A summer paddle on the Puntledge River



Getting ready for the next section on this perfect late summer day   (Darcy Wardrop photo)

It was good to have had our first stand-up river paddling  experience on the slower moving waters, big pools and easy  riffle rapids of the Salmon River before we tried the Puntledge River in Courtenay- about 40 minutes south of our hometown of Campbell River on Vancouver Island. The Puntledge, while rated easy for kayaks, rafts, canoes and is a popular summer float for inner tubes and air mattresses,  it was a little more challenging while trying to stay standing upright on the equivalent of a long ironing board- especially for us river running novices.

Although a shorter run than the section of the Salmon River that we'd done, the Puntledge was flowing much faster and had more 'technical' paddling than our previous outing.

Darcy Wardrop, running one of the more demanding sections- good balance required.   (pk photo)

The water is much deeper than it appears in the photo above. The water is so exceptionally clear that the boulders appear to be just beneath the surface when in fact they are several feet down.



Darcy W. contemplating the best line for the next section- note the leash ...

We were new enough to paddleboarding rivers in 2012 that that we both wore our leashes and only afterwards found out that this can be a real danger on a river. People have died finding that one out. The danger occurs when the tailing leash loop catches on some under or above water fixed obstruction in the river because of a capsize or simple bad luck. 
 You'd be suddenly stopped with the full force of the river current piling up against you- likely being forced underwater with only the time you can hold your breath to free yourself before it was too late. So, we are a little smarter about that one now. On the other hand, one doesn't want to lose one's board either- so perhaps a quick release leash or one with a weaker link that would break with a good yank.  Knee pads would be a good idea and helmets too, if the water had been faster or we had started further up.

We plunked in at Puntledge Park in Courtenay and then pulled out at the little marina and kayak shop on the right further down towards the ocean. It can be run from further up- just down from the Puntledge salmon hatchery at about the same grade of water, so maybe next time we'll do that.

A beautiful paddle and superb warm-water swimming  on a perfect late summer day. And it was just a short enjoyable mountain bike ride back to get my truck at the park. 

Paul Kendrick

Sayward Forest Canoe Route- 2013 Fast & Light





Mohun Lake-early morning. A perfect beginning to my day.

I set out from the boat launch on Mohun Lake at exactly 7:00 a.m. on August 20th. The challenge of trying to do the Sayward Canoe route on my stand-up board in a single day had been on my mind since I had first done the route in 2012. I had used the same Surf-Tec board then but had carried gear and food enough to stay out for two nights as I really didn't know what to expect or how long different sections would take or what problems I might run into along the way.This time I knew the route,could pack much lighter and do each portage just once.

  

The 48km Sayward Forest Canoe Circuit

The light that morning was just exquisite, that kind of  clear golden light that saturates and enhances all the colours. The water was a vivid deep blue and the sunlit trees such a luminescent green, they seemed lit from within. There was still a faint white mist slowly rising off the surface of the lake - what a place to be paddling on such a morning.


 It took me about 50 minutes to cover the 4.74 km to the start of the first 1.6k portage. I had made an over the shoulder sling with 2 loops in the end to help carry my board- as it is way too tiring on the fingers to carry the full weight of it that kind of distance. I also had a medium sized dry bag with backpack straps on it that my daughter had bought me for Father's day to carry my food and bivi gear. It took about 20 minutes to hike the portage and I was soon back on the water again. Due to the very dry July we'd had, the water level was a little lower than last year so I had to move up closer to the front of my board more often to lift the fin up enough to get through some of the weedy, shallow sections.

The channel leading from the end of the first portage- leads into Twin Lakes

  There was a young couple with a canoe tenting at Twin Lakes and they were just starting to wake up with the warming sun when I landed on the beach. I made short work of the .8 km portage and launched my board into Amor Lake just before 9:00 a.m.
After about a kilometer, I began to hear the sound of loons coming from somewhere up ahead. That classic, iconic call that is so unmistakable, so inseparable from our ideas, our memories of wilderness places. And Amor Lake has that feeling of being a place of wilderness. It's the only major lake on the circuit that does not have any easy road access, so there were no power boats, jet-skis or clusters of campers and RV's along the shoreline like there is near the end of Brewster Lake and along part of the shorelines of Fry and Campbell Lakes.

Amor Lake still has the feel and look of an untouched and unspoiled  place. The water was still calm and the sun was beginning to warm me up. There was no one else in sight and no other sounds other than those made by my paddle moving through the water and the calling of the loons not far ahead.

And there wasn't just one or two, there were over a dozen of them all in some kind of mysterious loon gathering which I'd never seen or heard before. And they were all calling out at once. Both together and with as many different calls as there were birds in this amazing and highly complex acapella collage of wild sound. I needed to stop and hear this. I felt the urging, the pushing of my agenda for the day. But as I began really take in the sounds of this amazing chorus of loons, my paddle hesitated and then stopped and came to rest. I knew I was witnessing something quite remarkable.

For the next few minutes, I just stood still on my board and simply listened. Drifting at rest after the physical efforting to get to that place, I felt very present, very absorbent. I closed my eyes and just surrendered to this exquisite experience. The sound of the loons seemed like it was being somehow woven into the very fabric of this special place. Into the silence, the stillness. Into the waters, into the surrounding evergreen forest. 
Perhaps when I return to that place again, I will still be able to hear the songs of those loons- whether they are actually there or not. 'I will remember this place.'

Turning the corner and reluctantly leaving the loons behind, I began paddling south down the last 2 km of Amor Lake. I was now exposed to the NW wind which had just begun to build. Luckily, it was going with me and I made really good time down to the end of the lake and then again on Surprise, Brewster and Gray Lakes with my body acting as a kind of sail. 

Only needing to do the 2.2 km portage between Surprise and Brewster lakes once was really nice. And this time I carefully avoided the really deep quicksand like mudtrap at the end of Brewster Lake where in 2012 I'd had what I referred to in my post as, "The great mud Battle." I had stepped off my board a little further out than canoeists would- due to the fin on the back of my board, and promptly plunged in up to my waist in deep mud. It had not been easy getting out. If I hadn't grabbed onto my board so quickly, I would have been up to my neck in it. So beware! Land a little to the right of the obvious canoe stop and test the ground before putting your weight on it.

At the end of the 2.2km portage; start of the channel leading to Brewster Lake. Note the carrying sling for my board.

After about 6 1/2 hours of steady going with the only stops being for the loons and later a Snickers bar, I paddled out of the creek leading from Whymper Lake to Fry lake. And there was my good friend Terry Browne in his small inflatable boat with a cold beer in one hand and fishing rod in the other.

Time for a break. Terry had offered to meet me there in case I decided to bail due to strong winds or some other reason- but all was looking good so far. I very regretfully declined the offer of a cold beer knowing that my motivation and momentum would likely fizzle to a halt. I still had a long way to go. Instead I chugged down the Bolthouse chocolate protein drink he'd brought for me. I now believed I was going to make it all the way around before nightfall, so I gave Terry most of my bivi gear but kept my headlamp and extra food just in case. I still had plenty of daylight and energy left and I was past the halfway mark.

Unfortunately, the NW wind which had been such a help up to that point now started blowing directly against me from just past C3 on the Guide Map for the remaining ~4.5 kms to Gosling Bay on Campbell Lake. I took another break there and went for a quick cooling off swim as Terry packed his boat up.

 Lucky for me it wasn't blowing anything like the forecast 20 knots there, but it still made for much harder paddling for most of the remaining trip. Especially on Gosling Lake and most of all, for the final 5km of Mohun Lake back to my starting point.

There was just nothing for it but dig deep and paddle hard at a steady pace. Other than in the stronger gusts, I kept making slow but steady progress and I used every headland and every shoreline indentation I could find to reduce my exposure to the full brunt of the wind. It was hard work but manageable.

The steeper hill portage from Gosling Bay up to Gosling Lake was the last of the longer carries as there was only a few hundred meters each separating each of the the four remaining lakes; Gosling, Higgins, Lawrier and Mohun.

Lawier Lake; last one before the short portage to Mohun

The wind was the strongest on Mohun as it had a good long fetch to build before it reached the south end where I put in for the last stretch. But it was only 5km more to go at that point and I still felt really strong so I just started paddling and except for one quick stretch break on a lovely little whitesand beach about 3/4 of the way, I didn't stop until my board nosed into the same beach I had left from that same morning- and what a great feeling that was!

It had taken me 11 hours and 16 minutes, so faster than the 12-14 hours I had been prepared for.

Finished- and still sunny outside. Pointing to my start and finish point on the map at the boat launch on Mohun Lake.

Whether doing the the whole route or just a shorter section, there are lots of different options with all the logging road access points to most of the lakes. The lightness of the board makes it a lot easier for one person to carry over the portages than a canoe or a kayak- but you do need some kind of sling to go over your shoulder. 

 As far as I know, I'm still the only person to have done the whole route on a SUP board- and this is a surprise to me as it's such a great way to explore this very special area of Vancouver Island.
 So I hope this blog posting will get out there and inspire someone else to pick up their board and paddle this very accessible circuit of lakes. Whether taking a day or a week, it is great paddling country to be out in.

Cheers, Paul Kendrick        

Read Island- a 51km Easter egg hunt

The Ace-Tech Wing; all ready for overnight wilderness touring (pk photo)

After about ten shorter outings in all kinds of weather from flatwater to a couple of big southeasters, I was more than ready to test my new board on it's first overnight trip- a circumnavigation of Read Island. Although I still really liked my 10' 6" Surf-Tech board, I knew that I was going to have to get a longer board with more flotation and more purpose designed for touring longer distances if I wanted to be able to do the kind of multi-day wilderness paddling trips I had been envisioning.
I surfed the net checking out all the SUP sites, articles, videos, forums etc and finally settled on the 12' 6" 'Ace-Tech Wing' made by BIC. 'Great, now I just have to go buy one,' which should be easy- or so I thought. As it turns out, there isn't (yet!) any retail distributor for the BIC stand-up boards here on the west-coast of Canada, and so I couldn't buy one- at least not unless I wanted to get one on E-Bay or drive to REI in Seattle. I couldn't believe it, I wanted to support one of the local businesses by buying one close to home but that just wasn't possible. Well, there had to be a way- so I decided to go to the top with my plight. A long story and many e-mails later, I was off to Nanaimo to catch the ferry over to Vancouver to pick up the board I wanted in Vancouver. Many thanks to Jason Hilton, Steve Hare and Chris Decerbo from BIC who made it happen. And the 'Wing' is everything I hoped it would be- perfect for Vancouver Island based adventure paddle board touring.

I caught the first ferry over to Quadra Island from Campbell River on March 29/13- 'Good Friday'  and set off from Heriot Bay heading north up Hoskyn Channel after having decided to go clockwise around Read Island. I was concerned about the NW wind which was forecast to blow up to to 30 knots- but by going north first early in the morning, I hoped for lighter winds and then have it behind me in the afternoon if it did really get that strong. Fortunately, it didn't.

Heriot Bay starting point at bottom left

I was sheltered from the wind for the first 45 minutes or so which was nice. Still on the east side of Quadra, I saw some eagles on the shore in the distance- obviously feeding on something, and decided to have a closer look.

                     Bald eagles enjoying rack of seal  (pk photo)

I was unpleasantly surprised to find the eagles feeding on the remains of not one but three seals there- so not sure what the story behind that is but obviously not a happy one for the seals. The eagles were sure dining in style though- nothing was going to waste.

As I neared Conville Point, the northwesterly wind really began to make itself felt and paddling became harder work. I was really happy though with the way the pointed bow of the Wing cut through the waves and with how stable the board felt with the added weight of my overnight gear. Stable enough that I felt no concerns about falling in as I crossed the roughest stretch from Conville Point to Sheer Point on the west side of Read Island. This was a narrow spot so the wind was funnelled through there and kicked up the only real whitecaps I encountered on the whole trip.

To get a better plan future trips I was wearing wearing the Garmin 305 GPS watch that I used for running and this was a great little aid to have along. Even with the wind, I was still making about 5.3km an hour and that actually stayed quite constant for the whole trip- including water and snack stops, so I was pleased with that as it meant I should be able to make it all the way around with just one overnight stop.

After 2.5 hours of steady paddling, I decided to take a short water and Snickers bar break in the little cove tucked behind the south end of Surge Point as I knew the next stretch would be more exposed to the wind.

Snickers stop behind Surge Point

Re-energized, I rounded the point and crossed the open stretch on the opposite side of Surge Narrows and enjoyed a brief respite from the wind at the entrance to Whiterock Passage.

                       Entrance to |Whiterock Passage- dividing Read and Maurelle Islands

The tide was getting quite low by the time I was entering the passage and so I was able to just go slowly along through this short windless stretch and  enjoy seeing some of the bottom flora and fauna through the clear water.

Big sunstar- Whiterock Passage

I could really relax and enjoy the day now because I was now turning east and once I was at the end of Whiterock Passage, I would then have the wind behind me. For March on the B.C. coast, it was developing into a really warm day and I was sweating in my farmer john wetsuit. Fortunately, there was still lots of water of water running in all the little seasonal creeks and runnels coming off the rock walls so I was able to keep well hydrated without going into the 2 litres of extra water I was carrying.
I turned the corner at the end of the passage and decided to take full advantage of the NW wind that was now behind me and paddle on to what I knew was a great campsite at the end of Whale Passage across from Frederic Point. It was still early afternoon by the time I got there but after 34.6km in 6 1/2 hours of paddling, I was more than ready to stop- have something to eat, put my gear out to dry and soak up some sun. Amazing it was so warm and I was just in shorts and sunglasses. Just a week earlier I had been wearing a wool toque and full wetsuit paddling out of Kelsey Bay and it was so cold that I could only stay warm as long as I kept moving.

                 Great camp spot. Bivi-sac, 2 lb down bag and the luxury of a full length Therma-rest.

I had a small fire that night and enjoyed 'a wee dram' of single malt- the Bowmore Doublewood, ahh.
I was packed and off by 7:30 the next morning wanting to take advanatge of the still flooding tide and the NW wind for the long run down the east side of Read Island to Viner Point.




East side of Quadra and Vancouver Island mountains - seen from the crossing  just north of Viner Point to the Breton Islands to Heriot Bay

I could now see Heriot Bay in the distance and with it came thoughts of a big breakfast and COFFEE to look forward to. I was fortunate on this stretch also that the NW winds nver got anywhere near what had been forecast the day before. If they had, I would have had to beat my way much further up the west side of Read Island before crossing and that would have taken a great deal more time and energy.

I'd been going just over 3 hours and had done 16.5 km by the time I landed on the beach in front of the Heriot Bay Inn. So total distance was 50.96m km and total paddling time was 9 hours 35 minutes. No, I don't always keep such tabs on times and distances- but it's useful information for planning more ambitious adventures. And yes, Read Island could be done in a day- but I wouldn't find it as enjoyable. It was a great outing and I hope the first of many such trips now that spring has arrived. Hey, who knows- next time,I may even be able to find someone else who wants to do these kind of trips.

No, I didn't find any Easter eggs.

Paul Kendrick

Stand-up on the Salmon River

 

Darcy Wardrop- contemplating a highly technical section of the Salmon River :)     (pk photo)

 This was about about as technical as it got on a great stand-up-paddle trip down the beautiful and aptly named 'Salmon River' in September 2012. It was a cooler day with some occassional drizzle  but really nice conditions for this river- as in no wind. The problem with bright sunny weather in this area is that it often comes with strong northwesterly winds which blow up the river and can make for hard paddling especially as you near the estuary- not to mention the wind driven whitecaps once you get out in the open waters of Kelsey Bay .

The section of the Salmon River that Darcy and I paddled starts just above where the Salmon River and the White River join together in the beautiful Sayward Valley on Vancouver Island. The Sayward Junction is about a 45 minute drive north of Campbell River on Hwy 19. Turn left at the junction, cross over the Salmon River then left again on Hern Road and drive all the way to the end. A short trail leads from here  to the put-in on the Salmon River. It is about a 16km paddle from here to the take-out at the boat launch spit on the left side of the Salmon River estuary. 

 

Junction of the Salmon and White River's- White on the right- and shortly before I 'splooshed' (Darcy Wardrop photo)

The put-in is just out of sight and around the bend to the left in the picture. There is a sandy beach and a really deep pool there- a popular swimming spot for the locals and visitors alike in the summer.
Darcy made this section look so easy that, against my better judgement- I decided to try it too instead of wading across the White River and putting in again on the gravel bar to the right in the picture. This was what I had done when I had soloed the river the day before.
(The problem on that day was while I had remembered my camera, I had forgotten to put the camera card back in it- so no pictures meant I felt compelled to do the river again- and this time Darcy came too.)

Well, I didn't find it so easy and got dumped in just where the water piles up against the rock wall just out of sight on the left. Glad I was wearing my wetsuit or else the rest of the paddle on that particular day would have been a little chilly. Not exactly the way I wanted to start out the day but I managed to keep my camera dry.

After a very dry August, the river levels were very low and the water crystal clear and jade green. There were several thousand pink salmon schooling in the river in the upper sections and we could see where they had been digging out big shallow pits in the gravel river bed called 'rudds' for spawning and depositing their eggs. Further down in the lower sections there were also numerous schools of much bigger salmon- coho I think, holding in the deeper pools.

There were also plenty of spawned out dead salmon on the bottom and along the river banks. The presence of all this food had attracted a lot of bald eagles and turkey vulures which we saw perched in the trees along the river banks as we descended. The day before, I had seen a good sized black bear come out of the bush looking for a salmon brunch about 150 feet from where I was passing by.

The Salmon River was very shallow in the low water conditions that we had, and this had caused me problems with my fin hitting the bottom which mean't I'd had to carry my board down some of the shallow riffle areas instead of just being able to run them as I'd done in my old ocean kayak years before.
Fortunately, Darcy had come up with an ingenious solution to this problem by crafting two wooden fins for our boards which were about a foot long but only drew about 3 inches of water. These shallow draft fins enabled us to run several sections I hadn't been able to do the day before and also allowed us to do much quicker turns when needed. Yet because of their length, these plywood fins still worked well enough for paddling the longer, slower moving sections that make up most of the trip.

A typical section of the scenic and easy paddling on the Salmon River (pk photo)

Darcy meandering down the Salmon River; lower slopes of Mt.Kusam in the background (pk photo) 

As the river winds it's way through the Sayward valley on it's way to the ocean, we did pass some farms and a handful of houses but for the most part, the Salmon River feels much more remote than it actually is. But having said that, this is still a very wild place and home to elk, black bear, deer and eagles. It is also part of what's included in the area known as 'north Vancouver Island' which contains one of the highest concentrations of cougars in the world. As with the bears, everyone around here has a cougar story or two to tell as well.

Herd of elk resting in a field along the Sayward Valley Road (pk photo)

The day before, I had paddled all the way out into the river estuary and then crossed to the end of the long spit where the small boat launch is. I tucked my board and paddle out of sight as best I could and then rode my mountain bike back the ~12 km or so to where I had parked my truck at the end of Hern Road. But on this day I got out on the rocky river bank just beneath the bridge over the river on the Sayward Valley Road. My bike was stashed just above so I left my board there and went back to get the truck while Darcy carried on the rest of the way to the estuary and take-out point. This bridge crossing would make for a good alternative takeout if the westerly wind was really blowing.

If you go to www.sayward.ca and open up the 'Outdoor Recreation' tab then click on 'Location,' this will bring up an excellent Google earth view of the whole valley and the river route  from start to finish.

A great outing in a very beautiful area.

 

Paul Kendrick