Trip Report from Noel Collamer <noelc_at_memes.com>. I'm just the conduit and paddler-traveler. Noel is the gourmand. Enjoy the menus. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR -- Broken Islands Trip Dave Kruger arrived in Bellingham from Astoria, Oregon on Monday evening, June 14th. The next morning, we caught the 10:15 ferry from Tsawwassen to Nanaimo and after a two hour ferry and a three hour drive, arrived at the Toquart Bay launch in light rain and fog. Only a dozen or so campers (mostly RV's) were there and we were able to find a nice spot for our tents near a picnic table in a cedar grove. We were glad for the protection from the rain and wind. Our dinner was my cheese fondue with pieces of baguette and broccoli crowns to dip. It rained hard all night as it had, we were told, for most of the past two weeks. Wednesday morning was clear and calm and we packed up after Dave's French toast breakfast. We launched at 9:20 and were snacking on the protected east side of Hand Island by 10:40. The two miles of open water took us only 30 minutes to cross, a big difference from last year when the same crossing required about an hour and a half on our return through the wind blown swell. We were surprised by the wind when we paddled out of the protection of Hand over to the Brabant Islands. After a few strokes into the whitecapped swell of Peacock Channel, I suggested to Dave that we try a different angle for our one mile crossing to Dodd Island. We circumnavigated a small boomer and paddled the protected East side of Brabant Island to a spot where I could angle into the chop instead of having it come at me broadside. This turned out to be much more manageable for me (6.5 on my scary scale) even though it took more time and effort. We arrived at our sunset view campsite on Willis Island in the early afternoon and had our camp set up shortly thereafter. Our tarp covered kitchen was on a waist high log with a flat top. The wind on Loudoun Channel in front of us had freshened to about 20 knots. Waves crashed all around, crows and eagles soared, and two young lovers from a nearby campsite walked out of sight on a drying white sand tombolo in the distance. Dave fixed a delicious vegie stir fry for dinner with a red cabbage, carrot and onion salad dressed with rice vinegar and soy sauce. The sunset illuminated some snow covered peaks in the forbidden plateau in the distance across the water. Ahh, camp life had begun. While I walked the beach early Thursday morning, I noticed a mink digging by a rock in the low tide zone. First it would submerge its head, and later, its whole body while it dug under the rock. Every little while it would pull up and briskly shake the water off itself; very cute. After a few minutes, with only its hind feet showing, it suddenly pulled up its prey and ran across the beach a few feet in front of me, crab claws flailing wildly. Afterwards, I heard a crunching sound in the rocks at the top of the beach. For our breakfast, I fixed hash browns (dried mix) and scrambled eggs with bacon bits sprinkled on top. Stephanie, a Parks concessionaire employee, visited us via Zodiac around 8:30 AM to collect our $5 each per night fee. We paid for the next 5 nights. As was to become our pattern, we paddled early and tried to make it back to camp before the regular afternoon winds freshened. Our route this day was across half mile wide Thiepval Channel, through the low water pass next to Lovett Island, on across the half mile of open water to the lee side of Owens Island and into the lovely lagoon and large sand beach on Clark Island. This is where we had camped for a few days last year. Dave went on out into the swell, around the Drum Rocks, and into the channel between Clark and Benson Islands while I poked around the calm tide pools. Happily (for me), the crossing back was still relatively calm We glided through a barely wet enough pass between the two islets west of Trickett Island where small waves collided atop a glistening white shell tombolo. A stroke or two north of this pass revealed a lovely pocket beach with a primitive shelter built for two against a large curved log. Surely this was a lovers renegade camping spot. The sun's intensity drove us into the shade for lunch and a nap. Afterwards, we had fun gunkholing the small bays and rocky surge channels on the north side of Trickett and Turret Islands on our way back to camp. As the wind picked up, I hammocked and read under the willows, western red cedar, and sitka spruce while a hummingbird darted in an out of the blossoms above. My dinner that evening was a German sausage stew with lots of gray poupon (I brought my own). Later that evening, the wind calmed and we paddled the dimpled low swell in and out of the rocks and bays on Dodd Island's wild west side. A full moon rose in the alpenglow above the narrow channel between Willis and Dodd as we returned to camp. Friday dawned clear and calm. For breakfast, I fixed oatmeal with dried fruit, roasted walnuts, butter, and brown sugar. Unfortunately, after looking at the chart and discussing the day's paddle across one mile wide Coaster channel, over to the outer islands, and finally back again across Coaster Channel, I completely lost my appetite. As it turned out, Dave paddled with me around the cliffy southeast side of Turret Island before making the crossing by himself. I choose to dink around the protected bays on the south side of Turret where the kelp beds reminded me of floating above a redwood forest. Shadowy beings were silhouetted against the white sand bottom twenty feet below. I paddled through another high tide only pass off Trickett Island and had lunch on yet another lovely beach ( I was plenty hungry). I hailed Kayak Bufflehead (Dave) on channel 16 of my VHF radio and we then switched to channel 68, one of the VHF channels available for recreational boaters. Dave was on Dicebox Island about 3 miles away, trying to fix a broken backband. I paddled the lee side of Turret, crossed Thiepval Channel to the passage between Willis and Turtle, and on back to camp where I hailed Dave again. He was not a happy paddler as he couldn't fix his backband. He arrived in camp within the hour. The seas were still calm and I was disappointed that I had not ventured out further. Dave repaired his backband. Dinner that night was Dave's vegetable tomato bisque. On Saturday morning we decided to keep our camp on Willis for the rest of the trip unless there was a bad forecast for our last day in which case we'd move to Hand where we could quickly seize a good weather window. This day's forecast predicted NW gale winds rising in the afternoon so after a quick breakfast of pancakes with blueberry syrup and Canadian bacon, we paddled off to the western part of the Broken Group. This way we would be heading into the waves on the way back. We paddled through the pass between Keith and Mullins Islands and along the chain of islets to Elbow Islet. As Elbow is on the edge of Imperial Eagle Channel with its swell and wind, I decided not to go on to outermost Weibe Island and instead, headed for the protection of a large sandy cove on the East side of Dempster Island. On the way, along Dempster's outer coast, we spied two large sea caves and some interesting surge channels amongst the rock monoliths as we rounded the corner. Our small beach rapidly disappeared to the rising tide and we had to hurry our lunch. When we reached the place where Greg Brown was capsized by a breaking wave on last years paddle, Dave continued on around Gibraltar Island's outer coast while I retreated to its protected lagoons. We met up soon afterwards at the campground on Gibraltar. Dave said that I would have enjoyed the paddle as there was much interesting coastline and the seas were easy. We listened to the Tofino Coast Guard forecast warning of gale force winds building in the late afternoon and decided to head back to camp immediately. Since the tide was high we paddled through the lovely quiet lagoon between Jaques and Jarvis Islands and out through the narrow western passage. Immediately the wind blew fresh, first into our face and then onto our port beams as we crossed to the Tiny Group. We snacked in the sun and wind on an intimate white shell beach. After an hours paddle into the wind, we were back at camp. Before beaching, we eased out the nearby passage entering Lououn Channel and watched the whitecaps and crashing waves. It was fun to see and feel the windy seas energy from our cozy protected location. After landing, we spoke to one of the two sixty something couples from the adjacent campsite. They said they had been separated from the other couple when the wind started to build on the outside of Turret. They had turned back and been in camp for an hour. They had no float plan, no VHF radios, and didn't know if the overdue couple were wearing immersion clothing or carried survival gear. Around eight that evening, the concerned couple came over to our camp and asked our advice. Since the couple in question was now five hours overdue, Dave and I suggested the Coast Guard be hailed. We hailed the Tofino Coast Guard on channel 16 and then, at their request, switched to channel 22A. The Coast Guard first called the Broken Group Warden who immediately started for her Zodiac, and then broadcast the situation synopsis on channel 16. Shortly after the general broadcast, I spotted the overdue couple with my binoculars as they paddled in through the sloppy seas towards camp. They were cold and tired, but in good condition otherwise. As we watched them paddle in, Dave spotted a small buck walking and swimming back from nearby eagle islet. The warden arrived a few minutes later and took their story. The two couples paddled off for more protected waters the next morning. They were all wearing wetsuits. Thankfully, Dave would not consider my suggestion to head back a day early as Sunday turned out to be the trips highlight. In the mid morning sun, we paddled though low swell and light wind to Benson Island, one of the Broken Group's outermost islands. While paddling into its protected lagoon, we notice four kayaks hanging out between Benson and the Verbeke Rocks. We landed and walked over to watch a gray whale feeding just off the islands rocky edge. After an hour marveling at the whale and the beautiful tidepools, we hiked over to the open sea side of Benson. For a reason not immediately obvious to me, Dave wanted to head back right away and have lunch. Soon afterwards, we suited up and began our paddle back to camp. While crossing the narrow channel between Benson and Clark, we got hit port beamside by the funneling wind and put down our rudders. After a short respite in the lee side of Clark and Owen, the Warden in her Zodiac sped up asking if either of us was Kayak Bufflehead. She warned us that gale winds were expected later in the afternoon. Dave visited while I nervously looked out into the whitecapped half mile crossing. We were very quickly in the middle of a rapid swell pattern and a 12-15 knot wind. Although this may not sound like much, the conditions were a 9-10 on my personal scary scale. I paddled at a slight angle to the wind whipped swell until I needed to take a nerve rest. Then, I would turn directly upwind (easiest angle) and let myself be blown slowly backwards to a place where I could again resume a slight angle. A direct line would have put us at an angle where the swell and waves would hit our kayaks slightly astern, my most uneasy angle. In this line, each wave would have pushed my boat sideways. Plus, I would not be able to see the waves coming. Happily, Dave was having no problem and it was comforting to me to have him within speaking distance. Later he said that if I had capsized, he would have hailed the nearby Warden and her Zodiac which would have been able to rescue me within minutes. After reflecting on the crossing, I felt that I was never close to capsizing and that my problem was nerves due to having paddled very little in the past 6 months. There were even a few moments when I was able to relax and enjoy it. Also, I loved how easily the waves passed by my kayak and how stable and predictably it performed, especially heading downwind (I paddle a Current Designs Solstice GTHV). We paddled through the lovers' beach high tide pass off Trickett and let the wind blow us by the boomers, across Thiepval channel and on to camp. From our sunny beach camp haven, I spied a pair of mature bald eagles through my binoculars. They were perched together atop their fern and moss bottomed nest on the island across the bay. Their calls were with us much of the time. I made a chicken curry dinner with cucumber salad, yogurt, and chutney. Later that evening, after another spectacular sunset at about 10 PM, I finished the novel "True North" by Kimberly Kafka. It would make a good movie. The morning of our departure was gray, but calm. We packed up and paddled past the outside of Willis and Dodd, across Peacock Channel past the Brabants and Hand, and to the beginning of our 2 mile crossing. The swell and waves were low, but our line across was my dreaded half astern angle. Also, last years scary crossing (for me anyway) was stirring up inside. Fortunately, the wind did not blow much harder and I was able to adjust to the motion of the stern quartering waves. We paddled past a campsite on the Stopper Islands that our group from last year had lunched and were met by a BC Parks employee upon beaching at Toquart Bay. She had a 40-50 question survey for us to fill out. Even though there were no questions regarding a possible reservation policy, both Dave and I agreed that this would not be in the best interest of paddlers. For one thing, it could possibly intimidate people to paddle in conditions beyond their skill level in order to get out or back "in time". For another, a lot of lovely reserved sites would lay vacant when people decided not to come or leave early. Dave and I packed up and were back in Bellingham by sundown. June's a great month to go; fewer people and not too hot. It was my fifth and Dave's eighth visit to Barkley Sound. We look forward to next time. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Jun 24 2000 - 15:01:43 PDT
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