Shearwater, B.C.

The journey from Prince Rupert to Shearwater (like all the other legs) presented new and old challenges. This was the longest leg of our trip distance-wise, we covered close to 200 miles in 12 days.

We left our cozy, almost too easy hostel in Prince Rupert in the hot sun and calm winds. But as the third day came and we entered narrow, cliffy Grenville Channel the clouds rolled in. The following week of paddling offered beautiful narrow channels, waterfalls cascading and crashing into the current driven ocean and scarce landing or camping opportunities. We were also entering the rainiest (by far) area of our trip known as the Great Bear Rainforest, home to the rare white black bear, the kermode, or spirit bear.

We heard that these channels had strong currents, lots of rain, and funneled wind. We heard right. Here are some highlights (and lowlights):

Two small human outposts broke up the wilderness. We stopped in the ruins of an old village called Butedale. We slept on a concrete slab and reloaded our water supply. The caretaker sees most parties that are paddling the inside passage each year and has been doing so for the last ten years. He told us we were the first he's seen going north to south this season and only a handful have come through heading north. It has been a slow season. The first stop after the narrow channels was a small fishing and tourism village of about 450 called Klemtu. We camped at their "campground", the gravel parking lot next to a drainpipe and the tourism office. But after a week of rain the sun came out and we got to dry our gear and ourselves.

One day after it had been raining for about 3 or 4 days already we pulled up to a rocky beach after a long day of fighting current in Grenville Channel. We set our tent up with our tarp over it amidst the driftwood at the top of the beach. We made some mac and cheese and went to sleep soundly at 8:30 ready for a good night of sleep to wake at 3:30 so we could be on the water at dawn. At about 1:00 AM I woke up to the subtle lapping sound of water. I casually glanced out of the tent and saw reflections on the sand.
"That's weird" I thought. I reached out and found about 2-3 inches of water just outside the tent. It had been raining all night and still was and at first I thought maybe a puddle had built up. I looked out the other side of the tent.
Yep...you guessed it...we miss judged the high tide and us, our tent and all of our stuff were floating in the ocean. I think I will have nightmares about what that realization felt like for a long time. We quickly through all our stuff up onto the drift logs in the pouring rain. We made sure we at least had all of our stuff, even though it was now soaking wet. The tide then shortly went back out and we reset up our drenched gear in the exact same place and laid in our sleeping bags for another 2 hours before we set off.

That was probably the worst experience I have had yet on this trip. But 4 days later the sun came out and we got to dry our stuff and it all ended up being fine. Also that morning we got to experience one of the coolest things we've seen. Another humpback feeding about 20 feet away from us, multiple times this time, and we recorded it too! They are big...

Once we left Klemtu the weather was pretty nice again and we had just a couple days to Shearwater. As we were listening to the extended forecast though we heard a huge storm coming in. Gale warnings all along the coast, as much as 40 knot winds predicted. So we ended up combining our last two days into one (helped by no wind and perfectly timed currents) and paddled 27 miles to beat the storm.

All and all it was an amazing leg, we saw some beautiful forest, cliffs and waterfalls. We managed the rain and our aching bodies during a week of long paddling days. Except for waking up in the ocean we had high spirits the whole time. And now the storm is definitely here, we are eating in the restaurant relaxing in our hotel and watching the flags violently whip in the wind and we are glad we are waiting out the storm and not out in it. Hopefully tomorrow morning we can set off for the crux of the trip, another long (11-12 days or more depending on weather) through more open ocean and around Cape Caution to the east side of Vancouver Island.

(P.S. this is one of the oldest, slowest computers ever and we will not be able to upload photos...hopefully next time!)