Well, when I started this blog, this wasn’t the trip we had in mind. Our goal was to paddle all around Vancouver Island this summer but as fate would have it, our plans changed. Instead, we did some hiking on the wild Nootka Island trail while Bryan’s broken hand healed up a bit and then did a month of leisurely kayaking in Clayoquot and Barkley Sounds on the west coast of Vancouver Island. We checked out remote beaches, relaxed in hotsprings, fished for our dinner and cooked up delicious meals over a small campfire. We took our kayaks up river and down the long exposed coastline between Tofino and Ucluelet. We explored the labyrinthine of islands in the Broken Group and high tailed it back to Ucluelet before the full force of what apparently was one of the worst storms in a decade. I thought the climax of the trip was making the run from Ahous Bay on Vargas Island to Ucluelet, completely exposed, but paddling in the vanguard winds of the storm beat it with a bang. It has been a pretty incredible summer and an amazing end of our two year long honeymoon. A quick shout-out to our wonderful and understanding sponsors: Princeton Tec, Wildcoast Publishing and Tilley Vancouver : THANK YOU!
Hidden gem: Calm paddling in the super tranquil Sulphur Passage behind Obstruction Island. The water is so calm that it perfectly reflects the sky and mountains like a mirror. To top it off, none of the busy tour boats comes back here…in fact, not many kayakers either. We saw no body in our whole time in the passageAfter waiting 3 days for the gale force winds settle down so we could paddle the outside of Flores Islands, we decided to head on the inside instead. I was a little sad at first because the outside of Flores Island is known for grey whales but instead, we were blessed with paddling for two hours with a pod of transient orca whales also heading down the inside!The long exposed coastline between Tofino and Ucluelet. This is a calm day out here with gentle rolling ocean swell.Gorgeous paddling in the Broken GroupFeeling thankful and really appreciating these islands by Ucluelet that gave us a bit of protected water. This was the first time we could stop and relax a bit after two hours of hard paddling over about 14km of stormy open waters from the Broken Group
Vancouver Island by Kayak 