2010.02.171 - Telegraph Bay

The winds were up higher than forecast, and a stiff breeze was blowing right off the water into the usually sheltered Telegraph Bay and our planned launch point.

So we decided to stick to the bay. Louise is not a confident paddler and abhors the wind and Paula has inner ear issues and occasional balance troubles and she abhors rough water, so it was a good chance to safely practice paddling in windier conditions than we normally do. Richard however abhors anything with the word "practice" in it and set out by himself on a quest to find calmer waters. (He eventually found a new car.)

One of the things we did was practice something I had read early in the week over at The Gnarlydog. There, he posed a question to a number of experienced kayakers: In the event that I should be caught out on the water in a group of 6-8 paddlers (too far from shore to be reached in time) what would be my best way to ride out a short storm? The post makes for an interesting read and I recommend you check it out. Nigel Foster suggested a couple of training exercises, including this one.

"Another useful practice session in similar conditions is to paddle a figure-of-eight path around two anchored floats. It gives practice in turning in every direction to the wind and shows how effectively you can control the kayak in that strength of wind. The more practice, usually the quicker and more effectively you can do it without getting blown onto the beach."

And that's exactly what we had here in the bay. There were a couple of floats out that we did some figure eights around.


We went to the edge of the bay and enjoyed surfing the waves back in.


We also saw otters (I couldn't get any pictures), 3 deer (I couldn't get any pictures), and two eagles arguing over a tree (yeah, that's right -- no pictures). But we did see some geese, and I did get a picture. (Fortunately, these geese were of the pacifist variety, unlike this one.)


Finally came the best part of the day, a warm drink at Olive Olio's!




Trip length: 2.18 km
YTD: 8.22
More pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.

2010.01.170 - Thetis Lake

It was supposed to be sunny, but last night's wind and rain storm hadn't quite finished passing through and when the dawn broke, it did so behind wet grey clouds. Which was okay actually, because we hadn't really planned for a major excursion today. Today was the first time out with our new paddle wheels, so all we wanted to do was a quick jaunt somewhere to work out the bugs of loading and unloading the kayaks onto our new (to us) vehicle. Of the other regulars, Richard was also only interested in a quick paddle and Paula was spending the day helping a friend in a flower shop sell Valentine's Day flowers. Richard had suggested Thetis Lake, and after a long lay-off from the water this seemed like a fine idea to Louise and I.
We were able to work out the transportation kinks and I think this is going to turn out to be a fine kayaking vehicle.


At Thetis, we quickly put in and started paddling. There wasn't much in the way of wildlife around, just this dogfish.


The reason why the animals weren't around became plainly obvious a few minutes into our paddle as the sky ripped open and we were pelted with rain. Cold winds whipped up as well and we laughed at our lousy weather luck.


The windy squall was brief and a few minutes later the sun finally dealt the clouds a fatal blow. A modest beginning, but my 2010 paddling season is finally underway.




Trip length: 6.04 km
More pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.

Paddle Stats 2009

Here's how this year compares to past years (in percentage of paddling days):


Some things to note:
- It was a sunnier year, up 15% from last year and double the sunshine of the crappy weather year we had in 2007.
- Interestingly, days that are just cloudy show a decidedly downward trend. Of course, that shouldn't be a surprise this year with all the sunshine, but interestingly this trend occurred doing years when sunshine was down.
- Weather-related cancellations were down this year probably for a couple of reasons. First, as we have gained experience we have ventured out into weather conditions that we might not have before, and we've been become a little more adept at planning safer Plan B paddles when the weather forecasts aren't looking so good. Second, my definition of a weather-related cancellation for this chart is if we'd made plans to paddle, and on the day of the paddle we've decided the conditions weren't acceptable. This year we changed tactics slightly and didn't even bother making plans some weekends based on the forecast. So those occasions wouldn't have counted as cancellations and that may have skewed the figures a bit. (The decision to cancel a paddle can be made at the launch site, or in while still in bed under the blankets and listening to the radio. Many a paddle has been cancelled this way. Especially in December. But I digress.)

None of this is terribly scientific of course, but it is interesting to see long term trends, even if they are as subjective as this.

I hit the water 38 times this year. Not as much as I would have liked, as I was held off the water by eye surgery at the start of the year, and some minor back issues at the end of the year, as well as the van blowing up, essentially leaving us vehicle-less for kayaking purposes. Still, not a bad total as some unlucky people never get on the water.


You may well be asking yourself just how far I've paddled over my short paddling career. Or you may well be asking yourself if you want a cheese sandwich. Actually, I really don't know what you're asking yourself -- what am I, a mind reader?
The answer to how far I've paddled is 1162 km. You can see the yearly breakdown on this handy dandy chart:


Now it's time to see about getting some wheels so we can get those kayaks back in the water. However you are on your own for that cheese sandwich.

2009.38.169 - Spawning On Sunday

After a couple of weeks off, we return to the waters of The Gorge.

We are deep into autumn now. Many of the tress on the We(s)t Coast are evergreens so we don't see the dramatic changes in leave colours that occurs further east in Ontario and Quebec, but if you look carefully you see some shades of yellow and a splash of red here and there.

Richard returned after a summer of sailing, bike riding, and scootering. Something had to give and it turned out to be kayaking, but he's here today under a cool but sunny sky, putting his boat in the water and about to discover if he remembers how to do any of this kayaking stuff.
While Louise and Paula got ready, Richard and I took a quick paddle down to Tillicum Bridge to check out the current.


We rejoined Paula and Louise and started down towards Portage Inlet. It wasn't long until Paula spotted....

...a deer on the shore. Louise and I saw a deer in our backyard a couple of days ago, and today we saw this one across The Gorge on the edge of a house construction site. I'm not sure if it's the same one; this one seems to have a bigger rack on it. Although there are lots of trees, shrubs and green space in this area, it is an urban area so I hope these deer are able to find their way back to a more suitable area before they become someone's hood ornament. And I hope we leave enough land undeveloped so they don't have to come wandering into urban areas looking for food.


And soon after that we saw cormorants in a tree. One was posing in a very seasonal Hallowe'en style. Was he trying on his bat costume? Maybe he thought he should go as a cat this year and was trying his best to make himself look big.
Most likely he was just drying his wings. But they must have been very wet because he kept them outstretched like that for the entire time it took us to paddle by him.


As we moved into Portage Inlet from The Gorge, we noticed how high the water was. We were on a flood tide, plus we'd just had a couple of days of monsoon rain. So conditions were right to try to paddle up Colquitz Creek.

Richard and I pulled a little further ahead, but soon the way was blocked with brambles and bushes...

...and since none of us had machetes handy, we headed back.


Back in Portage Inlet, we found the swan family, two adults and three juveniles, enjoying the lovely morning.


With the water high, we decided to head to Craigflower Creek and see if we could get around the tree trunk and into the tunnel. We had tried a couple of months ago, but our big boats couldn't sneak through the narrow channel between the tree trunk and the shore. But it appeared that since then part of the bank collapsed just enough that we poke our way through. Richard made it through...

...as did Louise.

Then the tunnel awaited.

It goes under the Trans Canada Highway just east of Helmcken Road. The highway is about six or seven lanes wide at this point.

We made it through to the other side....

...when Paula said that she saw a fish swim by. Louise saw one, too. I saw a splash. Oh crap, it's a salmon stream! Coho salmon were taking a break here before heading further upstream to spawn. We quickly turned around...

....and headed back down the tunnel.


As we paddled back towards the inlet, the surprise discovery of salmon in this stream (and it is a surprise -- 40 years ago The Gorge was so polluted you would rarely find any fish in it, let alone salmon) also solved another mystery we were seeing today -- harbour seals. We'd seen four or five seals in The Gorge today heading into Portage Inlet. Seeing the occasional seal in The Gorge is not unheard of, but today it was almost like rush hour. We realized that they were chasing the salmon. In fact we saw a couple of seals splashing around hunting down some salmon on the far side of the inlet. No pictures, alas.



Trip Length: 16.11 km
YTD: 336.25
More pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.

2009.37.168 - The Gorge Redux

Another sunny Sunday, another paddle in The Gorge. With no solution to the dead van problem, we are still limited to the home waters of The Gorge. Paula joined Louise and I for another paddle under clear warm skies.


We headed down to the narrows at Tillicum Bridge and paddled through. Today there was just a small current flooding current, and not the often seen roaring rapids.


We weren't the only paddlers out. This outrigger canoe passed us a few times, and we saw other kayakers enjoying this gorgeous Autumn weekend. There won't be many more weekends like this so we better enjoy them when they happen.


There were lots of geese out today. I'm guessing that a lot were passing through on their way south, although there is a sizable number who live here all year.



And later, we caught up with the local swan family. We were a little concerned as we saw the parents and only two of the (now very large) baby swans. We'd seen all five swans last weekend, so we eared that something might have happened to the other baby swan.

But a few minutes later we found the final baby feeding on his own. It looks like he's all grown up now and has moved out of his parents' basement.




Trip Length: 8.91 km
YTD: 320.14
More pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.

2009.36.167 - The Gorge

The last weekend of summer. And a glorious weekend it was. Warm temperatures, clear skies, calm winds. All weekends should be like this.
The only downside is that with the death of the van last week, we temporarily have no wheels to take our kayaks anywhere. But perhaps I should amend that. We have no motorized wheels to take our kayaks anywhere; we do have our kayak wheel carts to push our kayaks down the hill to launch on the Gorge. Paula and her inflatable joined Louise and I in our Deltas for a paddle under bright sunny skies.


We saw this cormorant high up in this tree, usually at the height where the eagles sit. Speaking of eagles, we've hardly seen any around the last few weeks. We think they're probably congregating near salmon streams for some easy pickings as the salmon are now running upriver to spawn.


These ducks found a nice spot to sit and laze away the day.


As we moved into Portage Inlet, we saw the swans floating towards us....

...but they weren't coming to us, but to a family that had called them over to give them a little breakfast. These just might be the best-fed swans on the planet.


The cat looked on jealously.
Then the cat soon became interested in me: a huge half-person, half-fish. I bet he thought that he could feed on me for a year.


We wandered up Colquitz Creek to Admirals Road where this new bridge is being built. It was supposed to have opened two weeks ago, but it's still closed. It looks finished. Skateboarders are enjoying the new pavement on it.


On the way back, this heron posed for a few quick snaps.


As we neared the end of our paddle we spotted Brian and Marie on their recumbent tandem, and Brian hopes to join us for a paddle next week.



Trip Length: 8.14 km
YTD: 311.23
More pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.