Desolation Sound Kayak Trip Part III

June 21, 2023August 13, 2024 / Maria / 1 Comment

On day 3 of our paddling trip to Desolation Sound Marine Park, we got up at 6am to get ahead of the wind (as I explained in Part II). We packed up our campsite on East Curme Island and were on the water around 8am. It was flat water at this time, so we had a very leisurely paddle over to Otter Island and along the coast to Bold Head Campground.

I was really curious about Bold Head because I’d read it was a nice site. It’s backed right again the cliffside and there are several tent pads up at the head, but it was empty. I could understand why – as nice as it is, I’d still pick the Curme Islands when given the choice, so I suspect it may act primarily as overflow for the islands.

The campsites in the Park are all first-come-first-serve and according to BC Parks, if the tent pads are all taken, you should move on to another site. Though they do state that if moving on isn’t safe, find the least impactful spot (somewhere with no vegetation that looks like people have camped there before). Fortunately we didn’t have any issues with availability on the May Long weekend, but I could see it being an issue in the height of summer. The problem is, the islands are all very small, and while there’s 3 of them, there’s limited options for overflow camping since most of the sites are set on bedrock. Fortunately there are a lot of tent pads, and I assume that’s why.

But if you do find the islands full, head over to Bold Head – it’s not far and it is nice. The toilet situation is quite different though. The other campsites I visited all had an outhouse (sometimes two), but Bold Head just has a throne toilet and at the time of our visit, it had a wasp nest inside! There are bear caches at all the mainland sites, but none on the island sites. It is also a tricky landing on Bold Head, but manageable.

Unfortunately our simple paddling was short lived as the wind came up suddenly while we were touring around Bold Head. It wasn’t too bad at first, but as soon as we started paddling across Tenedos Bay, it really caught us unaware and started hitting us broadside. It was still manageable, but definitely veering into uncomfortable territory for me as I could see some small white caps forming. It’s ~1km to cross, so we really powered it to the bay on the other side. I had put on my spray skirt, so I had no issue, but Seth didn’t have his on. This wouldn’t have been a problem, but I accidentally bumped him and almost put him in the water… oops! This was the closest anyone came to a capsize on the trip though, so all in all, it was fine.

We continued up through Call Bight to Portage Cove. Seth took a quick break along the rocks to get his skirt on and we powered up to Portage. This turned out to be the most challenging part of the entire trip. It was definitely windy and while the waves weren’t bad along the shore, it was slow moving through the headwind. I was very excited to pull into Portage Cove and take a proper break, but we were disappointed to learn that Portage Cove is private property and not actually in the park (as we were informed by the numerous trespassing signs).

I know these properties long pre-date the park, but it was a low moment for me. There’s not a lot of pull-outs between Bold Head and Hare Point when you’re taking the southern route and I needed a proper break. Fortunately, the tide was coming down, so we pulled out on a tidal beach for a reset. This proved to be a good idea because I was getting a bit upset and stopping to have a snack and talk things through helped a lot.

We decided to get properly suited up in our wetsuits and come up with a plan for the rest of the day. There’s a longer stretch between Portage Cove and Galley Bay with no beaches, so our plan was for me to lead (as the weaker paddler) and Seth to come right behind. This worked really well for us and we stayed close together throughout the paddle.

It was a bit rough coming out of Portage Cove, but then the wind either dropped down or was sheltered by Zephine Head. I think it was actually the former as it was gusting pretty strong at times, but overall, the sustained wind speed wasn’t too bad. We ended up actually having a nice paddle along the cliffside before stopping in Galley Bay for lunch.

Once we hit Galley Bay I felt much better because we would have the wind at our backs when we turned down Okeover Inlet. We’d started the trip from Lund, but we were planning to finish at the public wharf in Okeover instead to switch up the trip. In fact, we ended up not actually repeating any coastline, which made for a more diverse trip.

As soon as we got around Zephine Head, the wind pretty much died and we had a simple paddle down the inlet to Hare Point. There’s a huge campsite at Hare Point and we landed at the main beach to assess. There’s two key areas to the site, with a bunch of tent pads at the back of the beach and a bunch more along Hare Point. We were the only people there, so we decided on a site along the Point and then paddled back to land on the rocks instead. We kept the same strategy of tying the boats on and letting the tide bring them up for us.

We were joined later in the afternoon by another family of kayakers who camped in the other section of the tent pads, otherwise we didn’t see anyone else. I really liked our site at Hare Point, but the wind was unquestionably getting worse. To be fair, we were on a pretty exposed tent pad, but I ended up guy-lining the tent to the rock for peace of mind and it was the only night we used the fly.

The wind was supposed to be even worse the next day, so we had to do a bit of risk management. I was reassured by the fact that it’s a lot calmer in Okeover Inlet than in the Sound, and that the wind would be at our backs. In case you’re wondering, I use both the Windy App and the weather network for wind information. I usually find Windy to be good, but on this trip the Weather Network was more reliable for wind speed (though the Windy app was still accurate for direction). We’d been planning to get weather updates on our marine radio and via inreach message from Carolyn (who had our trip plan), but there was cell service in pretty much the entire park, so I ended up just using my phone.

What arose as more of a concern as we watched the inlet from our campsite, was the currents. Okeover Inlet is huge, with lots of other inlets branching off it, so with up to 5m of difference between high and low tide, that’s a huge amount of water coming up and down the inlet twice daily. We arrived at Hare Point at slack tide, so we had no trouble getting there, but as the tide changed, the current got quicker and quicker, until it was really clipping down the inlet at a fast pace.

We’d already decided to get up at dawn the following morning to try and get ahead of the wind, and this decision became much more important when we realized that the tide would be switching again at 7:30am. It would be working with us until then and we didn’t want to have to battle it the whole morning.

It ended up working out really well. It was hard crawling out of bed so early, but we were on the water by 6:45am and with the wind at our backs and the current with us, we absolutely flew down the inlet! It was super fun! It’s 10km of paddling back to the public wharf, which would usually take us around 3 hours with breaks, but we ended up doing the whole thing in about 90 minutes. The wind looked pretty intense later in the morning when we returned to Powell River, but we managed to get ahead of it and actually had a very enjoyable paddle.

Our ferry reservation out of Langdale wasn’t until 8pm, but since we’d finished so early, we decided to power back to try and get on an earlier ferry. Unfortunately this didn’t really pan out. BC Ferries was so busy over the long weekend that it actually crashed the website, so we couldn’t check the ferry times and ended up being way out of sync with them. We waited for the ferry at Saltery Bay for the better part of 2 hours. Then we rushed down to Langdale for 2pm, only to be told to keep our 8pm reservation because we probably wouldn’t get on any earlier than that anyways. So we ended up burning 6 hours in Gibsons instead. In hindsight, I would have preferred to spend some more time in Powell River, but you can never know that at the start of the day.

We had a nice time in Gibsons. We explored some shops and enjoyed a pint at Tapworks and a really nice meal at Buono Osteria. We finished with a nice walk along the waterfront. Overall it was a fantastic trip. Seth and I used to do a 3 day paddling trip every year, but we missed 2021 and 2022, so this one was long overdue and a good reminder of how much we enjoy the trips. We do lots of day paddles, but overnight trips definitely have a very different feel. I don’t think we’ll have time to do a second trip this summer (mostly because it’s hard finding someone to watch our dog), but I’m really desperate to do another trip, so we’ve already started brainstorming for next year!

There are lots of things to consider when visiting Desolation Sound, but May turned out to be good timing for us. We’re so lucky to live in a place with so many epic places to explore and I can’t wait until the next trip!

Desolation Sound Kayak Trip Part II

June 14, 2023August 13, 2024 / Maria / 7 Comments

Despite the name change in the blog title, this post is a continuation of my last post about Copeland Islands Marine Park, as I visited both parks in the same trip. Read Part 1 here.

I will admit that the wind gave me a lot of anxiety on this trip. I’m definitely a fair weather paddler, and while I’ve been out in less-than-favourable conditions, I’ve never paddled in outright dangerous conditions. It was surprisingly windy overnight, which made me a bit nervous for our second day of paddling, but the wind forecast wasn’t that high and it did calm down throughout the day. I’m used to the wind being calm in the morning and coming up in the afternoon, so that was an interesting change to have it reversed.

We still got up reasonably early (7am) because we wanted to launch the boats while the tide was still high. Once the tide starts to go down, you lose the channel exit from our campsite and it adds a bit of extra paddling, plus you have to load the boats and gear further down the beach.

Fortunately, our timing was right on and we paddled out through the channel around 9am with just enough clearance to get over the newly forming beach. We crossed back over to the Malaspina Peninsula and said good-bye to the Copeland Islands as we made our way to Desolation Sound. There were some cool cliff features along the way, just past Bliss Landing, and we quickly arrived at Sarah Point, which marks the beginning of both Desolation Sound Marine Park and the Sunshine Coast Trail. It was a bit of a bittersweet moment for me as I have very fond memories of hiking the SCT last year and I loved seeing the Sarah Point hut again.

We had a quick break further along the beach at Sarah Point before continuing around the headland to Feather Cove, which is also on the SCT. It got a little windier as we rounded Sarah Point, but nothing to be concerned about. We spotted our second sea lion and then took in our first glimpse of the jaw-dropping beauty of Desolation Sound. I wasn’t able to successfully identify the mountains, but there are some gorgeous snow capped peaks in the distance as you first enter the Sound.

We took another short break at Feather Cove before crossing Okeover Inlet to Zephine Head. The Inlet crossing was fine and the tide was rapidly dropping, so we were able to pull out at a beach just around the Head. At high tide, you might have to continue into Galley Bay for a pull-out though. We had our lunch there and since the conditions were favourable, we decided to do a direct crossing to Mink Island.

It’s about a 3km paddle from Zephine Head to Mink Island in open water. We tried to stay close to one another on the crossing, but the wind definitely picks up the further out you get, so I finally dropped my rudder and that helped me maintain my course a lot easier. Seth is pretty opposed to his rudder and never uses it, so he had some trouble staying on track. We managed to correct this the following day (which was windier), by both dropping our rudders and having Seth paddle directly behind me (since I’m the slower paddler) instead of trying to paddle side by side. Whenever we go side by side we tend to get separated, so this system worked better for us.

That said, it was still a pretty good crossing. The wind was low and we didn’t have any trouble making it over to Mink Island. Once we got to Mink Island, we had the wind working with us, so that was nice. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of good looking places to stop along the island, so we powered around the corner of the little arm on Mink Island (sorry I don’t know the name) and had a nice rest in the sheltered bay.

From there it’s not much further to the Curme Islands, which are the most popular attraction in the park, at least as far as I can tell. At the end of Mink Island, there are 3 small islands: South Curme, East Curme, and West Curme. The water was super calm at the end of Mink and around the Curme Islands, so we did a little paddle around each island. It was Seth’s turn to pick our site and he opted for East Curme Island, which I think was an excellent choice!

West Curme Island was really busy when we arrived, so I think that one might be the most popular. There was just one group on both East and South Curme, though a lot of people showed up to South Curme by motor boat later in the evening. But no one else joined us on East Curme, so it was just us and the other group (which is surprising considering it is the biggest of the 3 islands). We had a lovely site looking out to South Curme and Bold Head, and climbing up to the top of the island, another nice view looking down at West Curme.

The tide was very low when we arrived again, but in contrast to North Copeland Island, it was a more challenging landing. It wasn’t hard at low tide, but it’s a bit of a climb up to the island and at high tide, there’s no beach at all. There was just enough room for 4 kayaks between us and the other group, so I’m not sure where everyone stores their boats when the campsite is full.

Instead of dragging the boats up the rocks, we opted to tie them on and let the tide slowly float them up to the landing. It worked really well and when the water reached high tide around sunset, we popped them up on the bank.

After unloading the boats, we were really warm, so we opted to go for a swim almost immediately. Like Copeland, the water was incredibly warm, though there was a lot of seaweed floating around with the low tide. Even Seth went for a swim and we were in the water for the better part of a half hour. We had landed on the island around 2:30pm, and after our swim, I spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing. Seth had a nap and I just enjoyed drinking my ice tea and watching the seals play while the tide came up.

Seth wasn’t as excited about a sunset paddle on this day, but I convinced him to go out for a half hour since you can’t really see the sunset from East Curme. The water was calm again and it was approaching high tide, so we paddled in and around all the islands before calling it a night. We slept with the fly off again and set our alarms for 6am to get an earlier start on the following day.

This was on account of those winds I mentioned earlier that were making me anxious. The wind was supposed to come up a lot on our 3rd day and I was nervous about the big open water crossing. We discussed it in the evening and decided we would take the long route back to our next campsite. There’s two benefits to this. The first is that you get to explore new terrain by circling Desolation Sound from the other side instead of doing the same crossing back along Mink Island. The second is that you avoid the big 3km open crossing, instead doing a 0.5km crossing from East Curme to Otter Island, and then a second 1km crossing across Tenedos Bay. The other benefit is that these two crossings are done at the start of your paddle, which would be early morning for us, resulting in less wind.

Here’s a screenshot of our 2 paddling routes for some context. I’ll cover the rest of the trip in the Part III!

Ottomite Peak Snow Camp

March 8, 2023August 13, 2024 / Maria / 4 Comments

I didn’t do much hiking in the Fall last year, but as soon as winter hit I’ve been out exploring in full force! I only did one snow camp last year and was really keen to try and fit 2 in this year. It’s always a challenge because I like to ski a lot too and the snow season is so short.

Fortunately, the weather aligned for us to make a trip out to the Coquihalla in early February. After a very snowy December, it’s been a pretty warm start to the year and all the local mountains were above zero degrees. The Coquihalla can get cold, but it reliably has snow, so it’s one of my favourite places to go in the winter. To date, we’ve been to Falls Lake and Zoa Peak.

It rained most of our drive up the Coquihalla, but it switched to snow just before we got to the Summit Rec Area, which was very lucky. I’d never even heard of Ottomite Peak, but Carolyn came across it somewhere and it’s a pretty low risk trail, so we decided to check it out. You park in the lot at the base of Yak Peak (across the road from the Needle Peak parking lot) where there is a really nice rest stop bathroom. The trail starts around the edge of the bathroom and runs slightly parallel the highway as you ascend up towards the peak.

I tracked just over 4km from the parking lot to Ottomite Peak. The trail is mostly in the trees and is all simple avalanche terrain until Ottomite. It’s also popular for ski touring and most of the skiers were continuing past Ottomite to Iago Peak. We considered it, but the trails goes into challenging terrain near Iago Peak and the avalanche risk was considerable in the alpine at the time, so we opted not to. There was a beaten track until the branch to Ottomite Peak, which has a really beautiful view and would also be great for camping.

The trail continued on towards Iago, but we had to break the trail to Ottomite Peak. It’s pretty rare to have to break trail in Southwest BC, the only other time I’ve done it was when we snow camped at Poland Lake last winter. It’s a lot more work, but fortunately it’s not too far to the peak of Ottomite Peak. Overall it took us about 2 hours from bottom to top. There’s a great view of the north mountains from Ottomite Peak, so we decided to camp at the top.

As usual, there were 4 of us on the trip, but Steve couldn’t make it, so our friend Marie accompanied Carolyn instead! Brandon and I shared his big 4 season orange tent as usual, and Carolyn experimented with her summer tent. She typically uses her 3 season MSR Elixir, but she has a non-freestanding 2p Durston tent that she wanted to try out. It took her a while to get it set up properly as it’s a bit tricky since it relies on using your hiking poles and tension to stand. But she managed to get a good pitch and said it worked fine for the night.

The weather was surprisingly nice on Saturday. We were expecting it to be overcast and snowy, but it cleared up a lot while we were hiking in and we actually got some blue sky and sun while we were setting up. Eventually the clouds moved back it, but we got some really lovely views from the peak, which we easily could have missed.

We built a nice big snow kitchen where we hung out for the better part of 4 hours while melting snow and preparing supper. Marie made hot lemon whisky and I made Kahlua hot chocolate bombs for happy hour and Brandon made our favourite thai chicken curry for supper. Then we had Marie’s apple crumble for dessert, so it was quite a spread! If you think me and Carolyn got off easy, I made lunch sandwiches and she made us homemade egg mcmuffins for breakfast!

The temperature was really hovering around zero, so it was one of our warmer snow camps and we were lucky it didn’t rain to be honest. We stayed up until around 8:30pm, which is pretty late for snow camping, before hitting the sack for a long night’s sleep. I slept pretty good early in the night, but then I was treated to the symphony of Brandon’s snores later in the night. The moon came up overnight and I enjoyed a beautiful view when I got up to pee, with the moonlight reflecting off the snow, it was super bright and I didn’t even need my headlamp.

Otherwise it was a low key morning and we packed up our gear and headed back to the parking lot. It was a lot faster hiking out and we stopped in Hope on the way back for the Blue Moose Café. Considering how little known this trail is – I really liked it! It is in avalanche terrain, but it’s pretty low risk terrain, so I think it’s good for beginners. I’d definitely like to go back some day and go all the way to Iago Peak, or maybe revisit in the summer, when you can hike several peaks back into the wilderness! Overall, another successful trip!