Chocolate Beach

Louise and I enjoyed a couple of days away on nearby Salt Spring Island, one of the southern Gulf Islands, earlier this week. A short half-hour hop on the ferry Skeena Queen...

...took us to the hamlet of Fulford Harbour, where we disembarked and began our exploration of the island.


Our first stop was Mount Maxwell, the highest point on Salt Spring and one of the highest in the whole southern Gulf Islands at a height of about 660 metres.

You can see forever from up here, or at least it seems that way. The road up is a twisty and windy dirt road -- make sure your vehicle can handle it before proceeding -- but the trip is worth it. What a view.

One thing we saw --and heard-- was a thundercloud roll by overhead. By the time we got to our hotel in the island's hotspot of Ganges, we were in the midst of a ranging rain and hail storm...

...a storm which knocked out power to 150,000 customers back home in Victoria. Fixing the clocks would be on the agenda when we returned home.

We found a tasty lunch at Barb's Buns. Louise had tomato lentil soup and I had a delicious grilled cheese sandwich.

And any café that is playing Queen's Death on Two Legs on their stereo gets a thumbs up from me.

We explored Ganges for a couple of hours, then settled into our room at the Harbour House.

The Harbour House has a a great view of the harbour, but that would be expected given the name. Our room had an excellent view of the parking lot in back. We found Dagwood's Diner for dinner. Louise had an excellent Cajun Chicken Burger, while I had a Bacon Cheeseburger. Yum!
We settled in for the night in our room, interrupted for a while after midnight by a bunch of yahoos who'd obviously imbibed too much at a local watering hole and mistook the hotel hallway as their room and thought that shouting things like "Paging Doctor Faggot!" was the height of wit. Well, they were half right.

We breakfasted in the hotel. I had the yumcious blueberry pancakes and Louise had hazelnut and cranberry porridge. Thursday's unsettled weather had blown through and we were facing a gorgeously sunny Friday.

We booked a tour with Salt Spring Adventures. We've never kayaked on Salt Spring, so we decided to take a tour and let an expert show us the lay of the land, er, water. And we were just too damn lazy to bring our boats over.
Salt Spring Adventures was located across the road from our hotel, so Louise and I changed into our neoprene in our room and walked over. We thought we might have been the only people to ever parade around the hotel like that, but we saw others also wearing neoprene wandering the hallways. Either there were a number of paddlers staying there, or we were thankfully innocent regarding what kind of hotel we were staying at.
Louise was clearly ready to go.


Our guide, Yvonne, got us and two other clients from France loaded into our boats and we headed out.


Louise was in a plastic Necky Eliza, while I was in a plastic Necky Looksha 17. I don't recall ever paddling a Looksha before but Louise has paddled Paula's Eliza before, and we both enjoyed our rides today.


I love the erosions formations in the rock. I was reminded of our paddles around Ladysmith where we've seen the same kind of wearing in the rock.


Yvonne was a terrific guide, pointing out various flora and fauna, local history, as well as passing out paddling pointers. She was a lot of fun as well as knowledgeable, and we really enjoyed her company.


Our destination was Chocolate Beach on a small island call Second Sister Island. Of course, when I heard that our destination was a chocolate beach, I immediately thought of this, so I was somewhat disappointed that there was no chocolate at Chocolate Beach. But Yvonne did bring tea and snacks.

Besides, who needs chocolate when you're in a piece of heaven like this? Especially, a piece of heaven with a cute outhouse:


Too soon, we had to head back.



A lone seal pointed the way back.


Back on shore, we spent our last few hours on the island browsing the shops. I bought too many books (what a surprise!) and Louise found the latest in kayaking chic.


Trip Length: 7.68 km
YTD: 44.64 km
More pictures are here.

Boppin' 'Bout the Bay

It was of those kinds of paddles, where frequently changing forecasts caused plans to change daily almost up until the time that Louise, Paula and I hit the beach this morning at Cadboro Bay. We knew we were going to get a bit of a breeze today, and we decided to stick close to the south shore of the bay while we checked out the conditions.

We quickly determined that this direction was more work than fun. I love my kayak, but sometimes it is a pig to turn when facing into the wind, and today was one of those days when the wind was blowing in whatever direction was most inconvenient at any particular moment.
So after checking out some of the wrecked boats on the beach from the winter storms (like this one that has been sitting here since last November)....

...and we crossed back to hug the Northern shore and hopefully get some shelter from the breeze.


Here, we gained a respite from the wind and we travelled along the shore, admiring the Olympic Mountains in Washington State.


Louise spotted a pair of otters cavorting near the shore.

We floated by and watched them frolic. Finally, they noticed us and headed up onto shore.


A heron distracted us.


Then it was back to the beach. And warm drinks!


Trip Length: 5.10 km
YTD: 36.96 km
More pictures are here.

Johnson Street Bridge Deathwatch

I'm starting to think that maybe, just maybe, Spring may might be here. Or perhaps I should say that instead of the Spring we had last year that lasted until October, perhaps this year we're having a Spring that may actually at some point soon morph into Summer.


This morning Louise and I headed downtown for a paddle through the Inner Harbour and up the lower Gorge. After all, any Friday in a kayak is a good Friday.


After putting on the beach at the Songhees, pretty much the first thing you see is the Johnson Street Bridge which, as sharp-eyed readers may note, as undergone some modification since the last time we paddled here. The venerable old Blue Bridge, built in 1924, is slowly being torn down so that its replacement can be built. The rail portion of the bridge has already been removed.


Past the bridge a cormorant watched over us....


...and then we saw the rail portion of the bridge, high and dry and ready to be disassembled for scrap.


We passed under the Bay Street Bridge....

...and while we're talking about historical bridges, the original bridge on this site, the Port Ellice bridge collapsed in 1896 when an overloaded street car broke through and crashed into the waters beneath.The street car was made to hold only 60 people, yet contained 153 when it hit the water. 55 people died in what is still to this day the worst street car accident in North American history.




And on that happy note, we continued up the Gorge, then returned, but as we approached the Blue Bridge a second time....

...we saw the car ferry MV Coho preparing the leave the harbour. The ferry leaves the dock and backs down the harbour towards the bridge until it has enough room to swing itself around and transit out the harbour entrance. It's a heck of a manoeuvre, says the man who can barely parallel park his car, and we enjoyed watching it, although it's a bit disconcerting watching something that big with propellers coming towards you. :)


Trip Length: 6.67 km
YTD: 31.86 km
More pictures are here.

Little Bay

Easter holiday this year looks like good times. I hope to start every morning by kayaking and then writing!
Today I celebrated Good Friday by walking over to Telegraph Bay with my little inflatable kayak. This is a sweet little bay for paddling. It's a good launch point for going along the shore to Gordon Head and farther on. But I like it even when all I do is stay inside the curve of the bay.
Inside Telegraph Bay there were no big swells today for surfing. It was spring -- the kind of "real spring" weather that not only had the birds singing but people walking around outdoors with the kind of dazed look that says they've been indoors too long. It was terrific weather for paddling... just cool enough that the summer paddlers aren't on the water. There was a family picnicking on the shore, and at the other end of the beach a heron stood hipshot and glaring like a moody, chain-smoking fashion model.
April is a good month for kayaking. The water is still clear enough to see the bottom on a bright day, in many places. Where the water was shallow I was delighted to see the rainbow-coloured kelp that Louise and I like so much. It looks iridescent in the right light... without the right angle of light this kelp just looks like brownish-green sheets.
I pushed the OK button on my SPOT device, to show my location. There were several purple starfish on the rocks along there. Ochre seastars, Alison calls them. One of them had only three legs! I assume it had survived some vicious struggle and was in the slow process of regenerating new limbs to make up for those missing.
I completed one circuit of the bay and ended up back at the beach. The great blue heron squawked and flew away, every wingflap conveying disdain.
Wonderful to take my time putting away the kayak, so that my sandals had dried in the sun by the time I headed toward home. Once again braved the holiday traffic jam as I made my way. Most people out for a walk that morning just took their dogs -- my companion was more quiet and less fuzzy.

Ocean River Gear Grab Video

Twice a year we head down to the Ocean River Gear Grab sale to, well, grab gear. This year the Ocean River folks shot a little promo video at the spring event and here it is to give you a taste. And if you look quickly enough, you'll see Louise in it. Look on the right side for a green and white coat at 0:48.

Ta-da! SmartCar Re-Loaded

Last weekend, when the wheel broke off my luggage roller (the newer, larger roller, not the rusted smaller roller), I reported on the blog that it was a frustrating turn of events. It was not easy, dragging my inflatable kayak on one wheel and the corner of the roller frame. Commando kayaking was more of a battle that day than it usually is! Luckily, the Nature House was not an unreachable distance from the bus stop where the wheel broke.

But there was good news as well. When Marlene came to the lake to pick me up, we found that her SmartCar was big enough to hold the Expedition kayak. Hurray!

Some polite astonishment has been expressed, concerning the idea that the kayak in its bag would fit into the SmartCar fourtwo. Just astonishment, not disbelief. Those SmartCars are pretty small, after all.

Well, yeah, it is kinda hard to imagine shoehorning a 13-foot kayak into a fourtwo. As Louise suggested, photos are the only way to go. So here they are:

Thanks to Bernie's camera work, we have a series of images to show of Marlene's car being put to use. First of all, here's the cargo bay behind the two seats, empty and ready for gear. Notice particularly that the inside walls of the cargo area are black in the lower portion, and light grey in the upper portion. That will matter in later photos!

Next, here are two inflatable kayaks loaded in the back of the SmartCar, just as Marlene figured they would fit. The yellow bag is smaller than the grey one, and she said to put it on top because the back of the car gets a little narrower as you go from bottom to top. But once both bags were in, we realised that we could have put two Expeditions in, easily. These bags hold the kayaks, folded, the safety gear, air pumps, and personal flotation devices (PFDs). The one four-piece paddle I own is tucked inside the yellow bag as well. Try to ignore the broken zipper on the grey bag.

The next photo points out that not only the boats but all the necessary gear must fit, for a successful trip. If you look carefully, you can see my small luggage roller tucked between the kayak bags so it won't roll around. There is a two-piece paddle on top of the bags, and a blanket rolled up beside them. The bungee cord that's sitting by the paddle got tucked down at the floor level. Notice how high the gear is piled? It's not even shoulder-height on the driver. The driver can see right over all the gear!

This shot of the passenger seat shows my knapsack of gear (holding a change of clothes, lunch, a book, my knitting, and the laptop computer I'm currently writing on) that sat at my feet. It took up much less than half of the space for the passenger's feet, so I had plenty of room. There was also plenty of room in the front for Marlene's knapsack as well, and her jacket.

The final photo shows that when the back is closed on all that gear, there is still room to see out the back window. Not the entire window, but much of it. This photo was taken by Bernie standing, so from this angle it looks like the entire back is full. But from the driver's seat the driver is able to see right over the yellow kayak bag through most of the window. Visibility really helps a driver feel better on the road! Marlene was still able to use her rearview mirror.

The final tally of gear loaded into the SmartCar for this photo shoot:

1 13-foot Expedition kayak from AdvancedElements (the gold standard for inflatables, in my experience)

1 9'6" kayak from Advanced Elements (the Dragonfly, an older model of what's now the Lagoon)

1 two-piece paddle

1 four-piece paddle

2 PFDs with whistles, one with a compass, cold weather cap, and SPOT emergency device

2 water pumps

2 throw bags holding 50 feet of floating rope

2 air pumps (doublestroke pumps the size of my thigh, I might add)

1 folding luggage roller (and there was plenty of room for another)

2 knapsacks

2 jackets

1 blanket

1 SmartCar first aid kit

1 steel travel mug

1 bottle of water

I'll just add that there were two small purses in the knapsacks. Not sure what Marlene's purse held besides her wallet, key ring, phone, makeup and meds. Mine held all that plus an assortment of useful tools, eyeglasses, handkerchief, tissues, matches/lighter, candle, space blanket, granola bars, Purelle, pens and notepaper.

We were loaded for bear!

If this type of vehicle were regularly being used for this purpose, I would pack only one of the big air pumps plus a small one for a spare. I would also invest in two more paddles that take apart into three or four pieces, small enough to fit inside the kayak bags. The two-piece paddle was the only thing that took some wriggling to fit into the back of the car.

Black Snake!

When out in my kayak, I get to see a lot of birds and animals on the water and along the shore. I've been out a couple of times this week, on calm flat water and pleasantly bouncy ripples. There have been an abundance of ducks and surf scoters, and some otters darting around. A pair of killdeer have been screeching in the park. An eagle soared over my kayak, and a crab scuttled under it.
And then, as I was coming close to the shore where the Buddha sits, there was something on the steep rocks that I hadn't seen before. It looked like a black snake, rising out of the scrubby greens growing on the rough slope. It was as big around as my wrist! I could see it was long... the part I could see was almost as long as my arm. The snake was moving -- swaying -- in an odd way. I started to worry that it might drop out of the greens, off the rocks, into my kayak. I've had spiders for passengers, but a snake would need more room than I like to share.
And then as it moved more, the black snake revealed itself to be ...not a snake. It was a Canada goose, with its long black neck. The goose was perched on barely enough room to sit, half-way up the little cliff. Beside it was its mate, turning a white-cheeked head to glare at me.
All right! I know you're laughing.
In my defense, I'll point out that people on the water or at the shore often mis-identify seashore animals. Some sightings of huge sea monsters such as Cadborosaurus are probably due to smaller animals such as seals and otters being spotted by people unable to judge how far away the animals are in the waves. I know that when Alison and I saw two whales on our way to Island View Beach, it was really hard for us to tell just how far away the whales were and just how big they were.
Yeah, yeah, I know somebody's still laughing. Look, this was a really big goose, okay? The biggest I've ever seen. Much bigger than most Canada geese. I didn't know they could get that big. And yes, when I knew what I was seeing, the snaky black neck still looked almost as long as my arm.
Turns out there are several subspecies of Canada goose, one of which is named "maxima" -- probably the variety I saw. And the smaller Cackling goose was considered a form of Canada goose until recently. You can check out some photos comparing the relative sizes of these geese at this link, eh?

April 1st Paddle

Today's paddle started off nicely, but had a rough finish. I was only able to snap one picture. I'll be off the water for a while. The stitches need to come out before I can repair the holes in my kayak.