Sechelt Inlet paddle...and our real morel hunt!

Jay and I love to leave this country on most major US holidays and head to Canada. Why? Less crowds, more wilderness, and heck - we just love British Columbia. So for Memorial Day we decided to go to the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia to take Alaria (the lovely wooden kayak that Jay built me) on her first overnight paddle in Sechelt Inlet. We had lot of paddling planned for the entire weekend, but the wind monsters had other plans for us....

One way to avoid wind in this neck of the woods is to drag your ass out of the tent at some crazy early hour and paddle only in the morning. We are not morning people, but paddling in strong winds is more frightening, so early mornings had to happen this weekend for us. But look at what we woke up to! Four loons in breeding plumage feeding together right off the beach. We ate our breakfast and jumped in our boats to check them out.

 What a treat!

Sechelt Inlets Marine Provincial Park is one of the more "developed" paddles along the BC coast. They actually have campsites throughout the three inlets in the park that are reasonable distances from one another. On our second day we wanted to get to Kunechin Point because our kayaking book noted an awesome campsite on a rocky knob overlooking Sechelt Inlet. That meant crossing Salmon Inlet, which is notorious for strong winds - hence the early morning paddle. Despite the early morning, we still had a steady wind at our backs and a following sea. Alaria is so sleek and fast, I was actually paddling faster than the waves and surfing my way toward the point. Sounds like fun, but it was actually a little scary. She is a great boat though and handled the waves better than my nerves did.

Upon reaching the point we were thrilled to find that the two designated spots were unoccupied. Call us scrooges, but we want wild places all to ourselves. So we unpacked, set up the tent, and snoozed a bit. Our plan was to do a longer day paddle up toward Narrows Inlet and then back to the camp, but the wind had only picked up and the shore was steep and rocky with few places to land if we got into dangerous conditions. So we read books and waited for the wind to die down. It never did! We never got back in our boats that day. But we did wander around the shoreline as best as possible to check out the point we were camping on. Look at how clear the water was!

On our shoreline wander we came across what must have been bear poo. It was darn recent and loaded with what looked like salal flowers! Salal berries I can understand, but the flowers??

Here is our awesome camping spot. Most BC paddles mean camping wherever you can find a flat spot in undesignated areas. But Sechelt Inlet is popular enough that the park puts out picnic tables AND tent pads for you in designated areas. WOW!

A lovely madrona tree in low evening light. You can see that it is still a bit stormy and windy.... The wind never really toned itself down completely. We woke up at 4:45am the next morning to paddle all the way back to our car. But at least this time we were paddling into the waves rather than surfing them - more exercise for us but (1) we like that and (2) it feels less frightening than a following sea. So it was a lovely and relaxing trip! I think we probably won't go back there though - it was gorgeous but not quite as wild as other parts of the BC coast. There were clear cuts, power lines, and salmon farms (Atlantic salmon being raised in the Pacific...wrong!). But among all of these human signs, there was beauty, bear poop, and a sense of what this place was and still could be if we let the forest completely return.

Our other big May adventure (aside from a trip to Nevada for a cousin's wedding that I'll write about in the next blog) was our big morel hunt. This was our second hunting trip of the season and it was successful! When we went last month with our friends to the Winthrop area, we found one single morel. We were too early. This time Jay and I thought we had the timing right so we scooped out one big forest burn with no luck. Then we tried another one with no luck. And then we decided we needed to get even closer to the Cascades where some water may have been retained that would help those lovely mushrooms pop. This has been an extremely dry winter for WA and morels need some water to do their thing. So we located a burn that was north facing (good for water retention), near a creek, and closer to the Cascades. Almost immediately Jay found some morels. He always finds them first!

Prime habitat! A big burn.... (see Jay?)

Jay may have found the first morel, but I found the biggest. Follow my hands diagonally down to the bottom center of the photo and you can spot the huge morel there.

Driving home with four pounds of morels already makes me giddy. But the view from Rt.20 as you drive past the Early Winter Spires in North Cascades National Park is enough to make me really content with life.

Jay and I take food seriously. If you do too - you will appreciate the three meals we made with fresh morels (we dehydrated the rest). Remember you need delicate flavors when cooking with morels so you don't overpower the mushrooms. So for all the foodies out there here goes! Meal #1: Morel and raw artichoke salad with fried soft-boiled eggs.

 Dinner #2 - morels, asparagus, amazing Parmesan cheese, and fresh pasta

Dinner #3 - morels in a cream and brandy sauce on grilled bread

Finally, no spring would be complete without a few giant horse mushrooms. Jay was off in Belize doing research when I checked out my horse mushroom patch and found these big beauties. As a result, I gave most of these away to my awesome coworkers and took one home. I had buttternut squash gnocchi in a sage butter sauce with the giant horse mushroom paired with an oaked chardonnay. So. Damn. Good.

Washington mushrooming and Canadian oystering

This is a pretty tiny cedar that we are hugging, but all trees deserve a bit of love now and then right? I'm catching up on the April fun with this blog...maybe in another month I'll manage to post about our May adventures? April was a lovely month filled with spring flowers, friends, decent weather, and lots of fun and hard work on the jobs. Since everything is poking up early in WA this year, I was concerned that the morels (wild mushrooms) were going to come up early and we would miss them! So we planned a weekend trip to the east side of the Cascades near Winthrop with our dear friends Nickie and Carolé. It was still pretty chilly at night during this time of year, so we rented a sweet cabin in the woods complete with a cedar sauna. Ahhhhh. Both evenings were spent eating outside, sipping wine, and then roasting in the sauna. Doesn't really get any better than that? Well.....it would have if we had found morels! But we didn't. Nope. Despite some epic wildfires last year, the morels were not popping early (fast-forward to today and the morels are going off about three weeks late!). But the four of us spent the day wandering around burns searching for the elusive yummy mushroom. The result? The South African in our group, Carolé, found the single morel of the day. Not the Americans who grew up on a continent that produced morels...nope...the South African. Pretty cute and funny I must say. 

 

We celebrated our single morel find at the Lost River Winery in Winthrop

Jay cooked our single precious morel in a pan and then added it, with much celebration, to a homemade mushroom, goat cheese, and leek pizza.

The morel goes on the pizza!

The next day we left Jay behind at a cafe where he was going to work on PhD stuff....and the remaining three of us (plus Beebee the pooch) took off on a day hike near Winthrop. The wildflowers were everywhere and the clear skies afforded us fantastic views of the Cascades. What a great weekend!

Ruckle Provincial Park

I wish I had more time to write about all our wonderful adventures with Allison, who visited shortly after we saw Nickie and Carolé. Alas, if I don't put something up on this blog, I'll never put anything up again. Allison flew in late at night and the next day we were off to the BC ferries and Salt Spring Island. The Canadian Gulf Islands are, essentially, an extension of the San Juan Islands in Washington. But Jay and I had yet to explore these lovely islands and it was super exciting to finally visit one with Allison!

One of our first stops was the awesome little Farmer's Market on the island. The market was packed with amazing breads, cheeses, lunches, greens, honey, and crafts. Along with the local breads and cheeses we bought, I had brought along a bottle of Washington's own Treveri Blanc de Noir and we were all set for a perfect evening in our rental cabin on the water.

Before we got the bubbly, however, we had to take in the views around the island, including this lovely scene from Mt. Maxwell Provincial Park.

We spent a little time wandering around the woods and freezing our butts off in the park. 

Ruckle Provincial Park wasn't part of the plan for the day, but it managed to sneak in there and we were all so glad it did. What amazing views of the San Juan Islands and the Gulf Islands!

View of Ganges Harbor at sunset

Our last day on Salt Spring was our paddling day! We only brought one of our two kayaks with us (my beloved Alaria) because the owners of our rental cabin said we could use their two kayaks under the deck. They were a bit mossy and muddy, but we cleaned them right up and launched right from the beach by the cabin. Check out Allison rockin' the paddle in her borrowed boat!

Allison took this great photo of Jay (funny little borrowed black river kayak hidden, thankfully, from view) and me (in Alaria).

On the way back to the cabin, Jay and Allison picked up a few oysters for their lunch. Don't worry, he checked PSP levels and bivalves were O.K. to harvest.

One of the first things you have to do when visiting us in Anacortes is take a trip to the rooftop bar when it is sunny out. It must be a requirement at this point? So here we are, trying to be warm, on top of the world in awesome Anacortes.

We are lucky ducks to always eat so well - both in our house and out at restaurants. Allison had a red-eye flight out of Seattle, so we stopped at our new favorite restaurant in the big city, Sitka and Spruce. Lucky for us, we were joined by another member of the family (Sophia) for the dinner! What a night it was..... I'm not sure I'll ever forget my morels in a brandy cream sauce...... ohhhhhh...

Photos from April are here - 
 https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/April2015?authkey=Gv1sRgCOK1n9jwgqv46gE