This is a catch-up post.
After an unsuccessful attempt to head to the Brooks Peninsula in our loaded hatchback, we had to look for an alternate destination on the coast that would be more accessible in our cars. With our two other friends, we quickly found Plan B: San Josef Bay.To get to San Josef Bay one drives about 60 km on a logging road that takes you through the small town of Holberg. It's the same route to the trailhead to Cape Scott Park. The launch spot and place where we parked our vehicle was the private campground/Heritage Park owned by a friendly man named "Doug." The way to get out to San Josef Bay from here was via the San Josef River. It was a 10-minute paddle and we had to make sure that it was high tide so that there would be water and we also didn't want to fight any currents. Check out Wild Coast for details.
We decided on a beach that was at one of the ends of the Cape Scott trail. It was nice but there were still quite a number of people walking about. We weren't completely isolated.
We decided to pack up and paddle out the following day to find another place to stay. Surely, there would be other beaches reachable only by boat. We went past Hanna Point and were on our way to one of the squatter's cabins that we'd heard about. The swells as we rounded the corner kept getting bigger even when we paddled away from the headland. Hmmm...should we turn back or keep going? It was at that point that we were greeted by the loud barking of a gang of seal lions. They aren't shy creatures at all and were actually getting closer as they barked at us. "Where do you think you're going?!" I thought I heard one of them say. It was also when I heard Caro yell out "Paddle!" The sea lions decided that the four of us weren't to go any further in the direction that we were thinking of. We instead paddled back and after avoiding a beach where there was a black bear foraging on the seaweed at the shore, we found a neighbouring pebble pocket beach that was to be home for the next 3 nights.
There were sea stacks here and the rocks were ruddy (red). My fishing expedition the following day resulted in 1 rock fish landed...it was called dinner. Caro cleaned up the beach that had a lot of flotsam that looked like it was mostly from Asia somewhere. This resulted in the genesis of "Agent Orange," a raft on which we carried 3 black bags of beach garbage back to our cars.
The paddle back to our launch spot was interesting. It looked like we had to surf into the river; it seemed wilder than it looked but we all made it without a "yard sale" taking place.
