Vargas Island (May 24-29, 2007)

MAY 25, the three of us (Jeremy, Craig and I) set off to Vargas Island. Stayed at Whalers Inn (the hostel) in Tofino--that's just a stones-throw away from the launching point beside the First Street dock. Launching at around the same time were a couple of paddlers, Jeff (USA) and Kierron (UK) who were trying to set a world record for the shortest circumnavigation of Vancouver Island--they were on their 15th out of 19 days (See http://www.pinkkayak.org). I realized only a second after I'd done it, that I shouldn't have shaken Jeff's blistered hand so firmly (oh, that's what those band aids were for).


DAY 1: LAUNCH, LUNCH & SET CAMP
The sea was quite calm when we launched. The sky was grey, and there was only a soft breeze, if any. It was an easy 3-hour paddle from Tofino harbour to Ahous Bay. We stopped for lunch at the mouth of the creek at Ahous (saw a couple of whales here last year). After lunch, we decided to head to the beach where we'd camped the year before, north of Ahous, and across from Bartlett Island. It was a 20-minute paddle around the corner--it was much closer than we thought.

Jeremy gathered some of the bouys that littered the beach, and entertained us with his juggling. He also got us to play some beach bouy bowling/bocce.


DAY 2: HIKE & SURF

The following morning, a group of kayakers came out from a trail at the end of the beach 1km north of where our camp was. (We found out that these were students from Vancouver on a 5-day paddling trip that was part of the TREK program.) We went for a walk in the direction from which they came and followed a trail into the forest. (The "telegraph trail" is 3km long and crosses the island from east to west.)

The wind picked up towards mid-day. Our tent got blown a few feet from where we set it. The waves were dumping, but the water was so enticing. The three of us hopped into our kayaks, paddled around the rock, and over the "surf beach." We played in the water, went through the spin cycle, and came out feeling exhilarated.

The wind blew hard throughout the night. Despite my worry that our tent would collapse while we slept in it, I woke up the following morning feeling quite silly about having entertained the thought.


DAY 3: HIKE & MAYBE SURF?
The wind was relentless and blew steadily throughout the morning. After our morning jolt of caffeine, we went for a walk over the rocks and south towards Ahous Bay and looked for the trailhead. Playing on the beach just beyond the rocks was the other group of 20 students who were dressed only in shorts and t-shirts. In contrast, the 3 of us were wrapped up in our toques, sweaters, and windbreakers. What were we missing here? When we got to the north end of Ahous Bay, we found this group's campsite and it was a sheltered bay. There was no wind to speak of, you could hear the chirping of birds, aaaand it was quite warm! About 500 metres out from the beach though, and one could feel the wind that had been battering our beach for the past 18 hours. The trail continued southward, but we couldn't easily find it, so we turned back.

Gale force- to storm winds, eh? Jeremy and Craig decided they were going to be cold anyhow, so why not try surfing in that wind. Scouting the waves on the beach from our lunch spot, I recalled Craig's back-bender from last year and hoped there wouldn't be an encore from these dumpers

That night, the sky cleared up. The moon shone brightly. The wind continued to blow, but not quite as strongly as it did earlier in the day. We lamented our last night on the open coast over a fire. Jeremy treated us to a reading of some of his writing, some of which was about our last Brooks trip.

There were sacks of sand in our tent, in our hair, in our teeth...


DAY 4: PADDLE BACK The wind warning was over. The sea was quiet again. The only white to be seen on its surface was from the occasional lapping of a wave against a rock. It's quite a different sight from yesterday.

They're hard to come by: glass floats. But, there it lay, waiting to be found, along with all the flotsam on this pebble beach where we stopped for lunch. "Lunch spot" was south of Ahous Bay, and across from the La Croix group of rocks. It didn't look as though anyone had scoured through this beach before as there were still lots of debris and logs all along the shore. The sun felt warm on our skin. Was it Craig or Jeremy who suggested we go for a swim? Somehow, in the end, all 3 of us took a dip in the icy water without our drysuits!

I think we all wanted to delay the return to civilization. We paddled on the outside of Wikaninish Island on our return, rather than turning in at Moser Point. About a mile from Wikaninish's exposed shore, the swells got a bit bigger and the water seemed to travel a lot faster.

Drysuits packed away, we all launched into our celebratory dinner at the Schooner. And yes, we spent some time analyzing various aspects of the trip: food, safety, etc. were all up for discussion.

Well, bagged food, my first taste of Jack Daniels whisky, beach bouy bowling, fireside chats, tidal pools, and the nightly munchies will all be remembered fondly as makings of a great Spring 2007 paddling trip.

SIGHTINGS: Oystercatchers, plovers, ravens, eagles and porpoises BUT NO gray whales, not this year.