Kapila Jayaweera and I are planning a trip to the area northwest of Port Hardy, including God’s Pocket Marine Park, from Saturday, July 6 to Sunday, July 14 and hoping to find one or two more people to join us.
A tentative itinerary follows. It is subject to change due to weather conditions, group input, etc. and does have some flexibility built in. There are a couple of short days that could be combined into one longer one and we can shorten the time we stay at Van Sittart Island from two or three days to one or two:
- Saturday, July 6: We will take the ferry to Nanaimo, drive to Port Hardy and camp overnight there.
- Sunday, July 7: We will launch from Port Hardy and head out to God’s Pocket, probably traveling via Bell Island to Duval Point where we will spend the night.
- Monday, July 8: We will head further out toward Van Sittart Island. It is in Bates Passage between Nigei and Hope Islands.
- If conditions are favourable, we will travel up the outside coast of Nigei Island all the way to Van Sittart
- Otherwise, we will travel up Goletas Channel on the inside coast of Nigei, stopping for the night on Tuesday at Loquilla Cove and continuing to Van Sittart the following day
- Tuesday, July 9 through Thursday, July 11: Depending on which day we arrive at Van Sittart, we will stay two or three nights
- Friday, July 12: We will head back toward Port Hardy, stopping either at Loquilla Cove or Duval Point.
- Saturday, July 13: We will paddle to Songhees Creek and camp there, or to the Cattle Islets southeast of Port Hardy.
- Sunday, July 14: We will paddle back to the launch site in Port Hardy and then drive down to Nanaimo to catch an early evening ferry home.
This is a beautiful wilderness area that is not usually crowded even in the summer. The campsites are among the nicest anywhere and, if necessary, can accommodate many campers, although we often have them to ourselves when we visit. There is lots of current which means lots of food and in turn lots of wildlife. We are likely to see humpbacks and orcas, very likely to see sea lions and seals and almost certain to see significant numbers of sea otters and eagles. During our last couple of visits we have also seen wolves.
This is a trip for strong intermediate or advanced paddlers and fits into the C3 category. (See https://www.skabc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Trip-Class.pdf for descriptions of the various categories.) Although there may be strong winds it may also be relatively calm most of the time. There is significant current, which we will try to use to our advantage. Paddlers should be able to handle dynamic conditions but there are unlikely to be any surf landings and you don’t need whitewater skills to manage in the current. It’s mostly large bodies of water moving and we won’t have to deal with features like sharp transitions between current and eddies. We will paddle at least 10 nm most days, perhaps more, and it may sometimes be two or three hours between landing spots.
I have been leading trips for many years and am happy to take care of most or all of the route planning, navigation, etc. However, I am also happy to share my knowledge and serve as a mentor if you would like to practice and improve your own skills. Regardless of who is taking the lead, all decisions will be discussed with the group and everyone’s feelings and opinions taken into consideration.
If you’re interested in this trip, please reply to this posting. I’m happy to chat with you if you’d like more information and to confirm that you and the trip are a good match.
