Copeland Islands Kayak Trip Part I

June 7, 2023August 13, 2024 / Maria / 5 Comments

I finally crossed off a major bucket list item! Seth and I have been dying to visit Desolation Sound Marine Park since we got our kayaks and have had to cancel the trip 3 times in the last 2 years. I feel like this has been a common theme with a lot of my planned trips since the pandemic, but we finally made it happen over the May Long weekend this year!

For those who aren’t familiar, Desolation Sound is a marine park north of Powell River on the Sunshine Coast. It’s located at the tip of the Malaspina Peninsula, which is where the northern trailhead is for the Sunshine Coast Trail. So it was a familiar location for me after making 2 trips to Powell River last summer to complete the SCT.

Originally we were focused on visiting Desolation Sound, but as I did some more research, I discovered it’s really easy to tag a second marine park onto the trip and we added Copeland Islands Marine Park to our itinerary as well. Here’s a map of the area:

Doing both parks in one visit requires a bit more coordination, but it ended up being easier than I anticipated. Getting to Powell River is always a bit of a pain, but we caught the ferry out of Horseshoe Bay on Thursday evening before the long weekend, following by immediately driving up to Earls Cove to catch the second ferry to Saltery Bay. There’s a provincial campground at Saltery Bay and we stopped to sleep there for the night. We didn’t book in advance since it was still Thursday and we were able to just drive in, but I always recommend getting reservations where possible on the weekends.

It’s a nice little campground at Mermaid Cove, but we didn’t stay for long and headed straight for Powell River instead. After a quick restock at Canadian Tire for some items we forgot, we drove north to Lund (~30 min drive). Lund is a tiny little community that is easily accessible in any type of vehicle, though once you go north from Lund, you should really have high clearance 4WD. We unloaded our kayaks in Lund and then I called Powell River Taxi for a transfer from Okeover Arm back to Lund. I was expecting to have to wait a while for a car to come up to Lund, but there happened to be a driver nearby, so I rushed the car over to Okeover Arm to park it for our return.

Okeover Arm is on the other side of the Malaspina Peninsula and less than a 10 minute drive from Lund. It’s also a paved road and easily accessible. There’s a public wharf with parking registration if you’re using the wharf (either with a power boat or self-propelled). If you drive a little further past the public wharf, you’ll arrive at Powell River Kayaks and you can rent kayaks from there.

I didn’t have any trouble finding the parking lot at Okeover, but figuring out how to pay for parking was super confusing. Start by driving down to the dock and at the end of the wharf there is a little shed with parking registration, you take a ticket, leave your money in the envelope, and put it in the drop box. It’s not really that complicated, but I had to tear my car apart looking for a pen to fill out the parking slip, so make sure you bring a pen with you! Parking is only $5 a day, so it’s a very good deal! As for camping permits, they’re also $5 a night, per person, which you can get online, but they don’t start charging until June 1 (in 2023 at least).

But lets get to the fun part, kayaking!

I returned to Lund around noon and Seth had the kayaks mostly packed. It’s a bit confusing where to launch from because kayaks aren’t allowed on the boat ramp, but there’s a small beach behind the grocery store and we launched from there. Tide was very low, so it was a bit tricky, but there was very little wind, which was lovely!

What I liked about this trip was that, once you launched, you were pretty much immediately in the wilderness. We saw a black oystercatcher within 5 minutes of paddling (special to us because Seth did his M.Sc thesis on them) and more exciting, we saw our first sea lion within 30 minutes of paddling!! We’ve never seen a sea lion from our kayaks before, so it was exciting and a little intimidating. They’re a lot bigger than seals, but fortunately this guy kept his distance. We can’t be sure, but Seth thinks it was a Steller Sea Lion. We ended up seeing 3 in total over the course of the weekend, though we heard them from some of our campsites as well.

In general, my understanding is that the Copeland Islands are more susceptible to adverse weather conditions than the route that goes through Okeover Inlet because it’s not sheltered and can get a lot windier. Our experience with wind was that it’s definitely calmer in Okeover Inlet, but that Okeover can get some pretty strong currents depending which way the tide is flowing up the inlet. Timing is really important, so give special consideration to the tides and wind when selecting your route. If windy, I’d stick with Okeover, but leave when the tide is going out.

Fortunately there was very little wind along the Copeland Islands when we visited, so we had a really nice paddle through the marine park. We followed the coast until we hit the islands and then immediately crossed over to paddle along the islands. Our experience with the marine parks was that it’s really important to pay attention to the tides. At high tide, there’s not a lot of beaches to land on and some of the campsites can even be tricky to get to; but at low tide, there are a lot more beaches and potential places to explore. The difference between low and high tide on our trip was 4.5m! So the difference can be quite extreme.

Because the tide was very low when we started paddling, we took a break pretty early after arriving at the islands to eat our lunch on one of the beaches. The beach was absolutely covered in oysters! You are allowed to harvest them with a fishing license, which would have been amazing, but there was a red tide warning in effect, which makes it very dangerous to eat any shellfish, so we just enjoyed with our eyes.

Low tide exposes a lot more islands and we had fun paddling up to the campsites. We were moving pretty slow on Day 1 because of all the provisions we had packed into our kayaks. There wouldn’t be any freshwater sources on our entire 4 day trip, so we had about 35L of water (or 70 pounds) between our two kayaks, plus food and camping equipment! So I definitely felt sluggish on the first day, but it encouraged us to drink a lot of water. It was very hot (high 20’s), so this was probably a good thing!

The first campsite is Middle Copeland Island. This campground is pretty exposed and while it has several tent pads, there’s not a lot of shade. I’d read online that North Copeland Island was nicer, so that was our final destination for Day 1. I don’t think anyone camped at the Middle Island that night, but there were several groups at the North Island. Fortunately there’s a lot of tent pads, so it didn’t feel crowded at all.

We saw some kayaks landing at the south beach on the Island as we approached. There’s two access points, so we decided to go around to the north beach to land our kayaks. Unfortunately we didn’t realize that with the low tide, the cluster of islands around North Copeland all become one big island, so we had to paddle around all of them and weave our way into the beach. There’s 3 main sections to the island, with a cluster of tent pads on the south, a few on the north, and then a bunch more on the west head. I wanted to camp at the head, but after we landed, we couldn’t find any way to get over there and ended up camping on the north side. It was a great choice as we had more shade and an incredible view! Plus all the other kayaks camped on the south side, so we had it all to ourselves. A motorboat landed on the head later in the evening and dropped off a few families, so I think that’s the only real way to access that area unless you land your kayak on the rocks.

Unloading at low tide was a bit of a pain in the ass though. The beach was huge, so it took us a few trips to move all our gear up to the island and then we found one small grassy landing to store our kayaks. But overall, I loved North Copeland Island! I think it may be my favourite site on the trip. We arrived around 2:30pm after ~10km of paddling, so we had lots of time to enjoy and explore the island. I set up my hammock and watched as the tide started to come in. Once it got high enough, I decided to go for a swim and was shocked by how warm the water was! It was still only May, but after 2 weeks of consistently hot weather, it was incredibly warm and very comfortable for swimming. It honestly felt like it was mid-summer! Since visiting, I did a bit more research and apparently Desolation Sound gets some of the warmest water north of Mexico! Not sure if I believe that or not, but the evidence pointed to yes.

I’m honestly not sure how we passed so much time on this trip. I didn’t really do anything on the island besides swim and lounge around. I didn’t read at all, but I was totally content to just sit in my chair or lie in my hammock and watch nature. It’s weirdly compelling to slowly watch the tide come up and we had a friendly seal hanging around all day. Seth did some exploring on the beach and we generally just took it easy, which was lovely.

The island itself is pretty interesting. It’s a decent size, but a lot of it isn’t really accessible to explore. From our tent pad, we could climb up to the top of the island and we spent most of golden hour up there enjoying the view. Before sunset, we decided we would go for a sunset paddle and since the tide was now so high, we were able to easily launch the kayaks. It was the nicest sunset of the trip and the water was dead calm, so we enjoyed paddling around for a half hour before heading to bed. It stayed warm into the evening and because we were so low in elevation, we slept with the fly off the tent to enjoy the view and the stars. The wind picked up a bit overnight, but it was a great first day of the trip! Check back for Part II.

Elfin Lakes Trex Backpacking Trip

February 9, 2023August 13, 2024 / Maria / 2 Comments

Am I really going to write yet another post about Elfin Lakes? My blog, my rules, so yes I am.

I always say that the Skyline II Trail in Manning Park is my favourite hike, but I might have to eventually cede the number one spot to Elfin Lakes because I never get tired of visiting. I’ve been in Autumn, I’ve been in Winter, I’ve backpacked to Opal Cone, I’ve backpacked to Mamquam Lake. It’s not even my first time going with Guide Girls. The first time I went with girl guides, I accompanied a group from the North Shore as a back-up guider. This time, I took my own troop for a one night trip in late September. But it’s always interesting no matter when you go because the weather makes it a different experience every time!

Both of my trips with girl guides took place on the last weekend in September, but the first trip dumped about 15cm of snow on us, while this trip was sunny and warm enough for shorts! Trex is a special ops unit in Guiding that only does outdoor adventure (as opposed to the full program). I’ve wanted a trex unit for years, so I finally started my own in New West last year and we focused on a backpacking series for our first year. We hiked to Viewpoint Beach in Golden Ears in June, 3 Brothers Mountain in Manning Park in August, and Elfin Lakes in Garibaldi Park in September to finish the series.

It was the longest distance they had done carrying their backpacks, but they did very well. It was pretty cloudy and chilly when we started, but we made good time going up towards the Red Heather Hut. We’d been warned of bears by the park rangers, so we made sure to be loud on the way up and didn’t see any, but some of the trex were really nervous about it.

We stopped for a nice hot lunch at the hut before continuing on to the lake. From there things got interesting. The trail branches when you leave the hut, with the mountain bike trail on top and the hiking trail below it. We immediately ran into a mama bear with cubs, but you’re probably not surprised to hear that bears are even more afraid of a noisy group of 10 girls than we were of it, so they quickly scampered. They were the only bears we saw on the way up, but we saw a lot more coming back down and I think our final bear count at the end of the weekend was 10 bears! Definitely a record for me. They weren’t interested in people at all though and were only interested in bulking up on the late season berries.

I love the hike from Red Heather Hut to Elfin Lakes. It’s so scenic as you traverse up and over the ridge. Trex enjoyed it too and they made really good time to the hut. The sleeping hut is still closed due to COVID, but there are 50 tent pads you can avail of instead. We set up our tents and had lots of time to relax and soak in the views. We had an earlier supper so that we could watch the sunset over the lake.

I don’t really plan any activities once we’ve arrived because it usually takes most of the day to get there, set up camp, and eat. But I decided to run a little workshop on star photography for anyone who was interested, which was everyone! I love the long days in the summer, but one of my favourite parts of the diminishing light is not having to stay up late to watch the stars. I lugged my tripod up and we went up on the hill overlooking the lake to try our luck. Fortunately it was a clear night and the moon was no where to be seen, so it was a great opportunity.

Very shortly after we started (I hadn’t even set up the tripod yet), trex started freaking out when a series of lights started flashing across the sky! They were even more concerned when I didn’t know what it was. It was super creepy and felt very end-of-days when you’re not expecting it. It was a series of lights that were moving in a perfectly straight line across the sky – they were all spaced equidistant and moving at the same pace. They did this for about 5 minutes before the last one finally disappeared. I made a guess that it was a satellite launch and another camper confirmed for us later that it was indeed Starlink! So our timing was excellent. We didn’t get any photos on the camera, but the girls were able to capture a few cell phone pictures of the phenomenon and it was quite a treat to see.

After that we settled into actual star photography and everyone got really into it for the better part of an hour. We did portraits of everyone with the starscape before turning in for the night. It was a completely clear morning and ended up being a very hot day, so we were driven out of our tents by the sun when it peaked over the mountains and illuminated the campsite. Staying at Elfin is a real treat because it’s definitely one of the most scenic campsites with the 360 degree view of the mountains.

We had a quick breakfast and packed up our campsites to head back the way we came. We made a slower pace as we came up to the hut because the whole area was crawling with bears and there were a lot of people. One cub had been scared up a tree, which made us nervous because we didn’t know where Mama was, but we passed through without any incident and had a hot lunch in Red Heather Hut before hiking back to the parking lot.

Everyone did really well on the trip, so we treated ourselves to ice cream at Alice & Brohm before heading back to town to conclude the trip. I think this trail lends itself well to a girl guide group because it’s a challenge, but not too hard, and it has lots of tent pads and an amazing view. I just have to work on convincing the girls to go back and stay again in the winter!

Joffre Lakes Backpacking Trip

August 24, 2022August 20, 2024 / Maria / 1 Comment

My first trip to Joffre Lakes was in 2015. Then I didn’t go again for 6 years, only to return twice in 2 years!

Joffre Lakes is one of the most popular and well known hikes in BC. It’s for a good reason – it’s jaw-dropingly gorgeous and easily accessible – but the crowds have definitely been a deterrent for me in visiting frequently. However, my friends from Toronto were visiting and they wanted to go there for their first ever backpacking trip, so I agreed to go with them since I’ve never actually backpacked there before.

Joffre Lakes now has a day pass system – so you can’t visit the park at all without either a day pass or an overnight pass (which are limited). This helps a lot with the stress of parking, but there is still an impressive amount of people in the park every day, even with the pass system. Overnight passes are hard to get – me and Philippa logged on at the same time to try and get them – I lucky enough to score 2 tent pads on my device, but even with 3 devices of their own, Philippa and Justin didn’t get any. Fortunately we had all we needed, but it gives you an idea of the competition for tent sites on a Saturday Night. I definitely recommend going on a week day if you’re able.

I won’t talk too much about the actual trail because I’ve written about it in my post about day hiking here. I’ll just say that as beginners, I do think this was a good trail for Philippa and Justin – it’s not too long or difficult, and it has washroom and bear cache facilities, which make things a lot easier.

Brandon joined me for the trip and drove us all up to the trailhead early on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, we realized at the trailhead that Philippa and Justin had forgotten their lunch in the fridge, but I always carry a spare meal, so we decided to go anyways and they ate that. It was a gorgeous sunny day for it – definitely hotter than I prefer, but that’s how summers in Vancouver seem to be these days, so I’ve gotten pretty good at staying hydrated and no one suffered too much with the heat.

We stopped at the second lake for lunch and went for a quick dip in the freezing cold water, and then continued up to the third lake. This is where my account of the lake will diverge from my last post. When I visited last year, we just hiked to the base of the third lake, but if you’re camping overnight, you have to continue around the edge of the lake to the other side, where there are a bunch of campsites under the glacier. I’d never backpacked at Joffre before, so I was excited to check out the campground. Plus, one of the big benefits to staying overnight is that crowds are greatly reduced in the evening and you get to enjoy the view for much longer.

We chose a campsite along the edge of the lake and set up our tents. I was keen to go for another swim, so me and Brandon decided to take our thermarests out into the lake this time, since it’s so cold. We did this at Assiniboine to great success! However, I’ve since replaced my sleeping pad with a smaller one and unfortunately, it’s not really big enough anymore! I floundered around on it for a while, with lots of screaming about the cold water that kept swallowing me up, before Justin went and got his pad for me instead (which is actually my older, bigger pad that he was borrowing). So we all tried them out in the water for a bit, and while they do insulate against the cold, you have to lie perfectly still on them lest you disturb the water and cause your limbs to go numb. So maybe not our best idea!

Instead, Brandon and I had the idea to hike up towards Matier Glacier for supper. Lien did the Matier Glacier hike last year and told me you could see all three lakes once you get high enough. There was still snow at the base of the glacier, so we didn’t plant to go the entire way, but we figured if we hiked up to the top of the moraine, we might be able to catch the view for supper.

The hike to Matier Glacier is entirely a scramble up one of the old moraines. I didn’t find it too challenging, but it is pretty steep. It had cooled down, so we pushed up for about a half hour, but as it got steeper, Philippa got uneasy about having to go back down, so we pulled off to the side and found the flattest place we could to eat (not very flat at all, but we made it work)! Philippa and Justin had a mix of freeze dried meals to sample and Brandon made his legendary thai curry chicken for us. We were hoping for a sunset, but the sun goes down behind the mountains, so we just enjoyed golden hour instead.

It’s definitely worse hiking down the moraine than up, so it took us a while to go back. There’s a lot of loose rock that makes it slippery, so I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners. Philippa didn’t like the descent, but she still did a great job on it and her feedback for beginners is to go down sideways and focus on small steps! Nonetheless, they made it down and used their new skills when they went to Panorama Ridge a week later.

It was starting to get dark by the time we got back to the campsite, so we got ready for bed early. We were all super tired after the early start and I wanted to get up in the middle of the night to shoot the stars. I think I was asleep before 10pm! I had my alarm set for 1:30am, but I ended up waking up to pee just before midnight and decided to get up then. Brandon decided to join me and we spent about 45 minutes playing around with our cameras and got some lovely shots of the milky way! I brought my tripod on this trip, which always makes for a more enjoyable experience.

We managed to sleep in until after 7, but once the sun hit the tent it was time to get up. We had a lazy breakfast and then packed up the tents to start the hike back down. We had a little break again at the second lake, but decided to save our swim for the first lake. I loved this idea because I wanted to swim in all 3 lakes and liked the opportunity to wash my body at the end of the hike. All the lakes are quite cold, but they definitely get warmer the further away from the glacier you get.

So overall, a very successful trip! Even though me and Brandon have been to Joffre Lakes several times, we loved exploring it through new eyes with Philippa and Justin. I’m definitely not in a rush to go back, but I am always enthusiastic about hiking with anyone who loves adventure. I do think Joffre is a great option for beginners and wish you luck in getting permits to this beautiful location. Just remember to treat it with respect. Leave no trace and pack out all your garbage!