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Saturday » September 30 » 2006
A ferry ride to kayak paradise
B.C. Ferries Discovery Coast Passage run offers access to paddling seldom seen by other boaters
Joseph Blake
Times Colonist
Saturday, September 30, 2006
For a dozen summers, my kayak partner, Rudy Van Der Vegt, and I have spent a couple of blissful weeks paddling through the islands, straits, and sounds around Vancouver Island.
A year ago, we boarded B.C. Ferries' Discovery Coast Passage out of Port Hardy for our greatest ocean kayak adventure. It was so great that we returned on an early morning in August during a nice stretch of weather this summer for another ride on the Queen of Chilliwack from the tip of Vancouver Island to the coastal community of Bella Bella and its dry reserve, the fish plant ferry dock at McLoughlin Bay, a missing drybag of cookware and a grizzly bear (but I'm getting ahead of my story).
On our first passage on the Queen of Chilliwack, from Port Hardy to Bella Coola's stark, cold beauty, we experienced humpback whale sightings that stopped the boat for photos, hundreds of dolphins running with the ferry in the glacial waters of a pristine fjord, and the ghosts of Ocean Falls.
Ocean Falls peaked in the 1970s. Since then, the isolated village has dwindled from more than 5,000 to about 30 year-around citizens these days. The ferry's four-hour stop included a swim in the log sort above the falls, and coffee and baked goods at Eve's Holy Grill in the town's early 20th- century church.
The food onboard the Queen of Chilliwack was very good, too. On our return trip, we caught the crew on the final leg of their two week on/two week off schedule, and some of the staff dressed up in 1950s costumes and served barbecued salmon, steak and chicken on the foredeck.
Our adventure last summer had started with a wet drop from the back of the ferry, the captain and crew navigating our departure in Fitz Hugh Sound about five hours north of Port Hardy. It was thrilling to paddle away from the ferry toward the afternoon sun and a big, sandy beach on Calvert Island.
For a couple of days we only saw one sailboat, and the skipper told us that he'd seen four kayakers in three months of sailing the midcoast. A big high-pressure zone sent sunburn heat down on our lazy, naked flesh, as we enjoyed day trips from our beach camp.
After paddling across Hakai Passage and setting up another camp on a salal-edged, smaller beach on Triquet Island, we were visited one morning by a pair of cougars running and pouncing the length of the beach a few feet from our tents.
This summer's grizzly visit was even scarier. The ferry arrived a little late at McLoughlin Bay, and we didn't know where we were going to spend the night. Ferry workers warned us of an unusual sighting, a grizzly on the beach beside the dock. From the fish plant, we could see the bear rooting around the driftwood and beach weed. There was bear scat near the berry bushes on the beach on the other side of the dock, too, so we stowed our food bags beneath an empty stack of the fish storage bins and pitched our tents a distance away in a dry, empty lot behind the plant.
The grizzly's snuffling and shuffling woke me with a start at 2 a.m. With my heart pounding I listened in the dark to noises that seemed very near my fragile, nylon fortress. Our little fire had burned out, but the bear moved on. Eventually I got back to sleep.
At 6 a.m. the bear came back along a rock bank several yards from our camp. In the morning light I could see the young grizzly, not fully grown but big, and the bear seemed spooked by our presence as it looked back over its shoulder and shuffled back to the beach. What a way to start a 10-day kayak trip!
Then we discovered that Rudy had left our cookware back at his farm. We paddled into Bella Bella to try the general store, but it was closed for B.C. Day. A couple of very drunk guys, who told us that they were three days into a party that morning, offered a glass cooking pot.
"Giving, sharing, it's our culture," one guy slurred, his grinning, sturdy cousin propping him up. Promising to return the pot in 10 days, we hurried back to our kayaks and paddled in a light rain to our first real campsite of this summer's adventure, a wooded site above a gravel beach on the northern tip of Horsfall Island.
We had perfect weather for a week. Eagles perched along Joassa Channel watching salmon leap as smaller birds hovered below the ancient forest of sea-stunted cedar and fir. Ravens woke us with their comical, orchestral calls. There weren't many bugs, and the berries, particularly the huckleberries, were succulent and sweet. An Orca sounded a few feet from our breakfast perch on a rocky point one morning.
We saw lots of fishermen from ritzy motherships near Cultus Sound and heard some of them shooting shotguns one evening. We paddled near seals and sea otter and dolphins, and for two days we didn't hear the sound of another human. No boat engines, not even the vapour trail of a silent, northbound jet. It was heavenly, and I'm sure we'll return to investigate and enjoy the midcoast's maritime majesty again.
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IF YOU GO
With 30 ocean-view rooms, a restaurant serving fresh sushi, and very reasonable rates, I recommend Port Hardy's North Shore Inn for the night before an early morning sailing or a late-night return trip. 250-949-8500 for more information.
B.C. Ferries' Port Hardy to Bella Coola summer run is the best bargain-priced cruise you can find. Mostly international visitors and families of coastal commuters sail the under-used service. It's a car ferry for 350 passengers, but only 50 of us sailed home from Bella Bella this summer. Parking the truck for two weeks at the ferry lot in Port Hardy cost us an additional $70, but the $175 round-trip ticket from Port Hardy to Bella Bella's McLoughlin Bay included a small fee for my kayak. What a deal! It's a relaxed, awe-inspiring, scenic cruise through some of the world's most glorious countryside. When the weather is nice, some travellers pitch their tents on the decks while others stretch out their sleeping bags on the solarium's carpeted floors. The crew is wonderful, too. Check
www.bcferries.com for up-to-date fares and schedule of sailings.
Ran with fact box "If you go" which has been appended to the story.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2006
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