VIP 2010

Ladysmith was, as usual a pretty good time. Paula and I headed up-Island on the E&N about 8:00am with two inflatable kayaks and a couple of backpacks, and got off the train just after 10:00am to find John, Louise, Marlene, and Tracy just getting the lay of the land.
The trip up was uneventful; the usual drinking tea and relaxing in big seats while the train rocked its way over the Malahat. As usual, the engineer stopped the train in the middle of each of the two trestles in order to let us all get a good look at the stunning views. The only excitement was provided by the three idiots walking across the second trestle as the train came upon them. But there are refuges provided and, thankfully, the three young men (I've a guy, and even I'm disappointed in these young men who seem to take the laws of self-preservation less seriously) were smart enough to actually get out of the way on the tracks.
The train pulled in to Ladysmith on time, and it took us only moments to hop off—even with the kayaks. We were a bit loaded down because Paula was leading a discussion on inflatable kayaks Saturday afternoon and so we were camping overnight in Transfer Beach Park, along with a couple of dozen other people. From the train stop to the beach was a fairly short walk (had we wished, it was a shorter walk across the highway to a motel we'd scouted out on a previous trip). The organizers allowed us some space to cache the kayaks until the discussion, and a little while later I had the tent set up. Before I could even tell Paula about it, she'd found it and changed into her paddling gear and was off to test out boats.

Transfer Beach

    I'm still interested in boats, but more from a design standpoint these days. I ended up interviewing John Rogers from 8 Dragon Custom Kayaks (who builds beautiful wooden boats), and then cruising the gear sales and checking out new boat designs. Among the more interesting ones was Delta's new Catfish design: a catamaran hull sit-on-top. It looks like a well-thought-out fishing boat, and was one of the few boats I would ave been interested in trying out. Not because I'm looking for  a catamaran hull sit-on-top, but just to see how well the design translates into function.

The Catfish

After renewing my acquaintance with Insomniac Coffee's coffee wagon,  Marlene and I settled in for a bit of a mid-day nosh, and were joined by a couple who had earlier recognized John and Louise from the blog. We ended up having a great conversation and were slowly joined by the rest of the group, more food, and a couple of bags of fresh-made mini-doughnuts.

Louise and Marlene talking to Mike Jackson

The afternoon passed in usual Paddlefest style, with meeting new people, discussing boats and paddling, and generally spending a sunny afternoon with a couple of hundred un-met friends. John, Louise, and Marlene decided to leave about 3:00pm, but not before Louise won a double kayak rental from Sealegs Kayaking—which apparently means at least one more trip to Ladysmith this year. Paula hosted her discussion on inflatable kayaks which made up for its small attendance with brisk and wide-ranging conversation.




    After the discussion, Paula and I packed up her boats and headed into Ladysmith to find dinner. We ended up at Robert's Street Pizza, where we were delighted with a very good pizza.
Roberts St. Pizza

We had several choices of restaurant, but found ourselves wanting something simple and light instead of some of the more elaborate meals on offer. Although the Greek restaurant, Transfer Beach Grill, received a good review the next morning from the couple with whom we had breakfast.
Eventually we wandered back to Transfer Beach and, after chatting with other campers, we went to bed early and slept late.


The next morning was bright, and the night had been warm (much warmer than I'm used to experiencing when sleeping in a tent), and Paula came back to the tent chatting with a woman. We ended up at In The Bean Time with the other couple and had both a great breakfast (In The Bean Time would definitely become my second home if I lived in Ladysmith) and great company.

In The Bean Time

 Almost regretfully, we four found our way back to the beach, where Paula inflated a kayak and took off for an extended paddle around the bay. I threw a few things into my new pack, and set off to break-in both boots and pack with a hike around Holland Creek.
The hiking trail extends from the marine trail that follows part of the bay, under the highway, and up through Ladysmith to one of the entrances to the Holland River trail.

The trail itself consists of three loops; the main loop, with one side being handicapped accessible and the other with some steep sections; the lower loop, which is fairly short and extends south from the Dogwood Road bridge (in itself a short and enjoyable hike); and the upper loop which is fairly difficult and takes you past Heart Lake (a lake advertised by the Ladysmith Chamber of Commerce on their website, as a “good place for skinny dipping”).  Taken together, the three loops are about 14 or 15 kilometres long. The Marine Trail would add a few more kilometres to that.
I ended up hiking both the lower and main loop, although I ran out of time to make the upper loop. It was a great hike, And as the river is a salmon-spawning stream, there are warnings about bears in the fall, and the area is kept pretty pristine, making it a great hike. And right on the edge of Ladysmith —you could spend the night in a motel or B&B, spend the day hiking, have a swim, and spend the night indoors again, and have had a great time.



All in all, I'm very impressed with Ladysmith; from the support for keeping the historic buildings in downtown, to the free trolley making its rounds, to the beautiful park at the beach, the town has done several things correctly, making it a great place to visit. And the kid's playhouse I spotted in town was unbelievable.

Yes, its a playhouse

Eventually, Paula and I met back up, packed up, and caught the E&N back to Victoria. We'd had a great weekend, and I'd had the chance to explore a bit more of the Island.

Gear Day

Well, it's Paddlefest this weekend in Ladysmith (home to a lovely market, beautiful historic down town, and cool bus, and Sealegs Kayaking), and this year Paula is leading a discussion about inflatable kayaks. We planned last year to take the train up this year--particularly because it stops practically at the entrance to the park from the highway. On the other side of the highway is a lovely motel looking out onto the harbour, but I really want to make sure all the camping gear is ready for the beginning of June, so I'm hoping to camp out at Transfer Beach Park. The motel is a back-up plan.
While hauling all the gear out, Marlene came over, and we ended up setting up her tents as well as our own. She has a great Outbound tent in her earthquake preparedness kit:

I like the fact that the fly is double-sided, with one side shiny to reduce daytime heating. Marlene also has a Taymor "Walk-about," which I'd never seen before.

While it has a lot of interesting features (like the tunnel entrance, a semi-circular floor zipper so you can keep your boots from fouling the tent, and a large vestibule), I'm not as thrilled with the pole structure. The tent is not free-standing, relying on the tension between the guy lines and the poles to stay up. Still, its large and certainly usable.

I put up my bivy, which neither Paula nor Marlene had seen up before, and our new Sierra Designs tent.

The Sierra Designs tent ~1.5 kilos and the bivy is lighter than that. But the tent is a whole lot bigger and does allow some movement inside it without waking up to roll over. It was also a discontinued model that we got from Robinson's Sporting Goods for about a third of its original price.
I also set up the Tarn 2 from MEC. I've only used this once since getting it--that was the overnight at Sooke Potholes Provincial Park with Lila.

I really like the amount of space it offers--and the colour-coded set-up. It's too heavy to take backpacking for more than an overnight, but it should be great for bike camping--which I'm still hoping to do this summer.
One thing I did discover is that apparently I have a thing about the end of the world. I fully intend to eat after it happens. Unpacking the bins, I found I have this many stoves:

There are nine in the picture. Starting at the back, they are:
9. A Stormbuster single burner stove. This uses isobutane canisters (of which I have about 20--they went on sale), and I've taken this kayak camping. In fact, I specifically made the rear hatch on my kayak big enough to take this stove.

8. The classic Sterno stove; jellied alcohol and a fold up stove. Had this in the kayak for a while also.

7. This is an emergency stove I picked up in Cowichan Bay. You unscrew the cap, light the wick (it burns paraffin or alcohol or something like that) and then the screen unit screws on where the cap used to be. Mostly for heat, you're supposed to be able to heat a sierra cup of water on top of it. I think it was about $2, which is another reason I have it.

6. Ah, the Trangia alcohol stove. This is the Trangia Mini--it comes complete for under $30 from MEC. The stove, a small kind-of wind-screen that the burner sits in and the pot sits on, the pot and a lid and pot-lifter. Add a sixty-nine cent bottle of gas line anti-freeze and you have an emergency cooking system. Really a lovely inexpensive design.

5. The Whisperlite Internationale. Man, I wanted this stove. A tried and true multi-fuel stove, field repairable, light, and functional. But messy and smelly and burns through the fuel. This one is currently jetted for kerosene, but will also burn diesel, white gas, and pretty much anything else you can scrounge.

4. This one is an accident. It's an MSR Superfly isobutane stove that Lila bought and fell out of love with. I agree, and for the same reason--the potholders. They don't lay flat enough, and you can't protect against damage from the sharp tips on the wings. That said, it's light and works very well. These stoves are also pretty frugal with their fuel (in the red tin underneath it).

3 and 2. Alcohol stoves. #2 is a home-made version I made from the bottoms of two beer cans. I eased them together with a bit of fibreglass insulation in between them, and then punched holes in one side with a drawing pin. A hand-bent wire potholder and you're heating water. A bit frustrating to light at first, and the flame is invisible. But it works, and works well. Behind it, #3, is the titanium version of the same thing. This lives in my fanny pack for hiking along with a pack of matches and a bottle of gas line antifreeze. And it practically floats, it's so light.

1. The Optimus Crux. What a stove! 93 grams. Folds flat into a neoprene case that stores the stove in the hollow in the bottom of a fuel cannister. The red fuel cannister gives you about an hour's worth of burn time. Behind the Crux is my cooking gear: a GSI Pinnacle Soloist Cookset. The one litre pot holds the stove, the fuel cannister (the neoprene bag prevents scratching the inside of the pot) the folding titanium spork (with it's bag in front of the stove) and an insulated cup and a lid that fits both the cup and pot. Oh, and the bag it travels in is watertight, and meant to be used as a sink. A complete system that takes up almost no room and weighs almost nothing. Lila and I both have the same system, and it's our combo of choice for backpacking.

I'm not exactly sure what there will be to eat after the end of the world, but I'm certainly equipped to cook it!

Kayaking in Sidney

We went out kayaking in Sidney yesterday. The original idea had been to make the passage out to Portland Island and then for the rest of the party to return while I carried on to Prevost Island and up the passage between Galiano and Saltspring Islands. I wasn't really ready by Sunday morning, but close enough that I could have gone for a couple of days at least. But the small craft warning up Sunday morning changed the plans into a trip round Coal Island, and the weather itself changed that into a much shorter trip. With the wind/current combinations, it was probably a good choice to turn back--I haven't paddled long distances for quite a while. So rather than a long trip, a short video.

So Where Was Bernie?

Spent last weekend testing out the new boat. 5 metres is supposed to be long enough for expeditioning, so how better to test out the proof of concept than a long trip? Okay, maybe not so long, but we'll get to that.

I had planned to set out back on tuesday the 11th, but fog got in the way. As it did wednesday. As it seemed ready to do thursday (but finally did not). So friday, once it became clear that the fog probably wouldn't re-develop, Paula and I set off to Island View Beach to check on conditions there. Clear! And looking to stay that way! Woohoo!





Straight ahead paddle to D'Arcy. The outflow current from Sidney Channel met the wind, creating some rather large-ish waves (say, 3/4ths of a metre or so), but the new boat (no, it still hasn't told me it's name) handled them well. Even when there was two sets of waves at 90° to each other, I found that 5 metres tended to deal quite handily with the action of the water. And the curve on the forward part of the kayak shed water very well--even when the bow plowed through a wave, the water would break off well before reaching the cockpit. Very nice indeed.
Not so nice, it turns out, was my attempt at hatch covers. There was enough leakage that they are up for a complete re-design.

D'Arcy was interesting. First off was the old caretaker's cabin on the western side of the island.



For much of the 20th century, D'Arcy was a leper colony--most specifically, a leper colony for immigrant workers diagnosed with the disease.
The campground on D'Arcy is located on the opposite side of the island--pretty much where the housing for the inhabitants was located. That's a very strange feeling, sleeping with the dead.

I was woken up the next morning by a deer bouncing through my campsite at 4:30 am. Eventually I got up and was on the water at about 8:00am, headed for the south end of Sidney Island.




I travelled up the outside/Haro Strait edge of Sidney, finally stopping at Sidney Spit. An hour later, I headed out towards the Little Group, stopping on Dock Island.
Dock has what I thought was a built inlet:



But I found several other of these straght-sided square inlets on Coal Island as well. I have no idea how they formed or why they took this shape.
Carried on up the side of Coal Island--I was getting kind of tired at this point, as all my paddling had been in opposition to the current, and I was pushing 135 kilos with every paddle stroke. So when I made the long(ish) jump across from Coal to Portland, I was looking forward to finding the campsite quickly.
And I did; the capsite in Portland was right at the tip of the island where I arrived. There was one small problem though; two dozen double kayaks that had been filled with teenagers. Tents had been set up everywhere and the kids were in highly excited high drama mode. Thankfully a passing group of kayakers mentioned that there was still room at the Arbutus Point campsite, another twenty minutes or so ahead. Well, twenty minutes at the rate my tired body was paddling.



Nice campground, and thankfully peopled only with adults. I wasn't the only one who needed the services of the sun. The day had been overcast and damp, with humidity at or above 100%, so nothing had dried in the least during the day. And with the amount of moisture I'd generated paddling, everything needed to be hung out to dry.



Everyone had a laundry line hung with all their paddling gear.
Portland Island also had toilet facilities. Now, normally I wouldn't mention them, except that this was different; a composting toilet (the first one installed, according to a sign) was tucked off in the bush.




Oh my, what a difference. No smell, no flies, and no nasty moisture build-up in the outhouse. The sooner these go into every park, the better!
I could barely wait for dark before crawling into my bivvy. But dark also brought out the monsters. Well, the growling, snapping, screeching raccoons, anyway. At least five of them, fighting and scavenging around the campsite, waking everyone. Nasty words were hurled (along with the occasional stick) but they did leave my site pretty much alone. Guess I was clean enough that they went looking elsewhere.
When I got up at 6:00am (yeah, really slept in!), I spotted the last of the raccoons headed up a tree for the day. By 8:00 am the rain had arrived, so I put off plans to head over to Cowichan bay, and instead headed back to Sidney for pick-up.




But before I left Portland Island, I was gifted with this sight over Saltspring:

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