Paddling the Broken Group Islands

Looking northeast toward Vancouver Island from the Broken Islands

I'm still writing about some of our summer fun! Our annual kayaking trip this Labor Day took us to the Broken Group Islands, a pretty darn famous sea kayaking spot along the west coast of Vancouver Island. Not sure where that is? Check out the map of Vancouver Island, we went to a small group of islands in the red square. This spot is called Barkley Sound and we have had a kayaking trip there on our brains for years. There are several ways to reach these islands but we decided to head out from the town of Bamfield. My good friend Katie does research out of Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre and she had been trying to get us to visit her there for ages. The big bummer was that we went right by the lab on our way to the Broken Group and we missed her by a month. Ergh.... someday Katie!

The crossing from Bamfield to the Broken Group is too exposed and long for most paddlers to attempt, so we hired a water taxi to take us across the sketchy area and drop us off right in the islands. Typical of Julie and Jay, we had not done much planning and didn't quite realize how small this island group was! You could paddle the entire group in one very long day....and we had three nights and, essentially, three days! This meant we were going to spend time exploring the islands on foot as well as paddling from island to island. Another thing that is neat about this group of islands is that they are relatively protected and provide safe paddling even though they are on the exposed and stormy west coast of Vancouver Island. I drew a little line showing where we were dropped off (top right), where we paddled, and where we were picked up (bottom center).

We were dropped off at one of the designated campsites in the island group but we decided it was too crowded for us (this turned out to be an issue, too many people wanting to be here actually took away from the experience). So we packed up our boats and paddled toward Willis Island hoping there wouldn't be as many people there. We lucked out - even though there were other folks on the island, we found a beach that was further away from the other people but still within the designated camping area. And look at our view (photo above)! It was a lovely place to spend the night. The paddle to Willis was also really enjoyable....the wind was screaming, but we were in the lee of it and only paddling on small chop. We had great views of the mountains of Vancouver Island (see the top photo on this blog) and close-up views of all the great marine life at low tide. The sun was out and we were together. Doesn't get much better than that!

 Our great campsite on Willis Island

The next morning we took off early to cross an open body of water that would be exposed to the afternoon winds. At this time of day it was flat calm and we were able to get some great views of sweet little common murres in non-breeding plumage. Murres were everywhere!

We paddled right past the campsite on Clark Island when we saw how many people were there....but we enjoyed the lovely shallow white sandy beach by the campsite. Just beyond this beach was the open ocean, a place we don't normally venture out into when we are paddling, but it was so calm we couldn't help but be lured further out west.

Here I am in my lovely Alaria, paddling on the open ocean with Clark Island behind me. We popped out into the ocean and turned back in to have lunch at a secluded beach on Clark Island. Then we decided to paddle around Benson Island, including the exposed western shore (because it was so calm). Well, the exposed area around Benson wasn't as calm as the exposed area around Clark and we got into some big swells and some confused seas while rounding the corner to try and head back to the protected side of the island. Our kayaks handled the conditions better than our nerves and we happily beached our boats on Benson Island (on the east side) to go for a walk to get rid of the jitters. No photos from that part of the paddle for obvious reasons I hope.

Benson Island, according to the Tseshaht First Nation people, is where the first man and woman were created. The island is of obvious sacred importance to their people. It used to be a campground for paddlers, but out of respect (finally) for the Tseshaht people, it is now only open for day visits. We wandered into the forest and up the hill to the exposed coast we just paddled past. Along the way we walked past obvious shell middens. It turns out that we found shell middens all over the islands whenever we looked for them...remnants of past celebrations, meals, and families that lived on these islands. It was beautiful and haunting.....

Usually when you are on the exposed outer coast of northern islands, you can find tons of a neat algae called Postelsia or the sea palm. Jay and I looked all over for it but never found it once on the exposed rocks of these islands. We did, finally, find some Postelsia washed up on the beach at Benson Island. They make good pigtails eh? We are still not sure why it wasn't on these wave-exposed rocks... a bit odd.

We spent our second night on Clark Island (far away from the other people) looking west out to the open ocean and a storm rolling in. This was the night of our 6th wedding anniversary! We had a nice bottle of wine and some decent food to eat....but no time to sit and enjoy it as the rain arrived quickly and heavily! Jay and I scrambled to get a tarp over our tent (the tent is waterproof but in this neck of the woods it doesn't hurt to have extra water protection) and pack up our gear into drybags.... by the time this was all done, it was still pouring and we decided to forgo the wine and climb into our sleeping bags to read.

The morning bought clearing skies and happy campers! 

After packing up our camp we decided to paddle to Wouwer Island because, well shit, the island is named Wouwer. Do you need more incentive than that? This involved an open crossing (look at Jay in the Pacific in this photo!) but we had the morning's lack of wind on our side. What a paddle! It was calm with a huge and fun swell rolling gently in.

Wouwer is wowie. Wowie Wouwer. Whoa. We love Wouwer. Just LOOK at this BEACH! This clearly had to be our lunch spot and it was also a great place to hike through the forest to the exposed coast. The hot sun also provided us with the opportunity to drag all our soaked gear out onto a rock for drying - a special treat for these soggy campers.

Wouwer's exposed coast. I sat and soaked up the sun while Jay ran around and.....you guessed it....looked at anemones. =) He was also on a mission to find a glass Japanese fishing ball, but no such luck for him. The anemone populations were pretty amazing though and that occupied Jay for hours (both hiking and in his kayak).

After leaving Wouwer and exploring one other island, we headed over to Gilbert Island and set up camp for our last night. Jay used one of the mesh storage bags for our camping chairs to throw two beer cans into the water for some chillin' and we had a great evening camped below a shell midden.....which constantly reminded us of the island's importance to the First Nation people.

 View from our third campsite at dusk.

We had an early dinner and then we headed out for an evening sunset paddle around Gilbert Island. We paddled through a tiny pass that was loaded with cackling kingfishers - it was lovely to listen and watch my favorite birds swoop back and forth among the trees. The sunset was amazing...nuff said.

It was fun to try and take a photo in the low evening light with our kayaks skimming over the shallow water toward our camp. If you look closely, you can see our tent just to the right of my bow under a bowed dead tree.

Canada is definitely our favorite paddling playground. I'm not sure we will return to the Broken Group; although it was incredible, it was a bit too busy for us wilderness seekers. But I am thankful that we went and now I've got other, more isolated, island groups along the west coast on my mind. Maybe next time we will be a place wild enough for wolves!

More photos are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/September2015?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIekwdnM6fzhIw&feat=directlink