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Kayak trip part 3: the route

This trip was a 6 day/5 night course launching from Lund and going counter clockwise around West Redonda and Cortes. On the map I used different colours for different days.

Day 1: Lund to Refuge Cove. My arms were absolutely killing as I got used to the paddling technique, and I was exhausted by end of day. The weather was misty and windy which made the trip seem incredibly daunting.

Day 2: Refuge Cove to Walsh Cove. This day was sunny and my strength was back, and the site was beautiful. Camping on tiny islands and storing food in the boats meant wildlife was near-zero concern. It was a good day to go for a cold dip.

Day 3: Walsh Cove to Rendezvous Island South. This was the worst day for everyone else. The weather was downpour and the water was rough. But, we got to pass Toba Inlet which was amazing. On this trip was me and my partner, and our guide (a dear friend of ours) and his girlfriend.

Day 4: Rendezvous Island South to Carrington Bay. This was a short, sunny day with the wind on our backs. We even got to sail a bit with a tarp. The lagoon we stayed at is near the rave site on Cortes. This was the best beach for a dip. This is also where our guides girlfriend drunkenly told me about her affair and bullied my boyfriend.

Day 5: Carrington Bay to the Twin Islands. This was a 27km paddle in the heat. When there's no wind it feels like paddling in molasses. We passed Whaletown and Plunger Passage and saw a humpback in the distance. We got cell service again in this area, and timed the tide right to stop at Sharkspit for lunch. The most welcome part of this day was going around Smelt Bay Provincial Park and using a toilet and sink.

Day 6: Twin Islands back to Lund. The last day was bittersweet. We stopped at North Copeland for lunch, same as we did the first day, except this time I was much more confident steering and getting out on my own. We used double kayaks so we had twice the power, but we lagged behind our guide and his girlfriend since his paddling was way more efficient than ours. It's always a bummer to end a trip, but nice to get away from the girlfriend.

We spent a few days in Powell River afterward to see the salmon run and to shop at Ikea in Vancouver before heading home

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Kayak trip part 2: the paddlin

See the next post for route

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Kayak trip part one: getting there

Pictured:

1. The 5am Earl's Cove - Saltery Bay ferry sunrise as a new wildfire started in the area

2. Said ferry very empty, there were no vehicles behind ours

3. The Horseshoe Bay - Langdale ferry at 12am. We got in line at 2pm for the ferry, but turns out a loading berth was broken and one ferry was down. We were lucky to get on the last sailing and it was spooky being on the ocean at night.

4. Our plan was to make the first crossing and catch the last Earl's Cove ferry. That obviously did not happen. We drove the 2 hour stretch between crossings and got to the Earl's Cove crossing at 3am. We used our clothes to block light, set up camping gear, and napped before the first sailing.

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Vancouver Island (Parksville, French Beach, Chin Beach, and the Jurassic Forest), summer 2023

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Parksville area (and the Hope McDonald's), spring 2023

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Kelowna wildfires, 2023

In a few hours we went from watching the smoke from our bikes to hurriedly packing and evacuating when the fire jumped Lake Okanagan into our neighbourhood. We were so scared because resources were stretched so thin and so much of our life had to be left behind. It was an absolute feat of firefighting in gusts of 70 km/h winds that we didn't lose everything that night and the next day as the fire spread further east.

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Cathedral Grove, BC

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Big White, BC

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Camping high in the mountains with endless views!

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Glacier National Park, Montana by David Dinette

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