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.