Trip to Gold River

We drove up to Gold River this weekend to celebrate the life of my friend Mick, who passed away this spring from leukemia. Mick's family hosted us and other friends and family at their house in Gold River. It was a very moving ceremony with music from Mick's son Ned and a beautiful tribute to her father from his daughter Tilley. We feel very lucky to have been included. We spent a few days camping, hiking and exploring the area, including a visit to the mouth of Gold River, a drive to Tahsis with a pause to explore the Upana caves, and a challenging 23Km day hike to Landslide Lake on the Elk River Trail. Gold River is close to the edge of Strathcona Provincial Park, and I can see why Mick and his family who all love the outdoors chose this place as a base. It is wild, remote country that I would have loved to explore at length with Mick. 

Cedar mermaid near the mouth of the Gold River

Tsuxwin Falls on the way from Gold River town to the river mouth

There were dozens of boat trailers parked at the mouth of the river. This is one of the few paved roads that give access to the fertile fishing of the west coast inlets

Air Nootka flies hikers out to the Nootka Trail. Rani hiked this trail about 20 years ago and I could tell she wanted to go again.

We camped at the Gold River Municipal campsite about 5 minutes south of town and right on the river. Basic but well managed by our host Ken Smith

We hiked around Antler Lake with Mick's friends and family. The trail is just outside the town and preserves a forest of old growth fir, hemlock, and cedar.

The Upana caves are an easy to visit group of five or sixl imestone (karst) caves located between Tahsis and Gold River.

Rani explores the Main Cave

We are not the first people to have visited

Outside the Main Cave

Streams flow through a couple of the caves

Rani found a friend at Painted Rock

A somewhat tenuous bridge on the Bull of the Woods trail in Tahsis

Lovely tranquil view at Head Bay on the road between Tahsis and Gold River

Crossing a creek on the Elk River trail

The trail was quite busy with many people camping at one of two sites. We met Troy at a waterfall near the second campsite.

Rani nearing the mid point of our hike. Landslide lake is over the next ridge

The trail is heavily used and very 'rooty' in places

Just before the lake. Cairns mark the trail when it passed over rock outcrops. Mount Colonel Foster dominates the view.

We had lunch at the lake. It took about 4.5 hours to reach the lake and 4 hours to return.

Rani braved the chilly waters. I waded in a few feet.

The mountains have their own weather and interesting cloud patterns developed and dispersed while we were there.

We spent over an hour at the lake. Despite the absence of people in the pictures, we shared the lake with more than twenty people! Fortunately there is lots of room around the shore.

Rani noticed a praying (or singing?) man wearing a Rembrandt hat

View of Landslide Lake from the approach trail. The praying man is near the upper right.

A water fall just below the lake.We took very few pictures on the way down. It was a long hike out!

 

De Courcy in the late winter

We set out to spend a few days at De Courcy Island and ended up spending eleven. A combination of laziness and uncooperative weather decided us to stay the extra week or so.  I thought it would be fun to share a few pictures from the island, including a paddling trip to nearby Mudge Island that took us along the west coast of Link and De Courcy Islands. We paddled this in the late afternoon, with a lovely yellow light and a low tide that exposed anemones and other intertidal life. While we were looking up some information on intertidal sealife, we came across some amazing BC underwater photos by David Hall at Seaphotos.com 

Rani inspects an impressive cluster of plumose sea anemones

Layers of anemones hang from a granite boulder exposed to the later afternoon winter sun

This starfish appears to be climbing up the rock

A seastar nestles in a crevice surrounded by sea urchins with limpets above and anemones below

Chris enjoys the view

These anemones reminded Rani of blown glass

I like the reflections

Pendulous

Inversion makes an interesting picture

Rani inspects more clusters of anemones and starfish, Thetis island and Maple Mountain in the distance

Shoe Tree on Mudge Island

This visit, we spent some time with Donna and Rene. They are long time residents of the island, having lived here off and on for over 20 years. They built their own cottage on a lovely secluded bluff overlooking the waters between De Courcy and Vancouver island.

Visiting with fellow islanders, Donna and Rene

Kayak Trip To Nootka Sound

It has been a while since I had anything interesting to post about, but I thought I would share some pictures of a recent kayak camping trip to Nootka Sound. My friend Mick invited me to come with him and his son Tristan on a winter adventure during a period of unusually stable weather. He lent me a single kayak and he and Tristan paddled the double

Packed for departure from Mick's family home in Gold River

We accessed Nootka Sound via the village of Tahsis - an hour or two's drive (depending how careful you are to avoid the potholes and ice) from Gold River

There is some lovely scenery on the way to Tahsis including this logging camp at Head Bay on Nootka Sound

The drive in passes ponds and mountains

We launched at the boat ramp in Tahsis. It took a bit of persuading to get these two to pose for the camera

Amongst our provisions were a few bottles of home brew to share

Paddling toward the ocean from Tahsis, the water was remarkably still. We saw a sea otter very close to the village and many over-wintering waterfowl

Mick and Tristan take a break from paddling the big heavy double

We paddled down Tahsis inlet and then turned into the narrows that lead to Hecate Channel. We took a break here for a snack and a stretch. 

Map of our route. Tahsis (upper right) and the approximate location of our camps are shown as blue dots

Tristan and Mick off the religious centre of Esperanza. See this link for more details. 

A boom protects the water from diesel spilling from this abandoned fishing boat

Mick scouts out a campsite. This location did not have enough room for two tents

Our first night'c camp. Access was a bit tricky with slippery rock shelves to walk across and a bit of tidal surge to make loading and unloading interesting

Tristan gets things sorted out for supper

The next morning we heard a funny chittering sound and came across a large flock of sand pipers of some sort. We also began to see more sea otters amongst the swell and kelp where they get their meals

I explore a sea cave

Mick and Tristan check out a blow hole. A few minutes later a large swell swept in and they took quite a bit of salty water on board!

We entered Queens Cove - a lagoon at the entrance to Port Eliza

The contrast between the swells outside in Esperanza Inlet and the mirror calm in the lagoon was remarkable

Our second campsite in Port Eliza was the best of the three. We had a gentle beach and enough room to flatten out a campsite above that day's high tide

There was also some walking/rock scrambling nearby to let us stretch our legs

Mick and Tristan heading up to get a view up the inlet

Peaceful view towards Esperanza inlet from a hill near our second camp

The next day we double back to Espinosa inlet after a quick paddle up Port Eliza. We arrived around dusk and had to use headlamps to set up camp

We reorganized the food and gear on day four because I needed to get home to do some work, while Mick and Tristan would stay out a few more days

On the way back to Tahsis I saw this supply barge heading to Zeballos with a cement mixer on board. The fog came and went and I had to navigate via my phone's chart plotter at times.

I took one break at a river mouth to fill a water bottle

Heading back up Tahsis inlet with Tahsis in the distance

I really enjoyed this trip. I have done very little kayak camping on this coast and spending time out in this amazing area with Mick and Tristan opened my eyes. I hope to get out here again soon!