Blog

Sporadic dispatches from the hinterlands.

British Columbia

We just got back from a great trip to British Columbia, with a lot of kayaking and some grizzly bear watching.

Grizzlies

We did a one-day boat trip with Sea Wolf adventures, from Port McNeill on the northern end of Vancouver Island up into Knight Inlet. This area is managed by the First Nations in the area, and they provide the trips. It was a big day, covering 145 miles by boat, and we saw a lot of bears, along with orcas, sea otters, dolphins and porpoises.

Blackfish Waters Kayak Trip

After a rest day in Port McNeill, we went on the Blackfish Waters Orca Kayak Tour with Sea Kayak Adventures. It was a six-day trip through an area known for sightings of orcas and humpbacks. We did see some orcas, humpback whales, sea lions, bald eagles, king fishers, harlequin ducks, but the kayaking and camping provided the most memorable parts of the trip for us.

I think this is the first time we’ve done a guided group trip. It was great! There were two guides and eight clients, which was ideal; I think the trip could have up to 14 clients, which I think would be too many. We enjoyed having all the planning and hard work done for us, and we enjoyed all the people. (We didn’t include any names, in case some of our fellow paddlers are fugitives… you never know!)

Daily paddling

We paddled each day, keeping to an easy pace (though opinions may differ on this).

I didn’t remember to track the paddling every day, and some days I didn’t start the GPS until after starting to paddle. I used Gaia GPS on my phone as well as my Garmin Fenix GPS watch, and they sometimes gave quite different mileage (as they often do). I don’t know which one is more accurate. In general, I think we averaged around 2.5 mph while paddling, including plenty of stops to look at things.

  • Day 1 (9/3/23): Bauza Cove to Little Kai campsite on Vancouver Island. 5.5 miles estimated.

  • Day 2: Little Kai to Swanson Island campsite. 7.2 miles by Gaia GPS/8.9 mi by Garmin.

  • Day 3: Tour around the west side of Swanson Island in the morning; Gaia 5.5, Fenix 6.1 miles. Also a short tour on the southeast side of Swanson.

  • Day 4: Swanson Island back to Little Kai. Gaia: 7 mi., Fenix 6.2.

  • Day 5: Little Kai toward Robson Bight and back. Gaia 8.5 mi, Fenix 8.7.

  • Day 6: Little Kai back to Bauza Cove. Gaia 5.4 mi, 5.6 mi.

The total comes out to around 40 miles of paddling over 6 days. It didn’t feel hard when we were doing it (except for a couple of days when my back started to hurt), but we were tired when we got home.

The weather was good. The only significant wind we encountered was a tailwind on the first day, which only added to the fun. We only had one brief rain, while we were in camp one afternoon.

Our last trip to British Columbia was in 2019.

Transbay paddle

Since I started paddling, I have wanted to paddle from Santa Cruz to Monterey, and I finally did it.

On a clear day, I can see Monterey from near my house, but it’s a long and committing paddle across Monterey Bay. It’s deep water out there, far from shore and exposed to the winds. I paddled solo, wanting to feel the adventure and self reliance, but I couldn’t have done it without Joy acting as land crew. She dropped me off at the water’s edge early in the morning, and picked me up on the other side.

Overall, I paddled around 27 miles in 6 hours, 22 minutes (4.2 mph). Setting off in the early morning fog, I was not at all confident that I’d make it; the first 7 miles or so were slow going into a headwind, and I didn’t feel fully committed to the crossing for a long time. I’m glad I stuck with it, because the wind eventually died, and gave me calm water for over 10 miles; then a tailwind came up for the final stretch into Monterey, just when I needed it.

With no sight of land and no consistent wind to orient me, I followed the compass. I used Gaia GPS on my phone for navigating, but the app froze and then my phone battery died while I was still out of sight of my landfall.

When I finally stepped out of the boat, I was deeply tired, but deeply satisfied.

New Lens: 70-200

We just got our second new zoom lens: the Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 Macro G OSS II. Like the 20-70 that we debuted recently, it’s a relatively small and light zoom for travel. Compared to our usual 200-600 bird lens, it’s much lighter… but could we get any good pictures? We headed to our UCSC Arboretum test site to find out.

We sat for a while, and the hummingbirds came close enough for good pictures with the lens at 200mm and a 1.4x extender attached. This won’t replace the 200-600 for typical distant bird situations, but we were pleased with what we could get. Like the 20-70, this lens focuses very close; I don’t think we’ll want a dedicated macro lens very often.

New lens: 20-70

We just got a new 20-70 f/4 lens for the Sony, and went up to the arboretum to try it out.

So far, so good: the lens is small, light, and versatile. It focuses very close for near-macro images, especially at 70mm. We’re excited to put it to use on our next trip!