Mayne and Prevost Island

Jay and I took our annual Memorial Day weekend to head north to Canada for a paddle. This time we were headed to the Canadian Gulf Islands where I had planned out a trip to circumnavigate Saturna Island over the course of three days.

The weather had different plans for us though.... 30 knot winds on Saturday kept us on Mayne Island where we decided we would rather live than try to paddle around Saturna which was very exposed to the wind direction we were dealing with. So we left our tent up at Mayne Island Camping (cool little walk-in campsites) for one more night and explored Mayne Island and the sections of the Gulf Islands National Park on the island.

Jay and the low tide at Mayne Island Lighthouse

 We hiked up Mt. Parke and enjoyed the wet forest

We even managed to get out for an evening paddle in Active Pass where we were in the lee of the wind storm. After a bottle of wine and some great evening sun, we crashed.... I was so excited the next morning though when I peaked out the tent's rainfly and saw this gorgeous weather! Yeah! And off we went in our kayaks...

Because we lost a day to the wind, we didn't have the time to paddle around Saturna Island so we made a change in our plans to head over to Prevost Island and circumnavigate that island instead. It actually wasn't a lot of paddling at all, but it was so lovely we were happy to take it slow, hike, eat lunch, and bask in the sun. But first, we had to cross from Mayne to Prevost....which involved crossing a major ferry route. Here we are just hanging out waiting for these two ferries to get out of our way.

Portlock Point Lighthouse

 Gorgeous Prevost Island

 Jay and a bald eagle

We camped in James Bay which is part of the Gulf Islands National Park. You can see the orange and blue of our tent's rainfly. What a night!!

Prevost sunset looking over to Saltspring Island

 Alaria was so happy to be back in the water (I was too!)

Prevost has such variable topography - white sandy beaches, sandstone cliffs, Madrona trees draped over bedrock, cobble beaches covered in a green algae called Ulva, and flat sandy beaches loaded with clams. It really took all the best parts of the Gulf Islands and combined them into one awesome little island in the middle of it all. 

Back to Mayne to catch our ferry.....we had to wait one more time for a ferry before crossing. The wind storm prevented us from getting around Saturna, but the weather that followed behind it was amazing and it was wonderful to be back outside in our kayaks.