Apparently Orange don't like their pay as you go customers using their phones in Canada, so I won't have any signal until I get to New Zealand… Well I may have some when I back in the USA, but anyway its not worth trying to contact me on that at the moment, so please use David's phone number instead if needs be! Or there's always good old email.
Gina and Conrad have arrived in Canada and for their first few days they organised a sea kayaking trip, which is something that neither of us had done before, so we joined them.
To get to the Broken Group Islands, which is where our 3 day sea kayaking introduction would take place, we needed to take two ferries from Vancouver and several hours drive.
There were 6 of us – Sharon and I, Gina & Conrad, Conrad's sister Claire and their friend, Sarah whose been living out here for 6 months – and we'd hired out 3 double sea kayaks for the adventure. The plan was to see lots of animals and it started well with Gina spotting what she thought was a black dog through her binoculars on the ferry over to the Broken Group. However she had spotted her first black bear over here. Later on a guy from a diving school spotted a whale, and we also saw lots of jumping fish in the water. While waiting for the kayaks to be ready, we saw a jellyfish and lots of starfish including a giant one.
The wildlife we saw included: humpback whales, deer, a river otter, seals, sea lions, mink, porpoises, more tiny jumping fish, bald eagles, slimy gigantic slugs, and lots and lots of starfish of all colours suggesting the 90 species may not be an overestimation. We also saw tracks along a beach which were rather large and very wolf like – however we didn't get to see what made them – I was hoping to hear one howl but no such luck. The whale put on a great show and we saw him bring his head out of the water – it was very impressive. There were other birds that we saw but unfortunately our bird identification isn't quite up to speed yet.
The scenery was wonderful too. It was great to do something different, but we're looking forward to getting back to some rivers now.
Photos will be posted soon.
Sharon and David.
P.S. Thanks to everyone who sent stuff on the Chocolate Express (aka Conrad and Gina's flight), it's great to have loads of English goodies & especially loverly to have cards to open on my (David's) birthday.)
It'a a long way to Skookumchuck,
it's a long way to go…
It's a long way to Skookumchuck,
To the sweetest wave I know.
So flock we did. The tide tip off we had said it'd be good right before we needed to be in Vancouver to meet Gina and Conrad, and given that 'Skook' isn't far from the City, it worked out well. Simon and Cheryl were heading over with their friend Alex and so we tagged along.
The trip started with an exciting 45 minute ferry from the mainland – it really felt like we were going on holiday. The views from the ferry were great, with mountains rising from the water all around us. A 50 mile drive across the peninsula brought us to a beautiful lake with a good, if a little noisy campsite. The heatwave was still with us, so a cool down swim in the lake was needed and a floating log provided amusement as we tried to balance and walk along it.
Conveniently the tide meat that we didn't have to do anything unti lunchtime, which is about when we started our 10 minute paddle out. At a point around the bay from Egmont the sea channel narrows between the mainland and the island and as it does so, it forms a huge series of standing waves when the tide is flowing fast enough.
We arrived just after the slack water point, and got to see the wave build from nothing – it started off flat and built right up to a wave train of a dozen or so of the largest waves I've seen. As it starts to form the ripples get larger and larger, until they're surfable – at this point the longer, faster boats provide good long surfs and the queues are short. As the wave builds and the pile (white bit) gets bigger, the shorter more playful boats come into their own. We'd obviously chosen a good time to go, since there were probably 20 other paddlers around and about the same number of observers.
When the wave is at it's biggest, the water downstream is an almost indescribable mess of churning and bubbling water with nothing better to do than unseat even the most careful paddler. I got knocked off the far side of the wave and one time didn't manage to quite get back in far enough, I managed to stay upright, but couldn't quite fight the huge boils and spent much longer getting back into the eddy than I would like – the locals call this taking the tour. Cheryl didn't fare as well when she took her tour, the water was higher and faster making it even messier and she was eaten by a whirlpool that sucked her out of her boat and spat her out. Eventually. She was safely reunited with her boat and paddled back to shore, cold but otherwise ok. This marked the end of our first day at Skook.
Friday morning started too early when unexpected thunder rolled in and threatened to dampen our drying kit and stoves that had been left set up form the night before. The meanacing thunder crashes never materalised into the heavy deluge we expected, and soon after we started the hike back in, just after lunch, the sun started shining again.
Our timing was spot on again and we arrived just in time to rest a little before kitting up and jumping on. At first it was just the 5 of us on the water, with Sharon catching almost the first surf of the day and impressing the audience no end. Soon the crowds got on the water and the wait increased, but so did the water. It was quite a high tide, which means the wave gets bigger faster, eventually becoming too big to surf. However, before it got too big and the whirlpools became huge we all got some good rides in and then sat around watching paddlers who either hadn't got up as early as us or clearly had more energy.
I'm glad we saved some energy for the paddle back, we decided the 3 mile hike would be too far with a boat on our shoulder, so paddled back around the bays to our launching point in Egmont. It was a hard paddle against the current – it would have been dark had we waited for the slack water – and took about an hour. But we did get to see Seals playing about during the paddle, as well as purple starfish and what we think was a kingfisher.
Skook is a great all day activity, we turned it into two full days, it's one of the best playspots I've been to and set in awesome scenery, it's well worth a visit and would make an impressive spectacle for the non paddling visitor who chose to walk the trail too. Our tides were maxing out at around 17 knots, which is a little too large for it to be ideal, so I'd probably go on smaller tides next time.
Logistics: Getting there from Vancouver is easy, follow signs to Horseshoe Bay, get on Langdale ferry ($50ish return). Once on the Peninsula drive towards Sechelt, this is the last main town and best bet for picking up groceries and petrol. Camping is good at Klein Lake, not far up the road from Egmont and the Egmont Marina does good food, hot showers and has laundry facilities.
Paddle out on a slack tide, ~ 3hrs before the peak flow. Once on the water, turn right and follow the bays around, past a red house, then a chain link fence with “Skookumchuck Provincial Park” sign and then take out at the next point & watch the wave build, getting on when it looks like fun.
Sharon says: Skook is one of those names in kayaking that has an almost mystical quality about it – its where some of the best moves can be seen since the wave is so big and fast. However turning up in creek boats wasn't such a bad idea since the early stages of the wave forming is when its at its glassiest and greenest and thats when I got my surfs. The water is some of the clearest sea water I've ever seen and while sat on top of this magnificent glassy wave, you can clearly see the rock creating the rapid and seaweed dancing underneath you. My Mamba did me well and treated me to long rides, surrounded by snow topped moutains – it is indeed an awesome place, where the seals play as much as the pro-boaters – definitely a place I'll look forward to returning to (especially when I can throw some of the moves there!)
What we got up to when we took a few days off paddling.
On our way up north, we stopped at Mount St Helens and found Apes Cave which promised low temperatures – a pleasure to hear in the heat wave we were in the midst of. The leaflet suggested we would need 2/3 light sources each which seemed a little excessive so armed with headtorches and a gas lamp Cheryl had hired, we headed down and quickly put our fleeces on – it was rather chilly! The walk was interesting for sure, with lots of clambering over boulders and shimmying up an 8 foot lava tube. It was an incredible place to go in to and reassuring that it hadn't been banned for health and safety purposes. Apparently the cave was first explored by boy scouts in the 1950s, I can't imagine what they thought as they walked along this underground lava tube, it was a great way to spend a couple of hours. Climbing out the steps, the warmth soon hit us and the walk back to the car was itself a pleasant experience with the discovery of strawberries along the way.
We paused nearer Mount St Helens and climbed seemingly endless steps to get a better view at the very appropiately named Wind Ridge. From here you could clearly see the dam formed by the last eruption plus an impressive log jam. Smoke could be seen leaving the top of the volcano but thankfully nothing to worry about!
After camping at the Johnson River take out (but not paddling it) we headed up to Mount Ranier National Park where many of the roads had been damaged in floods just a few months before. However the road up to Paradise was open and from here we walked and played amongst the snow, of which there was plenty, and saw a glacier. Again it was a stunning place, but none of us fancied the walk to the summit which would've taken two days – not quite the afternoon stroll we were looking for.
The drive out took us past some impressive falls and we were asked if we were planning to run it – its funny what effect it can have turning up at a tourist sight with kayaks strapped to your roof! However, we're not that daft but it was lovely to be cooled with the mist kicking off the drop.
We soon returned to paddling again which we'll update about soon.
Photos: Underground in the Ape cave – an old lava tube and above ground at the impressive Mount St. Helens volcano. {smoothgallery folder=images/gallery/mtsthelens/}
Some awesome paddling on the OR/WA border {smoothgallery folder=images/gallery/windandwhitesalmon/}
Photos of our wet and windy trip up the Oregon coast and our beautiful weather in Portland. {smoothgallery folder=images/gallery/portland/}
The Little White Salmon is a river I'd heard of, but didn't think I'd get to run this trip – it's got a reputation of being a fairly hard class 5 run, but Simon had run it before and said we had to paddle it. A friend of his who I'd paddled with in Vermont, Rick, joined us, as did Russell, who we'd met in the car park at the White Salmon – both had run it recently, so it was a good group to head downstream with.
The locals had said the water level was too low, but it wasn't. The river starts off with some boulder gardens, building up in difficulty before getting to the waterfall section. The low water made the top very technical, eddies were small and routes weren't easy to see down – it would have taken ages had I not been with people who knew the run.
It was late in the day and light was low, so photos and video weren't coming out, which is a shame since it's an awesome run – the highlights for me were the 10ft left boof move on S-Turn and plugging Wishbone – a super clean 20 footer. The guide book says you will arrive at the take out with “a sweet smile on your face” I did.
The following day, the plan was to hit the Greentruss section of the White Salmon – above the run with Husum falls on – it was another of Simon's recommendations, but Rick and Russell both had other things to be doing, so it'd just be the two of us. I'd not heard of this section before, but I'm not sure why – the run is as good as the Little White, but requires less rock bouncing at this level. Upper zigzag – a twisty rapid with several stoppers to punch – and little brother – another clean waterfall we the highlights on this run.
Both sections were great class 5 runs, in beautiful scenic gorges. 
We spent the 4th on the Wind river, with it's waterfalls and hotsprings – we'll upload a blog entry along with photos shortly, but in the mean time, check out the videos link for some of the action.
Lots of fun on falls on the White Salmon and Wind rivers. The video doesn't show the hotsprings we got to relax in after the falls on the Wind. {google}-2716358920452255234{/google}
We avoided crowds on the 4th July public holiday and found some waterfalls to paddle off. Simon had paddled the Wind before when it was too high to run the main waterfalls section and he enticed us to the river promising lots of clean drops at the low level we had. The section directly below the high road bridge was a little boney, but there were some fun class 3/4 boulder gardens leading down to the first fall with a fish ladder on the left. The fish ladder is a series of small offset weirs with narrow lines and tricky to make eddies, the fall is usually unrunnable and is graded by the guide book as a 6. Sharon quite fancied running the fall, so scouted a line, sent me down to check it out and then followed – we both easily managed to punch the usually nasty keeper stopper with ease. Simon and Cheryl both ran the fish ladder & I walked back up and practised my eddy hopping too.
The waterfalls section was very impressive, there was a small enterance rapid, 2 drops, a rock slide and then a final drop. Simon, Sharon and I ran the first drops, stopping in the small pool above the weir so we could walk back up again. Sharon swapped over with Cheryl and took photos and video while we had a couple more laps on the falls. The video gallery has a video showing the 2 drops and rockslide, and the photo gallery has a selection of shots. More photos are available at http://foreignwaters.blogspot.com
After the adreanaline of running the waterfalls we were glad to get to the hot springs and sit in a pool of hot water for quite a while. We had a bottle of chilled Reisling that we'd picked up from a local winery and had a very relaxing afternoon. More rivers should have hot springs after the hard rapids.