We made it to Powell River!!

 First leg of the trip is done! San Juan Island to Powell River. 9 days and about 125 miles. What a time it’s been. Two huge crossings, lots of wind, and some very nice people highlighted the week. Here’s a day-by-day breakdown of the trip so far. 

Day 1: On April 18th we were surprised at a turnout of 7 people to see us off. We popped a bottle of sparkling cider and christened the bows of our boats while standing in the rain. After hugging everyone good-bye, it was finally time to get in our boats and go. That first day we paddled in the rain as we headed to Stuart Island. There was practically no wind and the rain was peaceful. We made it to Stuart quickly and set up camp in the rain. This is a paddle we’ve each done many times, so it felt pretty familiar and comfortable. 

Day 2: It rained and rained all night, but when it was time to wake up, it magically stopped! Due to the currents, we didn’t need to start paddling until 11am. That day we were going to tackle our first crux of the trip- Boundary Passage. This four mile stretch of open water is not only the US/Canada border, but also a major shipping land. After watching the VesselFinder App, we figured we should sit tight and wait for the Green Bay, a 700 foot long vehicle-carrier to pass before we crossed. 

Once Green Bay passed us, we set off towards Canada. Boundary pass was glass. No wind or waves bothered us during the entire crossing-what a breeze! Next up was Bedwell Harbor, our customs check in. But no customs officer was there to greet us. Instead, there was a phone so we could talk to a customs agent based somewhere in Vancouver. 

After checking in over the phone, we headed up around North Pender Island and across to Mayne Island. Due to our late start, we didn’t end up making it to our camp on Galiona Harbor until 8:40pm, just after sunset. We were exhausted and ready for bed. 

Day 3: Due to our late night, we got a late start. Hit the water at 10am to a bright sunny day. Fought a light north breeze throughout the day. Enjoyed the sun and the views after two days of rain. We got to camp around 6pm, a spot called Blackberry Point on Valdes Island. This sandy little west facing beach was an absolute perfect campspot, with views of the sunset right from the tent. 

Day 4: Awoke to some clouds, but a tail wind. Our goal today was Newcastle Island, near Nanaimo. We were motivated by the prospect of a burger and beer in the town of Nanaimo so we made pretty good time. As we got closer to Nanaimo, we started paddling through lots of industrial areas. Huge paper and logging mills lined the shore and we paddled past a handful of docked corgo ships. We were surprised to see a bunch of sea lions on the floating logs by the mill. They seemed pretty used to people and it was cool to see them not interested in us!

Once we reached Newcastle at 2:45pm, we had a small dilemma. There is a foot ferry from Newcastle to Nanaimo, but the last ferry from town leaves at 4:30. With the tide far out, we were looking at close to a 45 minute paddle one-way if we wanted to kayak. We opted for the ferry, and hustled our boats up to the driftwood and quickly changed out of our dry tops and into town clothes. We hustled down to the ferry dock and hopped on the 3:15 ferry into town. After asking the ferry captain what restaurant we should go to for a quick burger, he suggested Lighthouse Pub and bistro. It was perfect. A burger with bacon, onion, mushroom, and cheese, and the manager, Thom, even bought our beers when he heard we were kayaking the Inside Passage. 

Day 5: The winds and rain picked up today. A 15-20kt south wind was blowing up the coast, and we decided to head up 12 miles to Southey Island. The south wind helped us make good time, but some of the wind swells coming behind us were massive and we were able to get some surfing in (nerve wracking at times). When we hit Icarus Pt., there was a point break pretty far off the point. We didn’t feel comfortable paddling  through 4 foot breaking waves, and the swells were absolutely MASSIVE outside of the break, in the Strait. So we landed, and portaged all our gear about 200 yards around the point. From there, we continued on to Southey Island for the night. The wind was forecast to die that night, and some point tomorrow a north wind was forecast to build. 

Day 6: Alarms went off at 5am and we were in the water just before 7am. The water was glass, with no wind- a stark difference to the day before. Today wewere  tackling the Strait of Georgia. A massive 9 mile wide crossing, with a few islands to use as stepping stones. We made quick time over to the Ballenas Islands, two miles off shore. After a quick break and admiring some sleeping sea lions, we headed out for Sangster Island, 5 miles away. 

About 30 minutes into the crossing, a light north wind started up. At first it wasn’t bad at all, but every minute it seemed to be stronger and the waves became more and more angry. Pretty soon, we were fighting 15-20 knot winds and paddling into 2-3 ft wind waves. Sangster Island never seemed to get closer, but slowly it did. After almost 2.5 hours, we finally made it. A very nice sheltered cove on the SE side greeted us and we got our for a snack and a break. 

Two more miles to Lasquiti Island and we were finished with the crossing. From here we paddled around Lasquiti and into a super pretty little archipelago. The steep walls in the archipelago made for some great low tide paddling with plenty of urchins and sea stars to check out. We even saw a bat seastar, one neither of us had seen before. That night we camped on Jedidiah Island where we even found Morel mushrooms right in our camp, yum! 

Day 7: Wind, wind, wind. The forecast called for the 30kt winds to die down a little after noon, so we had a slow morning. Hit the water at 1pm and fought the wind for almost 10 miles to Davie’s Bay for camp. By the winds died down for sunset and we ate our dinner on a point with a beautiful sunset. 

Day 8: More wind. An earlier start put us in Gillies Bay around 12pm. A small community on Texada Island. The trouble now is that Gillies is our last place to sleep before Powell River. The stretch from Gillies to P. River is about 20 miles long, super exposed, and has a 5 mile crossing from Texada to the main land. 

Upon landing in Gillies Bay, we quickly started taking to a retired couple, Dic and Lynne. They’ve both lived on Texada since the 70’s. Lynne has us come in for hash browns, eggs, and coffee-the best breakfast we had in a while.

Lynne worked at the Texada Island Mine and Dic was a logger his whole life. These two industries dominate the economy on Texada. During his spare time, Dic was a beachcomber for years. Meaning he took his boat out and went for very long walks on desolate beaches throughout BC. And on those beaches he looked for anything that might be there. Their yard was absolutely FILLED with bouy’s, signs, rope, chains, oars, even Canoe’s that he has found on beaches. Brooke saw a lot of her dad and grandpa in Dic, especially since they were both collected a lot of “stuff”. 

 At this point Brooke and I accepted that we weren’t going to paddle the 20 miles to P. River today and we might as well enjoy our time in Gillies Bay. Lynne is the current president of the Texada Island Museum -so much mining history! We hopped in their car and took a tour of Texada Island. Dic and Lynne were great. Their kindness, humor, and willingness to help was amazing. 

The winds were not forecast to die down the next day. Dic offered to drive us and our kayaks across the island to Van Anda where we could avoid the exposed north tip of Texada. So we rigged a way to put our 18 foot long kayak into his 8 foot truck bed (with the tailgate down). 

That night we splurged on a hotel room and a restaurant dinner. Such luxury. First bed in 8 days ensured we slept like babies.

Day 9: After sleeping in, we walked across the street to Dic and Lynne’s. They were gardening when we got there and we enjoyed views of a windy Strait of Georgia. Wait! What’s that!? Killer whales!! Way off in the distance, blows and dorsal fins could be seen amidst the white caps. We grabbed Dic’s spotting scope. There they were! Some locals said that J Pod had been around, so it’s possible it was them. We only saw about 7 or 8 whales, but they were spread out and far away, so it’s possible we missed a lot of them. 

After eating some soup,we drove across the island to Van Anda and waved good bye to Dic and Lynne. They are taking their boat out next week so we are hoping to cross paths again to say hello.  2 hours of paddling later and we were in Powell River, and at the campground. 

Thanks everyone for reading. I’m not sure if I’ll do a day-by-day for each leg, but the coffee shop in Powell River is pleasant so we are enjoying our time sitting, sipping coffee, and eating croissants. Until next time! Our next leg is to Port Hardy. We’ll be going though Desolation Sound and the Discovery Islands. A place we are so excited to paddle through. 

-Casey and Brooke