Day 22: Spring Island to Catala Island
I'd really like to get to Catala Island today, but we have to meet Andrew at Rugged Point at 5pm. We head into Kyuquot again to throw away any remaining trash and make a couple more phone calls, then we work our way down Union Island and across to Rugged Point, doing a little rock gardening along the way. We arrive four hours early, but Andrew arrived five hours early. "Onto Calvin Creek!" I trumpet. If we can make it there today, we can get out onto the Hesquiat Penninsula the next day, then maybe to Hot Springs Cove the following day.... After an hour for lunch and relaxation, we head out to Grassy Top Island
in the "Fossil Island" group. This island contains a lot of fossils which paleotlogists are studying, but which I find all look like small clam shells. The island itself is an amazingly beautiful island with a protected lagoon formed by other small islets, all a mile offshore. From there, we can follow a chain of islets all the way down the coast to Jurassic Point. Moderate winds and swell from behind us propel us along. It gets very bumpy as we pass outside the breakers over the shoal at Tatchu Point, then we turn and head in for the south side of Catala, Scott leading the way a half mile ahead of us. We find a perfect wide pebble beach with beautiful views, water, sunset, everything. We are in one of the most gorgeous places in the world right now, and noone else is around. I feel like we are early explorers in a way, and we are about to head on into the unknown parts as we head south toward Nootka tomorrow.
Who would have thought that today would be better than yesterday. I am still on a kayaking high, and the world is beautiful. We paddled over to the east side of Catala to look at a couple caves in the forest behind the beaches, and we
played in sea caves along the way. Then we breezed by the Nuchatlitz, a raft of otters greeting us with excitement as we passed by. Wind and waves picked up around Ferrer Point and we had a bumpy ride down the coast. We saw five gray whales feeding along Skuna Bay, the closest coming about 30 yards away. Calvin Creek was a wide open beach with a wee bit of surf. We arrived just as the winds picked up to 20 knots, making further kayaking a frustrating paddle. Scott capsized and rolled back up for the fans, otherwise landing successfully. The rest of us cruised in for a safe landing, agog at the beautiful waterfall. Could things get better than this? Just as we hit the beach, a float plane circled and landed on the beach, dropping off three women with their surfboards and gear, then took off again. 
Ah, surf babes. Things are looking even better.
We swam in the pool to our heart's delight. Roy and I paddled our kayaks around in the pool. I even pulled out my air mattress and jumped in for a bit. I had boasted that I would paddle my air mattress around the Brooks Penninsula if the weather were good, but Calvin Creek was a lot more relaxing for such a stunt.
I tried hiking into the woods up around the waterfall, but the brush was too thick, and I began to worry about getting eaten by wolves.
Day 24: Calvin Creek to Escalante Point
It's a shame to leave such a beautiful spot. We'll come back here some day. Heading out, Andrew got pummeled by surf, getting water down his neck, a common occurance. I like to call the venting necks on our touring jackets "neck funnels". We stayed right near shore around Bajo Point and avoided the reefs that extended miles offshore. An eagle is picking at a carcass on the beach. Past Beano Creek at Callicum Creek, Andrew and Scott went inside the break and Andrew got slammed again by waves, this time capsizing and rolling back up. More water down his shirt.
We had a lot of fun exploring some nice sea caves between Bajo Point and Maquinna Point. A lot of the caves are huge and fairly safe to get in and out. One low-ceilinged cave would reflect waves of the back with a big 
thunderous splash, and we tested how far we could go in before surfing out on a big reflecting wave.
Coming around Maquinna Point, we were humbled. We had paused briefly behind a well protected rocky outcropping, and I was just about to continue on when the hugest set I've seen on the trip came through the rocks in front of us. The waves curled like Hawaii Five-O and crashed into the rocky reef that made up the shoreline. Four waves came in. I don't know if I could have made it through one of those waves even if I were paddling straight at it, and if we had been only 10 yards ahead of where we paused, our broken kayaks would have been littering the rocks. Yikes.
We stopped at Yuquot / Friendly Cove, but the guardian there said that there was a $10 landing fee if we wanted to walk around, so we headed back to our boats. We crossed Nootka Sound over to Escalante Point, at which point south winds picked up to 12 to 15 knots, so we decided not to continue further down the penninsula. We will get up early tomorrow instead. Escalante Point has a huge mile long beach and we are very happy to go sunbathing for the afternoon.
Day 25: Escalante Point to Hot Springs Cove
Yesterday’s afternoon winds have subsided and we can sneak inside the various reefs up along Estevan Point. At one point we heard some hikers yelling. We thought they might be trying to signal us, and after they let of some sort of firecracker, we went in to investigate. We needed to navigate through a series of breakers which caused us great excitement. At one point I turned around to see a big set coming in, and just barely got turned around and over the wave before it broke. Roy said the hikers looked fine, so we headed back out again. Maybe they had shouted and set off a bear-bang stick to scare off a black bear or something.
Going around Estevan Point, we were inside the reef in water as shallow as 3 feet. The tide was high (8 feet), so we would have been on dry land at low tide.
We stopped at Mathalaw Point, then crossed across the mouth of Hesquiat Harbour to explore the sea caves west of Hot Springs Cove. There is a gigantic cave an hour west of Hot Springs Cove that has a sandy beach inside. I tried cruising up onto the beach but was caught by a surging wave and sidesurfed onto the beach. Getting out was even trickier as the surging wave ran wall to wall. I managed to drag my boat down, jump in and get the sprayskirt on before being sucked into the surf, and after a battle with a couple breaking waves, I was back out again.
I was weary when we finally made it to Hot Springs Cove, and had several grumpy moments as we paddled around looking for a good campsite. We eventually camped at a place that Scott had camped 12 years ago, but which we later found out was Indian Reserve land (although we weren’t bothered).
After eating dinner and watching all the tourists leave in their little speedboats, we paddled over to the 
government dock to hike 30 minutes on the boardwalk through old growth cedar out to the hot springs, where we would share the springs with sailboaters and other campers. The hot springs ran over some rocks, creating a natural shower, then into three pools, the lowest which had sea water coming in. There are probably more pools at lower tides, but tonight it was fairly crowded. After a refreshing soak, we paddled back to camp just as the sun set.
Day 26: Hot Springs Cove to Vargas Island
We saw several whales today. In the second spot, near Cow Bay, there were several speedboats filled with tourists stopped at a respectful distance watching the whales. 
We had seen some sea planes flying over this spot earlier – they might have been spotting the whales for the tour boats.
We traveled along the outside of Flores and Vargas islands. Fog came in, reducing our visibility to 100-200 yards and making our voyage a little more exciting. We pulled out the GPS to get a bearing and distance to a waypoint marked on our chart and tried navigating through the reefs for a while. I almost got hit by a breaker in the fog. 
After a half hour, the fog started lifting, and we were pleased to see that we were heading in the right direction.
After stopping in Cow Bay for (foul-smelling) water, we headed over to Vargas to try to get as close to Tofino as we could. We came across a nice large beach on the south side of Vargas with several other beach-goers camped there. I talked with one girl from Nanaimo who was circumnavigating Vancouver Island as well. She was on week six and had five bear encounters in her camp, including at Guise Bay and Escalante Point.. She has gotten giardia, anaphalactic shock and a few other nasties that make her trip sound like a trial. She and her boyfriend were at the Brooks Penninsula when the big storm hit (while we were in Port Hardy), and they had to spend three days there.
Lots of sea planes and small motorboats go by, taking tourists on excursions.
Day 27: Vargas Island to George Fraser Island
Today is going to be a long day, so we got up early and paddled an hour into Tofino, arriving at 7am. Nothing in Tofino is open at 7am, so we spent some time walking the city while waiting for shops to open. At a popular bakery, we have french toast and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. In the next few hours, we pick up our food packages at Tofino Sea Kayaking, sort our gear, make phone calls, and buy groceries and gifts. Andrew and Scott make stops at the liquor store, and Roy mails off a 
package of stuff he doesn’t need any more.
We headed off at 11:15, and made good time. We passed Florencia island, which is a reasonable spot to camp, and we made it all the way to the Uclulet peninsula. With the wind picking up and hoping to find a place to camp, we checked out the George Fraser Islands off the coast of Uclulet. These islands had a few sheltered beaches, though very difficult to access at low tide, but they would do.
Day 28: George Fraser Island to Keeha Bay
Low tide in the morning leaves us with a very long slog over snail encrusted rocks to get off the beach. Across Loudon Channel is the Broken Group, a very popular kayaking destination. We passed Clarke Island and stopped on Benson for a short hike, then headed across Imperial Channel to the Deer Group. We briefly search from some archaeologists who are supposed to be working on Diana Island, as the warden at Robson Bight had told us they were friends of hers and might give us a tour. We found their boat, but no one was home.
Scott knows a place north of Cape Beale where there is an old long house, so we head 
over there (it is apparently on an Indian Reserve and requires permission to go there, although I didn’t know that at the time). In the trees, we found the site of a couple longhouses, with corner posts still standing and trees growing over and out of the beams. Everything was very grown over, but exciting nevertheless.
It’s a bumpy ride around Cape Beale. There are HUGE boomers with massive water being pushed around. I feel humbled by the sea, as no skill could master these waves. Around Cape Beale, we enter Keeha Bay, which requires a small surf landing. We land near a creek which is nice for doing a little bathing and wash. 
Some people built primitive structures out of driftwood. One has a sign saying “Keeha Bar and Grill”. There are some people camped further down the beach. I saw a mink playing down along the surfline in the evening.
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