For the fourth year in a row, a forecast for strong wind persuaded me to change my itinerary over President’s Day weekend. Originally, I had planned to circumnavigate Gabriola Island near Nanaimo. I rethought that plan in the face of the forecast fifteen to twenty-five-knot winds. The Strait of Georgia is no place to paddle a kayak in twenty-knot winds. (Entrance Island did indeed record twenty-knot winds that Saturday).
Instead, I stuck to the sheltered inland waters around Swartz Bay. Saturday afternoon, I paddled over to Portland and spent the rest of the day wandering the forest maze. Sunday morning, I rode the last of the flood up to Ruckle Provincial Park to hike the even more beautiful trails there. The Sunday afternoon ebb carried me at a blistering pace down to Rum Island, one of my favorite spots in the Gulf Islands. Monday morning, I tried to catch the flood back to Swartz Bay, but the tides swirled so around unpredictably through the maze of little islands I felt like the current was always against me, even when it should have been in my favor.
Route map. This was my first time back on Portland Island since WCP spring campout 2012.
Launch at Swartz Bay. I was lucky to find free overnight parking right next to the ferry terminal. By Monday morning, there were no spots remaining.
Harlequin ducks. These are some of our cheeriest ducks.
Looking south down Prevost Passage. Even over such short distances, it’s easy to get lost in this watery maze if you don’t know the geography.
Looking north toward Saltspring Island. Even in this most urbanized part of the Gulf Islands, nature still dominates the vista.
Barrow’s goldeneyes. These are the least shy of the Bucephela, but they still don’t like to be approached.
At Arbutus Point, Portland Island. Pender Island in the background.
The wildlife highlight of the trip was a pod of eight orcas near Mayne Island, seen from the ferry but, unfortunately, not from the kayak. Bird-wise, the Big Four alcids were present in fair numbers (marbled murrelet, pigeon guillemot, rhinoceros auklet, and common murre), but I did not see any ancient murrelets.
In fact, I missed ancient murrelets altogether this winter, since I also didn’t see them during my previous trips across Haro Strait and President Channel. Disappointingly, I also missed long-tailed ducks, which were present last time I was in the southern Gulf Islands in winter. However, there were plenty of goldeneyes, about half of which were Barrow’s.
Leaving Arbutus Pt. in the morning. On days like this, you just want to keep wandering through the islands forever.
Cormorants at Arbutus Pt. I could smell them before I could see them.
Common murres. Almost all the murres and most of the guillemots had their breeding plumage. None of the murrelets did.
Sunset on Rum Island. When kayakers dream at night, this is what they see.
Silhouettes on Rum Island. There was caution tape across the trail leading up from the beach but no closure sign or any other explanation.
Sunrise over Rum Island. I love these chilly, blue-sky winter days.
The best part of winter kayaking is the solitude. There were no other campers on Portland or Rum Island. Two yachts were anchored at Princess Bay, but their crews did not come ashore. There were plenty of people at Ruckle, of course, but they were the only people I actually spoke to all weekend. On Monday morning, there were a few kayakers in the vicinity of Coal Island, but they stayed far away from me.
—Alex Sidles