So we packed up the car, threw kayaks, camping gear, dog stuff and dog, and off we went. To Dallas' great surprise, we made a pit-stop and dumped her off for a week's holiday of her own- at Kate's aunt/uncle's place, where she reportedly had a wonderful week with two labs- one 7, and one 14 months. I am proud to report that while there may have been a little sniffling as we drove away, I was much less insanely protective of her than in the past, and I even refrained from the 6 pages of emergency instructions and many-layered threats should there be deviations.
Thanks to a friend, we managed a coveted ocean-front campsite at GreenPoint in Tofino for the August long weekend, and we enjoyed beautiful huge surf, gorgeous sunsets, and fabulous lush scenery. We are just beginning to be able to identify the flora and fauna out here, which is tres fun. Following a couple of days of blissfully low-key car-camping and beach-combing, we had all our gear and kayaks trucked 14 miles to the Broken Group of Islands, South of Ucluelet. There we spent 4 fairly foggy days kayak-camping in rain, fog and sunshine. We spent our time on the water variously lost, navigationally challenged, and at one point under my direction, pointed determinedly into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Happily, right about then, Kate decided to try navigating, and turned us away from open ocean and big rollers.
Kate is a bonafide tarp-wrangler. Under her leadership, we did not have to eek out our rain-day under teetering poles and bowing tarps, as water built up in the wrong places and eventually toppled onto clothing or into the tent. She can set up a trucker's hitch and judiciously tighten or tweak tension beautifully. My hero. We only had one day of rain and deep fog, but the tarps made all the difference as we dried out wet clothes, shoes and water-logged driftwood. Fortunately, we had all the good food and drink we could have wished, including an ingeniously simple and compact coffee-solution thanks to MSR. Life under the tarps has its perks.
Some wildlife highlights- when a sea lion came up right beside our boats, and gave a long, langorous turn in the water, watching us all the while, its dark eyes never leaving us. I had a moment of feeling like prey. Then there was the pair of rushing linebacker seals who emerged off one side of us, and charged toward us in tandem, rising and diving, eyes locked on us, and then disappearing under us (more of the alarm that prey might feel). The life clinging to the rocks out there is just unbelieveable- stick your paddle in the water, and you might find a crab trying to climb into your kayak! Eagles were in abundance, the usual inter-tidal life was everywhere, with hermit-crab shenanigans forming a good half hour of merriment, while sea-stars, amemones, various filters and mussels went on about their days and ways. We also identified loads of different kelp, with feather-boa kelp probably our favourite. That day at the Vancouver Aquarium stood us in good stead.
We camped at this great spot the first two nights- loads of tidal pools to explore, a huge seal haul-out right in front of us, beautiful scenery in the far and foreground, and by morning, grey whales passing by in the channel, feeding. Once the weather cleared, we puttered off from unknown location number one, through a bunch of islands that didn't match anything I saw on the map, and we found our second campsite on another beautiful beach. At this site, the tide came up overnight within mere feet of our tent! The enormous logs littering the beach spent the night knocking into each other, back and forth, making a full night of woody percussion sounds. We unexpectedly had waterlogged driftwood to dry once again for our morning fire.
A few pictures can never do justice to 4 days in the Broken Group Islands, but maybe a small sampling will encourage you to see it all for yourself.
After coming back to Tofino, we managed some more good luck, and found a B&B with jacuzzi and fireplace for 1/2 price, and we spent our last two nights on the island in luxurious comfort. We also managed to get a little surfing in.
To both my great pride and annoyance, Kate took a whole 3 tries to become an adept surfer, riding waves right past my floundering self. She was really that good, in a sea full of flounderers. I have never seen someone pop-up on their board so easily and perfectly, and then maintain that balance all the way in. It was quite ridiculous. She probably annoyed a whole bunch of people, but since no one could catch her, it really didn't matter.
So back to Vancouver, and Dallas, who was much missed! Every time we'd see a seal or someone else's dog, we'd lament not having her with us. I know she couldn't have followed the kayaks on our epic journeys, lost in the maze of islands, or done much in the way of surfing, but I still felt awful leaving her. When we got her back it was a great sense of being re-united, and she's had some lavish attention paid to her since then. After all- we had to diminish her memory of how great staying with two other dogs in a gorgeous house with free access to the back-yard and 2 walks a day through North Shore trails could be...
