoying the holiday.


As we paddled down the Gorge...

...we passed the beginning of the parade. Ace was still having a good time.


After flying the flag...

...it was time to join the street party.


We checked out the classic chairs...

...and the artisan booths.


And we checked out the road hockey tournament. After all, what's more Canadian than hockey in July?


Trip length: 3.81 km
YTD: 29.89 km
More pictures are here.

Looking For Baby Swans

A warm sunny morning greeted Louise and I as we rolled our kayaks down the hill for a paddle. The object of today's paddle was our annual pilgrimage up The Gorge to look for baby swans. There's two local swan couples, one in The Gorge that have lived there for a couple of years, and another couple in Portage Inlet that have been there for at least six or seven years. So be warned; there's possibly lots of cute feathered goodness ahead in this post.

First, we noticed a heron preening in the morning sun near our launch point.


We kayaked by the first swan nest. Mom was sitting on the nest, and there was no sign of baby swans. Or dad for that matter. We'd thought we might have seen mom and some babies a few days ago from a distance when we were on a walk, but we really weren't sure. And with the the high grasses, mom could be hiding almost anything in there. But if she had any baby swans in there, we saw no sign of them today.

A few minutes later we spotted dad out for his Sunday morning walk, er, swim.


Soon, we paddled by some geese and clearly they had had some luck on the baby front.




Another heron was fishing for breakfast.


Then we headed for our first trip under the new Craigflower Bridge after its official opening a few weeks ago.



This fancy new bridge replaces an 80 year-old bridge that looked like this:


Going under the bridge moves you from The Gorge to Portage Inlet and we headed for the nest of the the other swan couple. But disappointingly, there was no sign of them. The beach area where they've nest for years looked undisturbed, so we wonder if they are still around. Perhaps they've moved on.
So, no swan babies. But as we looked in vain for them, we saw a pair of youngish looking herons.




It was high noon, but low tide and we were getting stuck in the mud and silt botton of the Inlet. Time to head back.


Trip length: 6.83 km
YTD: 25.58 km
More pictures are here.

Gorge in the Fog

Louise and I decided to get the paddling season started this morning with a quick little jaunt down in The Gorge. We didn't want to do a long paddle; this was more of a "work out the kinks" paddle, both in our gear and ourselves. We've been off the water for a few months, and have had a pretty lazy winter so far, so we wanted to go slow and easy the first time out.
And besides, who doesn't like to go paddling in the fog?


We've been socked in the past couple of days, sometimes about as thick as it ever gets around here. It looked like it had backed off a bit as we were getting ready to launch, but then it suddenly rolled in like thick pea soup. I tried to take a picture of Louise a couple of metres away from me on the shore but as you can see, it was so thick the camera couldn't make anything out.

Which is too bad, because as Louise was standing there a Sasquatch ran by, almost knocking down Brad Pitt and Robert Downey Jr. as they signed autographs for Elvis who was piloting a flying saucer. Jeez, I wish that that picture had turned out!

Yes, I'm kidding. But if you didn't like that joke, don't worry the rest aren't any worse than that one.
In reality, the foggy shroud was starting to back off as we put in.


Either a small piece of Esquimalt was ceded to Italy over the winter, or someone is starting his World Cup cheering early.


We kayaked by the local pair of swans....

....as they practiced for the new Olympic Sport, Synchronized Underwater Grazing. I think they're going to do quite well.


Long-time readers will recall that the demolition and rebuilding of the Craigflower Bridge on Admirals Road began last year. It was supposed to be finished by Christmas, however a steel shortage delayed the project, as drivers in the area have no doubt noticed.

The latest estimate is that the bridge should be done by the end of March.


The fog began to burn off, but the temperature remained cool. Warm drinks began to call us from our kitchen, and we responded to their siren call.

The first paddle of the year is in the books!

Trip length: 6.05 km
YTD: 6.05 km
More pictures are here.

Babies On Parade

We haven't had much luck getting organized for paddling so far this year. But today was a beautiful sunny Sunday and Louise and I were able to squeeze in a quick paddle on our home waters of The Gorge today.

And here's the first picture taken with my new GoPro 3 that I got for my birthday present. Thanks everyone for chipping in to help me get it. (You know who you are.)


Actually, it wasn't the first picture taken with the GoPro. Indy was very curious it about when I first turned it on. The first picture is really this one:


Anyway, we put in and with the current approaching a low tide slack...

...we took a little spin on the normally fast-running waters under the Tillicum Bridge. Here we saw a seal head popping up now and then as it hunted for a fishy breakfast.

It can sometimes be total unpassable here as the inlet narrows, bottling up the water when the tide changes, creating thrashing white water and standing waves.

Heading back, we saw a heron taking advantage of all the fish being scared under the bridge by the seal. He wasn't going hungry.


We paddled across to check out what we call The Iron Man, a large sculpture on a dock. We were pleased to see that repairs had made to its wings that received some damage over the winter. We also spotted something else you don't see everyday....

... a heron with a mohawk.

He flew off and landed ahead of us and did some fishing, losing his hairdo as the water slicked her feathers back.


Further up The Gorge, we paddled by a gaggle of geese, including a few babies.

I've seen this movie! It's Jurassic Park!

A pair of swans is nesting nearby and daddy swan decided that the geese were a little to close to the nest. Obviously taking lessons from a cat, he made himself look big...

...and gave a goose...well, he gave the goose a goose. Mom swan appeared to be nesting nearby on the shore but there were no signs of any baby swans.


We approached Craigflower Bridge. Or what's left of it. Although many pilings remain, most of the roadbed is gone as the bridge is demolished to make way for a replacement.

The last remnants of the roadbed are behind Louise.

Two temporary crossing have been built while the bridge is being replaced: a temporary footbridge for pedestrians and a construction bridge. The project is expected to be finished by the end of the year.



We visited another pair of nesting swans. And this time we saw some babies.


Oh, they're so cute! Squee!

I snapped some pictures, and then we headed back...

...stopping only to admire the baby geese again.


Trip length: 6.20 km
YTD: 24.42 km
More pictures are here.