I had no burning desire to take a solo trip. It was just that my paddling partners weren't available to travel and I did have a burning desire to go north for a bit, so solo it was. I liked the idea of being able to dictate my own schedule, poke around instead of focus on mileage, change my route without debate, take a day off or not as the spirit moved me, etc. The solo-thing meant, to me anyway, that I would need to select a route that wasn't too ambitious and that I would really have to pay attention to the conditions so that I stayed within my skill set.
The route would be an "Inside-Outside" sort of thing
with plenty of familiar locales to provide comfort plus some new sights and
exciting challenges. Since I had never spent much time on the Inside
Passage I would start by flavoring some of the long deep reaches. I would
be passing four Kayak Bill camps and hoped to find his last camp on Gosling
Island clean enough to camp at. The outside of Calvert had called to me
for years so, conditions allowing, I would spend a couple of days checking that
out. Finally, I had spent some time discussing the crossing of
Queen Charlotte Strait with Glenn Lewis of Nanaimo and, if I lost the usual
number of days to foul weather, I would be making that crossing when currents
were running high in Gordon and Goletas Channels so a different tact would be
employed.
Klemtu to Sarah Island
7/27 Friday, Day 1
60 degrees, Overcast, calm winds and seas
I
met the Nanaimo Paddlers at the Bear Cove dock. Really a nice bunch of
folks who were heading for the outside of Aristazabal, Price and Athlone and
who would spend the next the 12 or so hours trying hard to convince me to come
along with them. Made for a very enjoyable ride to Klemtu.
Northern Expedition in Bear
Cove