Ellen
Our harrowing crossing only took about an hour, so we arrived at Ahous at 8:30 am. John set up camp while I made breakfast. After using a lot of fuel for the salmon and quesadilla dinners, I had just enough left to scramble some eggs and salmon. We also realized that neither one of us refilled the fuel bottle after our short trip to Cypress. Oops! It meant that we ate cold, not-quite hydrated mac and cheese for lunch and cold potato and corn chowder for dinner.The weather turned nice, if not windy, for our last day on the beach. Our campsite afforded us protection from the wind, which we discovered as a we took a walk to the other end of the beach. It was a truly beautiful, one and a half mile-long beach.
the wind forced us to put on long sleeves.
At the opposite end of the beach we chatted with another kayaker who was there with her family. They, too, had a challenging paddle to Ahous the day before and had seen a wolf on a different beach. They had been up since 5:00 am waiting for the wind to die down so they could make their way back to Tofino. Her family returned from their walk on the beach and were surprised to hear that we had made our crossing that morning in worse conditions than they had. They hadn't even seen us arrive. That really made me feel small and vulnerable. They finally left in the afternoon when the wind had calmed a little, though we didn't see them go.
While talking with them, two whales came to feed in the bay. Watching and listening to them all day was a treat for us, but it was sad to witness what happened as a result of their arrival. Wherever there were whales, there were at least six boats, and none of them were keeping the required 100 meter distance. Along with boats, float planes circled the bay throughout the day, and even helicopters came. In short, they harassed the whales. Only at dusk and dawn did the whales finally have some peace.
Beyond my feet you can see the boats hovering near the whales.
We attached the vestibule and had lots more space for our gear. In the afternoon we took a walk through the woods to the small cove just north of Ahous Bay.
The whale didn't take a breath for our video, but you can see the windy conditions and the whale-watching boat just off shore in the small cove north of Ahous Bay.
I spent much of the afternoon reading and John planned our garden patio project
At the opposite end of the beach we chatted with another kayaker who was there with her family. They, too, had a challenging paddle to Ahous the day before and had seen a wolf on a different beach. They had been up since 5:00 am waiting for the wind to die down so they could make their way back to Tofino. Her family returned from their walk on the beach and were surprised to hear that we had made our crossing that morning in worse conditions than they had. They hadn't even seen us arrive. That really made me feel small and vulnerable. They finally left in the afternoon when the wind had calmed a little, though we didn't see them go.
While talking with them, two whales came to feed in the bay. Watching and listening to them all day was a treat for us, but it was sad to witness what happened as a result of their arrival. Wherever there were whales, there were at least six boats, and none of them were keeping the required 100 meter distance. Along with boats, float planes circled the bay throughout the day, and even helicopters came. In short, they harassed the whales. Only at dusk and dawn did the whales finally have some peace.
We attached the vestibule and had lots more space for our gear. In the afternoon we took a walk through the woods to the small cove just north of Ahous Bay.
The whale didn't take a breath for our video, but you can see the windy conditions and the whale-watching boat just off shore in the small cove north of Ahous Bay.
he'll be working on this September.
We watched our second movie that night. I woke in the middle of the night certain I could hear a wolf sniffing around our tent, but the crash of the surf was so loud that I really couldn't make anything out. I reminded myself that we hadn't consumed any food near or in out tent, and that our food (and even the clothes we cooked and ate in) were safely stowed in our hatches. Oh, the imagination runs wild in the dark of the night! In the morning, there were no wolf tracks around the tent, of course. I was also delighted to find that there was no wind and the water was like glass.
John
The wind was calm inside our protected campsite. We walked the beach to the south end in the wind. As we walked we encountered various debris piles. Someone had been cleaning the beach. I would bet the debris was from Japan and hot. We talked to a mom from Edmonton. She and her family make this paddle often. She told us that they had encountered the waves we had experienced. Their son was in a single and frightened to tears by the experience. They were waiting out the wind and needed to be back in Tofino that afternoon for a long drive to Duncan.
The mom told us about how the Orcas rub against the cobble stones on a beach located on Johnstone Strait on the east shoreline of Vancouver Island. (The beaches are called "Orca Rubbing Beaches" on charts.) As we listened to her explain her family's summer paddle experiences, someone noticed the whale in the bay. We walked back to the tent and watched and listened to the humpback. We had lunch, read, and watched the humpback whale dive time after time. Tour boats crowded around the whale giving their clients closer and closer views. Planes circled the whale. Helicopters hovered above it. If a tour boat moved on, it was replaced by another one. Our isolation was nullified. The whale continued on without noticing the attention it was getting. So it seemed.
We enjoyed the sun the rest of the day. We took one hike to a beach north of our camp. It was stunning.
Ellen leads the way through the woods back
from the smaller beach north of camp.
The sand clung to everything. Every item had fine sand on it. It wouldn't even brush off our feet, so it ended up in our sleeping bags. When I crawled into my sleeping bag, I could feel the motion of the waves from our crossing. We watched a movie and fell quickly to sleep. Once during the night I heard the surf from the high tide crashing near our tent. I slept soundly that night. It was a beautiful beach campsite.
We woke to sunlight. We didn't see any wolves, only tracks.
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