[Paddlewise] TR: Deer Group. Barkley Sound, BC

Five of us -- four Yanks and my son's North Vancouver-based girl friend --  
spent a lovely week in the western portion of the Deers last week, dipping in 
and out of light coastal fog, with one night of Camelot-like precipitation to 
spice the weather stew. Although there were many fishers motoring by, 
trolling for springs, we felt a strong sense of peace and isolation, just two 
miles from Bamfield on a point-cove on the protected side of Diana.

Low swell and relatively light winds made for easy investigation of caves and 
surge channels, even a couple of runs through arches on Edward King and 
Tzartus Islands.

We saw quite a few kayakers, many of them families in doubles, and a few 
groups of singles who wandered past our moon-snail-cluttered beach, searching 
for a campsite. One six-member group drifted past as dark fell, murky fog 
making them wisps of splash and their winking headlamps a ghostly presence.

The last morning a bevy of college students (all female) arrived at 
oh-dark-thirty via skiff from the marine science center in Bamfield, armed 
with transit, stadia rod, shovels, clanking anchor chain, and giggles, part 
of a research effort to set up a protocol to sample for invasive species of 
clams. On our 1000-square meter beach, their fifty sampling plots yielded 
just one 5 mm butter clam, which clustered all fifteen women around the lucky 
finder. We could have told them about the gapers low down, but we did not 
want to skew their science [grin].

--
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR 
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