We left early the next morning to calm seas, no wind, and the currents behind us. We leisurely and joyfully made our way up the coast in this unexpected gift from nature.

Near the end of the day we had a few kilometres in headwinds but in the end we paddled about 33 km, and we could have done more if we had pushed harder earlier. We stopped at a really nice river beach (Christopher Creek I believe) backed by a beautiful open forest of big sitka spruce and douglas fir. There were bear prints in the sand, a mother and cub. We camped just above the beach in the trees.

In the evening we were discussing some mundane thing and then all of a sudden Maggie screamed out, “Oh my God! Whales!” They were not far offshore heading south. I raced out and got a few pictures.

In the morning I decided to give my boat a bath in the river because it was so dirty and full of sand from me foolishly storing it upside down on the sandy beach, something we have not been accustomed to much so far!

Bryan and Maggie left a bit before I did and we didn’t have far to go, only the last campsite before Robson Bight Ecological Reserve, which you are not allowed to enter. This is operated by a kayak tour company, and they graciously allowed us to stay and they even fed us! Bryan and I fished to provide some other food for the guests, but I lost my lure. Brian caught two. That evening the whales again came by, and so did a humpback whale way off in the middle of the channel. I went “up Schmidt Creek” as the sign says and took a cold bath.

The next morning again treated us to orcas and they were closer to shore this time and I got some nice photos.

We left shortly afterwards but there was a headwind. You have to stay a mile offshore here for eight kilometres to stay out of the ecological reserve. I soon got fed up with this and crossed Johnstone Strait over to Cracroft Island. As I came across I could see two whale watching zodiacs milling around, and there was the humpback again, a few hundred meters away going south. It took refuge from the wind in the bays and worked my way up the shoreline. I was worried about Brian and Maggie out there in the middle of the Strait. I stopped on a beach to eat lunch and a boat came around the corner and a guy jumped ashore and it turns out he is a real life beachcomber! I had been thinking recently how it must be a profitable business to be in, with all these valuable logs washed up on the shore, escaped from log booms. He said no, he has to give half the profits to the co-op, but find his own buyers, and the market is really down right now. He pulled a creosote pole off the beach, which are becoming more valuable now because creosote is banned because it is so toxic. I got video of it!

By this point the wind had died down so I crossed over Johnstone Strait again on glassy calm water, a rarity this time of year.

Midway across, as expected, the park warden Adam bombed over in his zodiac to talk to me. He was nice and interested in my trip and just wanted to check me out and make sure I knew the drill with the whales. I wasn’t in the reserve. He knew my name because he had talked to Brian and Maggie earlier, who were on the beach just to the north of Robson Bight. That’s where I was headin’!

I got over to Bryan and Maggie and decided that since the conditions were so nice I’d put a few more kilometres under my belt before calling it a day – which would turn out to be the biggest mistake of the trip so far. The next morning they had a big bull orca come up and rub on the beach, right in front of them. They were awoken by him in the silent fog. He was there for a half hour. And later in the day while they were fishing off the kelp a mother and calf came in underneath them and went inside the kelp!

Meanwhile, I was three km up the coast in my own protected cove listening to porpoises in the Strait and then having my silence broken by two big cruise ships come by and their wake bouncing around for the next half hour. I recognized the ships from Vancouver, where I had photographed at least one of them, the Coral Princess, many months before docked at Canada Place.

Bryan and Maggie said however that the fishing boats kept them awake at night. Yes, that’s fishing boats in the ecological reserve! Only kayakers and pleasure craft must stay out of Robson Bight, but fishing boats can and do string seine nets right across from the points to catch salmon! There is nothing the rangers can do about this because the ecological reserve is a provincial creation but fisheries are federal. This needs attention. The feds should rectify this situation and work with the provinces to unify protected areas.

The next morning, while Bryan and Maggie were having their intimate moment with the whale in the fog, I was paddling up to Telegraph Cove to phone and meet my mom. I was fighting the winds most of the day and finally rounded the point to see the place right there in front of my eyes! What a relief! Telegraph Cove is small, packed with boats, and tourist oriented, but it has a neat character with a boardwalk all around the cove. It is also expensive with few supplies. For supplies Sayward or Port McNeil are much better. The kayaking community here is very helpful and friendly. I didn’t want to pay $30 for camping so I paddled back to the peninsula sticking out, three km back, and camped there.

The next morning I went back into town and met Bryan and Maggie who showed up a little later, and my mom later still. My mom and I camped in a very windy RV park overlooking the town. It never stops blowing. But we had WiFi internet access all through town for $5 a day.

The next day we all headed into Port McNeil to resupply, and Bryan and I caught lots of Pacific cod off the dock right in the cove. All the ones I caught were too small but Brian caught big ones and we all ate them by the fire at their cheap campsite away from town where the seasonal residents live for the summer.

The next day Bryan and Maggie headed out to the Broughtons with their very heavy kayaks and enough supplies to last them a month and a half. My mom and I instead headed south to that beach in Robson Bight I passed up a few days before….

The winds blew us down there in a few hours and we spent two nights there.

The second day was very relaxing with light winds and lots of orcas, although none came too close to shore. We were both awoken by the big breath of a humpback about 50 yards away just off the kelp line. I got my camera but didn’t see it again. They can hold their breath for a long time.

Coming back the next day proved much more strenuous and we fought the headwinds all day.

We made it into town though and I had a chance to try out my new GoPro POV cam on my kayak. It works well but doesn’t focus underwater properly so I will still use my camcorder for that (although it doesn’t focus well either).

We stayed in the nice campsite in the forest out of the wind and this morning our neighbour blew his nose really loud while I was still asleep, so I woke up quickly to look out my tent to see the whale. Unfortunately there was no whale, just some trees and our neighbour blowing his nose.

In the morning we headed out at 9 am to catch the beginnings of the ebb tide, which we would ride for the next six hours.

We had a strong headwind, which would end up lasting all day. We went through the little side cheater route around the next set of rapids and it was like a 50 meter long river, I could see the gradiant on the water.

Then we were back out into the main channel again with chaotic currents going everywhere.

You just look around for a current going your way and paddle over to it. I got caught in a few whirlpools which were fun.

The main current was going our way but in the bays it goes the other way because you get back eddies. So I would just ride the main current a bit offshore and get slingshot from one point to the next. The headwind was strong and judging by the water it didn’t appear like I was moving. It was frustrating paddling but all I would have to do is look to the trees to see that yes, I was indeed moving.

We made it to Shoal Bay after a day of constant headwinds.

It is at the northern tip of East Thurlow Island and faces up to the mainland up Philips Arm and the Philips River. I had stayed in Shoal Bay many years before when I worked in forestry up the Philips River. It is major grizzly country up Philips Arm and a couple of the people at Shoal Bay had seen one that day at the estuary at the head of the inlet. They got pretty close and the motor on their boat wouldn’t start either after many pulls. Luckily grizzlies don’t seem to be bothered by boats. Apparently what they don’t like is bipedal movement, so all the observation places around have cover from the waist down so the bears can’t see your legs. A guy at the grizzly tour place in Telegraph Cove told me he always tries to ford rivers up to his waist. The bears apparently just see boats as part of the scenery. So I am thinking maybe I should have bought a dress to bring along with me after Telegraph Cove, to avoid a confrontation with a grizzly. Oh well, too late now.

Shoal Bay was like paradise. We arrived just as someone finished mowing the large lawn and let us camp for free. There were about ten boats in the bay, mostly Americans, and it offered a really friendly “pub” which was more like a cottage they allow guests to come in and socialize. And they had free internet! And I remembered from when I was here before seeing lots of Dungeness crab in the sandy bay so I set the trap again and we got lots of crabs too! This place is awesome!

And Shoal Bay has an interesting history. At one point in the distant past it had the largest population north of San Francisco! This was due to the gold mine just up the hill. Now the population is about five. There were mostly Americans on their boats there and we were invited onto a beautiful trimaran built and owned by Howard and his wife, from around Tacoma. They were going to circumnavigate Vancouver Island but the nut on the bolt holding his mast up came loose and the mast fell down so now he is motoring back. It is a very nice boat and Brian wants to someday move to Australia and build a trimaran. The advantage of trimarans and catamarans is their shallow draft which allows you to get into small coves and just beach it during low tide. You can’t do that with a sailboat. Plus I have heard of reports of ocean-going sailboats ramming into whales sleeping just below the surface. I wouldn’t want to do that, it’s not too good for the whale. In a trimaran you’d just whack it and glide over, not cut it in half with your keel. This tour of his boat rekindled my interest in sailing across the Pacific one day.

Earlier in the evening two Americans, they had obviously known each other for a while, got into a heated left versus right political argument about the deteriorating state of the American economy. Americans certainly have some strong opinions these days, and I can see why with the state of their economy, and it will affect Canada too since we mostly service the US, and we haven’t had our bubble burst yet.

Reluctantly, we left Shoal Bay the next morning and rode the tides along to the next set of rapids, but not before first stopping at a fishing lodge which reportedly has great German food.

Unfortunately you have to order several hours in advance but we had some great apple strudel with ice cream. I managed to send off one email. Also here was a hummingbird feeder which at any given moment had about five of them buzzing around. I regret not taking video of it. I also realized that I forgot in Shoal Bay the cable I use to run my computer off AA batteries, but I decided that it would be easier to make a new one in Telegraph Cove than try to get the old cable sent up. And we arrived just in time to watch Spain beat another team in the World Cup, which Bryan was very happy to watch! Out in the middle of the wilderness!

We left a couple hours later and shot the rapids at slack tide which was nothing. We saw some porpoises but Bryan and Maggie seem to have much better luck seeing them up close than I do.

The headwinds again picked up and we crept along the shoreline to the campsite opposite Loughborough Inlet. It was a nice spot in open forest. I was so hungry and tired so I just cracked open the Chunky soup I brought from Big Bay and wolfed that down. As usual, Bryan went out and caught fish.

The next morning greeted us with strong headwinds, and they did not abate all day. Holy cow, was that wind strong. We fought it all day and managed to go eight kilometres. We crossed the channel and from there just inched our way up from bay to bay, powering around the howling points. Most of the time I couldn’t move, I was just paddling to stay in one spot, and then the gusts would lull a bit and I’d move forward some and repeat the procedure. It was actually a real waste of energy, but apparently these northwest winds blow all summer so we could have sat there for a week waiting for them to subside. We finally got to our campsite around a very windy point (I’d say we were going into 35 knot gusts for sure at times), with four foot waves, and my boat handled it fine. This point sported a lone arbutus tree, since we were heading more west towards the drier eastern side of Vancouver Island.

This campsite just screamed bear habitat — a wide grassy beach on a flat creek valley bottom. I was expecting to see one at any time.

But all we had was the howling wind which was really starting to bother me. I just went in my tent for half an hour to get out of it. It was a beautiful spot, just very windy at that time. It had lots of glasswort on the beach, an asparagus-like plant you can eat. You have to boil it lots because it is so salty but I had a lot of it for dinner with no problems.

Bryan had wanted to take the route north up the channel separating Hardwicke Island from the mainland because there is a greater chance of seeing bears there. But we (I) also needed to resupply in Sayward, since if we were going to fight headwinds all the way to Telegraph Cove, I did not have enough food. So we decided to instead head for Johnstone Strait and Sayward. Almost immediately upon leaving our campsite after a convoy of yachts went by and soaked Brian as he was getting gin his kayak, he looked back to the beach and saw a black bear right near where we camped! So he got his wish and we continued on across the channel to a sheltered area where Brian beached and emptied his kayak of water

We crossed Johnstone Strait at Helmcken Island which was uneventful.

and fought the headwinds hard into Kelsey Bay. We had to cross the shallow bay to get to the dock and man were those waves big! What a way to end the day!

We were so hungry. We walked 15 minutes into Sayward and checked out the store which was a vision, and then walked a further 10 minutes up the road to the only restaurant / pub in town. We ordered probably the best hamburger I have ever had. I was so hungry, and we started with a beer on an empty stomach. We all ordered the deluxe with poutine, for like ten bucks! Oh man, we were in euphoria for an hour.

Then we resupplied with food at the store at very good prices, and got a ride back out to Kelsey Bay where we were camped. The winds continued all evening and a few cruise ships went by.