100 Lakes on Vancouver Island

Maple Lake

2011-09-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Backroads Map Book 4th Edition -- Map 33 D7
Atlas of Canada Link: Maple Lake

Latitude/Longitude:
Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 38' 19" N 125° 0' 48" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.639° N 125.014° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 354618 5500406
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092F11

Trip Date September 28, 2011

I've driven down the enticing, if impressively root-bound, access road to Maple Lake twice before. In one case it was late in the day and I was worried about the gate closing, and in the other I decided to paddle elsewhere. But I've kept it on my list of lakes to paddle because it looked promising. When John, a long time Vancouver island paddler, suggested we give it a try, I immediately agreed.

John and Paul heading out onto Maple Lake

The boat ramp/put-in is a sandy area scooped from a sandy bank on the eastern shore of the lake, accessed via a tunnel under the Island Highway off of Minto Road. The land surrounding Maple Lake has been recently logged but whether by design or happy chance, there is no way to perceive the cut from the lake or access. An examination of the area on Google maps reveals a healthy boarder of trees around the lake. Imagine if all lakes on the island had this healthy buffer! It would increase the recreational experience 100 fold or more.

I was interested to see John's Mohawk Odyssey, a canoe (and canoe company) I have looked at casually in the past. I enjoyed listening to John give his impressions of the boat and the company.

John gave me an opportunity to paddle the canoe and I found it to be responsive, comfortable, maneuverable and good looking. John said the boat really comes into it's own in moving water and invited us to join him on the Salmon River some time -- one of his favorite destinations.

Maple Lake turned out to be a Sedgebender's dream. The eastern shoreline is broken by several inflows, and an expanse of high ground stretches out into a chain of tiny islands surrounded by a diverse wetland and extended marsh.

We enjoyed winding our way in and around the large areas of bull rushes, reeds, and sweet gale.

All the foliage was touched by the coming fall colours and we appreciated the warm sunshine in an otherwise cool day.

We were visited by large dragon flies and by wasps, but fortunately the wasps only seemed to be interested in checking out our bright PFDs and then zooming off to more important things.

We noticed that all the lilly pads had lost most of their leaves, with secondary growth leaves on a few. It looked to me that water levels had dropped and/or a storm had taken the mature leaves away somewhere. It made for an interesting waterscape.

All three of us share an appreciation for the life and scenery of the wetland and stopped to admire this corner of beauty.

As we headed north along the eastern shore we rounded some high ground and I noticed literally thousands of Whirligig beetles doing their mesmerizing dance below the overhanging sweet gale. Here is a good video on this fascinating beetle: http://youtu.be/RIbzOeNcaxE

The gap between peninsula and the little islands is filled with an impressive stand of very tall rushes or reeds, I'm not sure which. They are just off camera to the right in the above photo.

We paddled through a patch of smaller reeds or rushers on the other side of the peninsula. Perhaps some day I will be motivated to sort out the differences in these beautiful aquatic plants.

After emerging from the rushes we made our way to a nice shaded opening in the shoreline and stop for a bite to eat.

While we ate and talked about important subjects of ethnicity, history, and politics another couple arrives at the distant put-in with their canoe. The day was slow and peaceful and the company was good.

The northern shore is steeply sloped with a couple of well used fishing beaches and we made our way across the bay, back into the sunshine and warmth.

There are lots of nooks and cranies on the lake, and we enjoyed investigating them all.

Maple Lake is a beautiful little lake hidden within a few minutes drive from three central island communities. We were all a little impressed at what a gem it really is.

After loading up our canoes we stood and talked and watch dragon flies hunting some sort of "Mayfly" looking gnat over our heads. Out on the water the sun was setting and a dragon fly crash landed on the water, unable to take flight again. We watched it's desperate attempts, even when it was almost completely underwater. All around us life was emerging, thriving, and dying. I thought of Darwin and my recent reading of his work. Nature is endlessly interesting and deep, and I was filled with gratitude to be able to share appreciation of it with others.

Earlier in the day one of the impressive dragon flies landed on John's face, but I wasn't fast enough to catch it on film, even though it stayed on his face for almost a minute.

As the sun set we were hesitant to leave, but finally the falling temperature drove us to our sweaters and vehicles. Another idyllic autumn day on the water on Vancouver Island.

Mushroom Season Approaches

2011-09-24T01:28:00.000-07:00

In an effort to keep 100 Lakes on Vancouver Island all about lakes, I will be posting my mushroom related posts to 100 Mushrooms on Vancouver Island. I know, but when you have a good thing going it is hard to deviate too far from it.

Here is the link: http://100mushroomsonvancouverisland.blogspot.com/

Muriel Lake

2011-09-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Backroads Map Book 4th Edition -- Map 14 A5
Atlas of Canada Link: Muriel Lake

Latitude/Longitude:
Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 7' 37" N 125° 37' 10" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.127° N 125.619° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 308902 5444878
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092F04

Trip Date: September 10, 2011

Muriel Lake

Getting to Muriel Lake takes two days. Not because it actually takes two days to drive there from Nanaimo, but because we were not heading to Muriel Lake at all -- we were heading to the recreational forestry camp site on Kennedy Lake, hoping to camp there and then paddle down the river to the Kennedy River Bog.

There are a half dozen shirtless and tattooed young men lazing about or wandering about a semi-permanent looking camp at the Kennedy Lake Rec site when we drive up. We changed our plans for where were will sleep the night.

The next morning we are back, but now the put-in by the Kennedy River bridge is blocked by a car with the hatch up and doors open. We walk down to have a look. A sleepy-sounding couple calls hello from a tent under the bridge, "Did you want to launch your boat? We can move our car," the fellow asks. The back of the car is strewn with underwear, food wrappers, and a tipped over foam cooler. "It's OK," I call back, "I think we are going somewhere else."

The Put-in at the Kennedy River Bridge from my scouting trip in 2008

I thought of the conservative American scholar James Q. Wilson's line, "“Arresting a single drunk or a single vagrant who has harmed no identifiable person seems unjust, and in a sense it is. But failing to do anything about a score of drunks or a hundred vagrants may destroy an entire community.”

There is a certain romance in a lone tramp rambling his way through the outskirts of town, or along a remote wilderness, using his wiles and wits to live free and unencumbered. There is also an icy prickle over the skin when you fall under the gaze of 12 shiftless eyes in decidedly shifty circumstances.

My dad used to say, "In the wilderness the most dangerous animals are usually human," and I have heeded this truism whenever my gut gives me pause.

We head to Muriel with some sense of disappointment and apprehension.

When I visited Muriel lake in 2008 the drive was reasonably pleasant and the put-in looked like this:

I am surprised to see how much the road beyond the Kennedy River Bridge has deteriorated in 3 years. Large rocks now protrude from the hard packed road bed and in places the Pacific Ninebark, Thimble Berry and Salmon Berry, and various other bushes, crowd close at the edges. There is a sense that the road could disappear into the forest from lack of use. One spot in the road has recently been filled with soil, the efforts most likely of whomever frequents the two cabins located on the lake. The road down to the lake is definitely best attempted with 4 wheel drive, but the concern is really getting up afterwards as there are some large exposed rock where rain has washed the gravel away.

View from the Put in -- 2011

We put our canoes in the water and paddle towards the south eastern corner of the lake, between the two islands visible from the put-in and into a bay filled with water shield.

Paul points out several twisted logs resting on rocks and along the shoreline, their curves and patterns exposed and white under the sun.

These two features, weathered wood and exposed rock, are prevalent themes for the lake. The multiple rocky peninsulas are pleasing combinations of stone and contorted pines. The trees show character in the face of what must be hard winters of torrential downpours and heavy snow.

The heat from the sun is intense so we hug the shady shore, enjoying the rugged beauty of each meter of shoreline.

About 1/4 of the way down the lake we pass a steeply sloped cluster of small rocky islands with one pine doing apparently well amid what seems like very sparse soil conditions. I can't help thinking of my favorite Lone Tree Island on Goose Lake.

We glide over shallow areas where we can see long stretches of rock slanting gradually into the depths, or ending at dark precipices.

On the Northern shore dark green bands of growth show the roads and gullies and I'm thankful that for the moment there are no new clearcuts to distract from the pleasing patchwork of new growth and older forest.

After Paddling for about an hour we get out to stretch our legs on a wide stony shelf a foot below the surface of the water. The cool of the water and the shade from the tall trees give us a chance to contemplate the beauty of the place. We watch schools of small fish moving in and out of the shadows and hear what sounds like a frog plop into the water somewhere down the shore.

When we climb back in our canoes we continue down the lake moving in and out of bays and stopping from time to time to admire large cedar trees. Several handsome specimens of Yellow Cedar stand out amid the more numerous Red Cedar.

Nearing the western end of the lake we disturb a pair of osprey who fly from their nest and seem to lure us away, calling and flying and landing in trees and flying again. We follow them for a ways enjoying their uncommon beauty before turning north and then east to head back into the wind along the northern shore.

The largest island on the lake has some impressive cliffs, but from this side we have trouble seeing where the passage is between it and the northern shore. We paddle hard into the wind and then finally find it, slipping through to find a small archipelago of islands behind it with a houseboat/cabin moored in the protected waters between them.

It strikes me as a perfect spot to tie up, but we don't go ashore, not knowing if this is private property or not. Paul notices Christmas lights on the outside and we can imagine spending a cool evening around the pot bellied stove inside with water lapping at the weathered wood outside.

Then it is back into the teeth of a steady wind, powering our way back to the put-in. We get out, boil water for hot dogs and tea, and while away the afternoon eating, putting away our gear, and enjoying a most pleasant spot.

Back at the Put-in

Nanaimo Urban Lakes

2011-09-04T01:17:00.000-07:00

I'm often asked which lakes in Nanaimo are nice to paddle, and for a long time I have hesitated to give an answer because my ideal type of lake is one with minimal human impact or long stretches of wilderness -- qualities hard to find near centers of human habitation. But paddling any water is better than paddling none, so here I try to temper my own ideals and sort out the best quiet water paddling in the city.

There are more than 18 lakes within or near Nanaimo that can be paddled, but only 5 of them have easy access. This post devotes photos and a few paragraphs to each of the main 5, with additional photos and text on 4 of the other lakes that are worth paddling, even though access is a bit more difficult.

Of the 9 I devote space to here, only 3 are really satisfying to a paddler with my aesthetics, and of those 3, only 2 really hold my imagination in the long term. So bear my bias in mind as you read, and feel free to disagree with me in the comments section below!

At the end of the post is information on local lakes which, for various reasons, I can't recommend.

Me on Westwood Lake in Nanaimo

Here are the 18 potentially paddle-able lakes in alphabetical order. I will highlight the 5 easy access lakes in yellow and the other four that are a little harder to access in green.

Lake	Recommendation
Beck Lake	Not recommended
Blind Lake	Not recommended
Brannen Lake	Go if you don't mind power-boats and noise
Cathers Lake	Not recommended
Collier Dam	Go at least once
Divers Lake	Go often
Enos Lake	Go at least once
Green Lake	Go at least once
Harewood Lake
Holden Lake	Go at least once
Long Lake	Go if you don't mind power-boats and noise
McKay Lake
Michael Lake
Priest Lake
Quennel Lake	Go often
Richard Lake
Westwood Lake	Go often
Witchcraft Lake

Brannen Lake
Latitude/Longitude: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 12' 50" N 124° 3' 0" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.214° N 124.05° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 423529 5451788
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092F01

Brannon Lake has a great parking area, boat launch, and adjacent sandy beach.This is good for launching a canoe, but also good for launching all sorts of other boats.

Brannon is a favorite for wake board and water ski boats, as well as sea-doo operators, so expect noise (including boat stereos with rap music) during the summer months. If you stick to the shore you will be out of the way of the "go fast" gang because of fairly dense weed beds.

The southern and western shores are fairly scenic with a nice rural feel. Fish of some kind were rising in the weeds the day these photos were taken. The lake is often subject to wind, but can be calm and serene after a rain.

Divers Lake
Latitude/Longitude: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 12' 8" N 124° 0' 52" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.202° N 124.015° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 426096 5450439
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092F01

Divers Lake has a great parking lot close to the lake with a sandy beach and a nice little bay that is protected from southerly winds.

The above fishing pier is a little way past the put-in and there was a dead trout floating beside the dock the day I was there. There is an informative video about the dock here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX7LmsVBi4s The pier cost $21,000 and affords easy access to some of the 300 trout that are released into the lake each year.

Divers is a small shallow lake which is completely bordered by marshy expanses of cattails, bullrushes, and Lilly pads. Though there are lots of invasive bullfrogs (watch the video below for hopping, plopping, squeaking fun), there are also herons, bald eagles, and plenty of redwing blackbirds. Here is a HD video I took while paddling around the lake:

Divers is worth paddling for the wildlife and relatively unspoiled shoreline. There has been a bit of human activity in the past, but unlike Green Lake which has similar habitat and is a similar size, the intrusion onto Divers Lake from nearby homes and yards is virtually non-existent or in serious disrepair. Two new buildings are under construction, however, so the wild-like quality of the lake may soon disappear.

Dilapidated dock and new construction in the background.

For sedge benders, this is a pretty idyllic little lake which suffers only from nearby traffic noise and the loud speaker from a nearby car lot. Still, you can't beat the accessibility and lack of power boat activity.

Green Lake
Latitude/Longitude: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 13' 48" N 124° 3' 47" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.23° N 124.063° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 422601 5453579
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092F01

Green Lake has a fairly good gravel parking lot and a satisfactory put in, though it is the most rustic of the easy access lakes in Nanaimo.

A little larger than Divers this pretty urban habitat share's with divers the plague of thousands of invasive bullfrogs.

As you paddle around the lake you will hear them squeaking and calling and despite their profusion and voracious habit of consuming every living thing they can fit in their mouths, they are rather handsome little devils.

Green Lake is surrounded on all sides by houses, man-made openings in the shoreline, wharves, and walkways.

The abundance of shoreline human activity on Green Lake reminds me of Fuller Lake in Chemainus but more on the marshy side of the spectrum and less gentile.

Long Lake
Latitude/Longitude: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 12' 35" N 124° 1' 23" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.21° N 124.023° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 425467 5451288
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092F01

Like Green Lake the shore of Long Lake is dominated by human presence. If you like paddling past million-dollar (and multi-million dollar) homes and docks crowded with expensive boats, sea-doos, and float planes, this is the lake for you.

If you are looking for natural shoreline with wildlife and interesting habitat, you will have to look pretty hard to find it.

One of the more amusing aspects of Long Lake is captured in the above photo. Many houses on the lake have sleek expensive power boats and/or Seadoos and right beside them ugly, poorly designed, cheap plastic canoes and kayaks. It is clear that for these folks the world of quality self propelled water craft is not even on the radar.

The day I took these photos this plane took off, several power boats zoomed around and there were two Sea-doos towing inflated rings behind them with lots of shooting, laughing, and hand waving. It was like a Mad Magazine cartoon to me, but obviously lots of people like this kind of fun.

As I cruised along the shore returning to the boat ramp I crossed the buoy line that marks the swimming area to take a picture of the curve of beach. Within seconds the park security was heading my way. No boats inside the swimming perimeter I guess, even when no swimmers are in sight. I backed out and paddle around. The man has to do his job and I don't begrudge him taking it seriously.

On such a busy lake I guess there have to be lots of rules. It pained me a bit to think that many people are introduced to canoe and kayak paddling on this lake via the Nanaimo Canoe and Kayak Club's activities. Not that I am critical of NCKC. They are doing what they like and doing it well.

But for someone like me, a connoisseur of a different kind of paddling experience, Long Lake has all the attraction of a shopping mall parking lot -- and I mean that in the worst possible way. Racing canoes and kayaks amid power boats and airplanes just feel stressful to me. I paddle to relieve stress, but I know that many others paddle to get the adrenaline pumping.

Still, after most daytime guests have left the lake and the sun is descending to the horizon, the careful paddler can find calm and beauty even among the garish opulence of a heavily urbanized lake like Long Lake.

Westwood Lake
Latitude/Longitude: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 9' 46" N 123° 59' 52" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.163° N 123.998° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 427258 5446045
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092G04

Westwood Lake is my favorite lake to paddle in Nanaimo because it combines a wide wonderful sandy ramp for launching with several kilometers of shoreline featuring intermittent forest, sandy beach, and rocky promenades.

Westwood Lake is heavily used by swimmers (a long sandy beach), anglers (lots of fish year round), and recreational paddlers. A ban on gas motors means the boats that are on the water are quiet.

The Swimming Beach with Boat Ramp behind it at Westwood Lake

It is also a little higher than most of the other lakes in Nanaimo, and therefore more subject to icing over in the winter. This is meliorated somewhat by it's size and depth. Collier Dam, for example, will often freeze over sooner, even though it is 100 meters or more lower in elevation.

One of the great things about Westwood is the overhanging tree branches and rocky outcroppings along the shore.

In many places you can paddle along right beside the trees, in fairly deep water. But be careful, there are many snags in the water that are just below water level. I have run up on a few over the years.

Enos Lake
Latitude/Longitude:
Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 16' 43" N 124° 9' 20" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.279° N 124.156° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 415948 5459099
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092F08

Enos Lake is surrounded by private land in Nanoose. You have to carry your canoe down a fairly long road (25 meters) in order to access the lake. While we were paddling the lake we chatted with some folks on the shore and one local fellow said, "I didn't think canoes were allowed on the lake." But there were no signs indicated that it was not allowed.

Enos Lake Put-in

The Lake is special in part because it is the home to an endangered species of Stickleback known as the limnetic Enos Lake stickleback. This curious looking fish lives nowhere else except in Enos Lake. It is threatened by development and the introduction of non-native species to the lake.

Add caption

I can't see how gentle paddlers on the lake could negatively effect the little fish, but still, it might be something to consider in the long run.

Given it's proximity to Nanaimo (about a 20 minute drive) and given it's remote feel, I expect more folks will want to paddle this lake. The owner of the surrounding land has applied to develope the area, and seems to be proceeding with a responsible degree of public consultation, so I am hopeful this unique resouce will get the respect and protection it deserves.

Holden Lake
Latitude/Longitude: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 6' 10" N 123° 49' 30" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.103° N 123.825° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 439767 5439232
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092G04

Holden Lake is boardered on the Eastern side by Hemmer Provincial Park. The Provincial Park website description lists canoeing as one of the activites in the park, but the portage from the park parking lot is a long one (about 300 meters). Alternatively the lake can be accessed from Bean Road off Holden Corso Road.

At the bottom of Bean Road there is a small parking spot and a short muddy walk to the water.

Beware of dogs at this location as the place is swarming with them. They didn't bother me the time I visited, but there sure was a lot of barking -- some from behind fences, some from up the hill on the road.

On the lake you feel pretty peaceful -- it is mostly surrounded by the park on one side and large stretches of farm land on the other.

I also came across a curious water plant while paddling the lake. Does anyone know what this is?

Quennel Lake
Latitude/Longitude: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 4' 34" N 123° 48' 49" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.076° N 123.814° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 440566 5436243
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092G04

Quennel Lake is somewhat of a hidden gem in Nanaimo. Access is relatively easy if you have some pocket change, or difficult if you just don't like paying to paddle on public water.

The only really convenient way to access Quennel if via the ZUIDERZEE CAMPGROUND & RESORT. The good folks at Zuiderzee will charge you a small fee for the privilege and it may be worth it. Aside from their floating dock, they have a wooden ramp into the water that is really very nice for launching a canoe.

Zuiderzee Waterfront

There is one other put-in for the lake located on Ritten Road, which is off of Yellow Point Road. The ramp here is rutted, muddy, and has steep and bushy sides making it difficult to launch without getting very muddy. There are often trucks and trailers parked all around the ramp. I'm not sure who's jurisdiction this ramp falls under, but given the extensive use it receives I would suggest that several tons of clean fill, gravel, and maybe even cement be dedicated to improving this launch spot.

The Lake is a collection of connected chanells roughly in the shape of a Y next to an H or two H's next to each other. The large central island has one house on it and a short road, very rural looking and scenic.

There are some nice open stretches of water and the vistas in all directions feel expansive and cultured, like I might imagine a lake in Europe would feel.

There are not many places to take out and have your lunch, but there is one on the most westerly chanel. The house directly accross from this spot, however, is inhabited by vigilant residents who must have seen a lot of shenanigans over the years as they are quick to run off anyone who doesn't seem to be fully respecting the fact that the land around the lake is private property.

There are a good number of houses on the lake, but unlike Green or Fuller there are still long stretches of pleasant farmland, forest, and marsh.

I'm not sure what the actual linear dimensions of the shoreline is, but it is quite significant and there are many little bays and corners filled with lilly pads and bull rushes.

Many of the houses that are visible are quaint or well healed into the surrounding landscape and the folks we encountered on the eastern side of the lake were very gracious and friendly. There was a nice feel of neighborly contentment.

Of all the lakes in and around Nanaimo, Quenell is by far the most varied in scenery, diverse in habitat, and charming in character. Note that at certain times of the year the lake can be congested with anglers due to fishing derbies.

Collier Dam Park
Collier Dam Park has two lakes, both accessible to the canoeist. I have previously posted about these little lakes so please see that post for further details.

Other Nanaimo Area Lakes
Beck Lake -- If you look hard you will find access to this lake just south of Nanaimo. Access is through a landscape that harkens back to the coal mining years and a 4 wheel drive vehicle is recommended. I've visited this lake on two occasions, once with my canoe on my roof rack, but both times have gone elsewhere.

Blind Lake -- There is direct road access to this small lake off of Nanaimo River Road. Because of it's size and relatively uninteresting surroundings, I have not included Blind Lake in my photo log.

Cathers Lake -- There is access to Cathers Lake on the Northern end. Because the lake is surrounded by houses, some of them pretty close to the water, it felt like I would be paddling in everyone's back yard, so I did not launch.

Harewood Lake -- I have so far not found public access to this lake.

Priest Lake -- I have so far not found public access to this lake.

McKay Lake -- This gem of a lake is currently on my "unknown status" list. I have seen it advertised for sale online, and like with other Timberland and Timberwest lands, access is uncertain from one season to the next. I have visited it in the past and found it charming, but not within the last few years. There are large no trespassing signs on the road into nearby Timberland Lake, so I would not be surprised if McKay has suffered the same fate of too many rowdies tearing up the place to allow continued public access.

Michael Lake -- This south Cedar lake looks interesting on the map, and I have gazed upon it from afar, but have so far been unable to find access to the water.

Richard Lake -- access to this Cinnabar Valley lake is uncertain. I have visited it several times looking for access and each time have felt that near water locations may be private property, so I have not ventured further. It is a pretty little spot with lots of fish rising, but also near a dirt farm, so I would not go on a windy day.

Witchcraft Lake -- This hidden lake on the slopes overlooking Nanaimo is small and covered with dead-fall. There is a nice bridge across the lake, but I have not explored the area enough to confirm a good place to launch a canoe.

Still Others...
Long Lake in the Ladysmith Eco Reserve -- Would require a long carry (200 plus meters) and I am uncertian if watercraft are allowed on the lake. If they are, it might be worth it as it is a beauty.

Morrell Lake -- Within the Morrell Sanctuary and a long hike past the gate. I plan to ask the Sanctuary folks about paddling this lake some day as I walk past it on longer walks from my house and it calls to me often.

Myles Lake -- I have not tried to visit this lake.

Stark Lakes -- I have not tried to visit these lakes.

Overton Lake -- I have not tried to visit this lake.

Whiskey Lake -- looks interesting on Google Earth, but the access seems pretty convoluted. Maybe someday I will give it a try.

14 Prospector, Packer, Solitude

2011-08-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

Paddle Date: August 13, 2011

Paul and I met with fellow paddler Greg at Dougan Lake to compare 3 popular solo canoes sold by Abbotsford based Clipper Canoes. Paul brought his Solitude and Betty's Packer, and Greg brought his newly purchased 14 Prospector.

Packer, 14 Prospector, Solitude

The boats measurements look like this:

	Solitude	14 Prospector	Packer
Length	15 feet 6 inches	14 feet	14 feet
Width at Water Line	30 inches	29 inches	27.5 inches
Width at Gunwales	28 inches	29 inches	24 inches
Bow Height	16 inches	21 inches	16 inches
Centre Height	13 inches	15 inches	13 inches
Stern Height	14 inches	21 inches	16 inches
Rocker	Minimal	1.5 inches	1 to 1.5 inches

Clipper also makes two other solo canoes, the Freedom and the Sea-1, and also offers the Prospector 16 and Tripper in solo versions.

14 Prospector and Packer

The Prospector and the Packer are the same length but quite different in design. The Packer is a Gene Jenson creation with a modest (almost straight) shear line, narrow ends, and moderate tumblehome. The Prospector is a James van Nostrand design with traditional ends (fuller and higher than the Packer) a wider beam, and slightly more rocker.

Packer (closer to camera) and Solitude

The Solitude is a longer and slightly wider canoe than either the Prospector or Packer but with very fine ends and a low profile. The Solitude has a modest tumble-home located near the waterline and a pronounced plumb stern which, combined with it's minimal rocker, gives it great tracking. The Solitude's low profile also reduces windage and makes for a sleek, reasonably fast, all around solo canoe.

We brought along an assortment of paddles to try with each boat. Paul had his two bend shaft graphite paddles, two square-tipped Grey Owl paddles (one bent shaft), and his Nashwhack ottertail. I had my Larry Bowers Cree/Iroquois style single and my Alton Aluet double. Greg had a beautiful Grey Owl "Guide". I hadn't seen one of these higher end Grey Owl paddles and have to say I was impressed with the design and quality. The stunning colour of the cherry wood seemed to match the colours in the Packer extreamly well.

14 Prospector -- agile and maneuverable

The Prospector is an agile and maneuverable solo which is a delight to play in. It responds instantly to even modest paddle strokes and in the kneeling position you can lean out on your paddle and spin the canoe beneath you. It is easy to scull sidways as well as on an angle backwards and forwards. This hull is well suited for investigating nooks and crannies along any shoreline because of it's responsiveness and "turn-on-a-dime" characteristics.

Here is a video of Paul demonstrating how well it maneuvers:

Compared to the Packer the 14 Prospector feels much more spacious. It's more generous ends, higher gunwales, and wider beam all make for a roomy ride. By contrast the Packer feels close and narrow. Notice in the following photo how there is very little extra room between Paul and the gunwales.

Those who don't mind a tighter paddling station may not notice this aspect of the Packer and Greg said he found it to be adequately roomy.

We discussed the capacity of both boats, and while some claim the Packer to be fine for short tripping, I think this applies primarily to the "go light" crowd. The Packer supposedly has 7.3 inches of freeboard loaded to 400 pounds, while the Prospector can take another 200 pounds before reaching the equivalent amount of freeboard. It seems likely then that the Prospector would be much more comfortable on medium to long trips with more gear.

Solitude

The Solitude does not quite match the Prospector's ability to carry a load (The Solitude carries 600 pounds with 7 inches of freeboard) but the Solitude strikes me as being a more comfortable boat to paddle on long flatwater and mellow river trips. If even minimal whitewater is in the cards, the Packer's extra limited load carrying capacity might be offset by it's versatility, and make it a better choice over the Solitude.

The Solitude, with it's skeg-like stern and minimal rocker tracks well and has a much higher potential speed than either the Packer or the Prospector. But as many of us have concluded this "potential" for speed is seldom achieved by non-athletic paddlers and therefore I would say that for weekend and recreational paddlers shorter boats (12 to 15 feet) with lower surface areas (Packer, Rapidfire, Mist, etc.) give faster acceleration and an easier overall paddling experience.

Solitude

Interestingly I found the slightly narrower and longer blade of Greg's ottertail to work particularly well in the Solitude, even better than my beloved Cree/Iroquois. I practiced the slicing stroke Paul taught me on Buttle Lake and found I could go 5 or more strokes per side in the Solitude without switching or using a correction stroke. It seems to me this combination would allow a paddler to cover a lot of water.

Left -- Solitude, Right -- Packer

On the topic of paddle match for canoe, I found the carbon bent shaft to be better when moving the Prospector across open water and I think it was primarily because of the larger blade surface. It dawned on me why people love their large surface paddles. In canoes like the Prospector that extra "bite" on the water allows you to keep it going in a straight line more easily. Probably any large surface paddle would do, and because the Prospector needs lots of correction in each stroke, a straight shaft might actually be more functional.

14 Prospector

I also tried the Aluet double in the Prospector and it worked reasonably well, but felt less pleasurable than with boats with a more narrow gunwale width. I was pleased to find that this corresponded to my experience in the Solo Plus, also 29 inches at the gunwales. The Prospector seemed even more awkward than the Solo Plus with the double blade because of the higher paddling station (thus further reach to the water) and near lack of tumblehome.

Packer

The Packer responds well to a variety of paddles. Greg seemed at home in the Packer with his ottertail and with the bend shaft carbon. I have enjoyed the Packer with my Aluet double blade, as well as traditional singles.

Discussing Canoes and Paddles

While all three boats have excellent qualities, of the three my favorite is the Packer.

Packer

It tracks reasonably well, accelerates quickly, and turns and maneuvers easily without the tendency to weathercock or wander. It's low profile means less windage and an easier reach to the water than in the Prospector, and it responds particularily well to shifting balast, making trimming easy.

I also like the look of the Packer, it is understated but clean and smooth. The tumble home is full and comfortable if lacking the sexiness of the Solitude and similar newer designs.

Dancing in the 14 Prospector

It is hard to beat the traditional look of the Prospector, but for me, the extra sail created by those classic ends is not worth their aesthetic value. Still, that elegant shearline is a pleasure to gaze upon.

14 Prospector

Also, for me, the extra capacity and maneuverability of the Prospector are features I would seldom take advantage of. The Packer has been outfitted by Clipper for some customers as river boats, but it seems to me that those fine lines, reflecting the designers love of racing, preclude it from serious whitewater.

Prospector (left) and Packer

At the End of the Day

14 Prospector -- Highly maneuverable solo best suited to the paddler wanting to take longer trips with lots of gear and a likely to encounter a variety of types of water (whitewater, rivers, flatwater). Challenging to keep going in a straight line, especially in wind and slower top end speed than the other boats tested.

Solitude -- Straight as an arrow flatwater cruiser. Well adapted to hit and switch with an ottertail or bent shaft single. Suited for tripping on lakes and easy rivers. Stable and comfortable for photography.

Packer -- Versatile and lively all around solo able to handle flatwater and some whitewater but best suited to lakes and easy rivers. Because of the superb way this hull managers to allow both reasonable tracking and good turning, I rank this canoe as the best match of the three tested hulls for Vancouver Island freshwater paddlers.

Buttle Lake

2011-08-06T17:46:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Island Backroad Mapbook 4th Edition - Map 23 B1
Atlas of Canada Link: Buttle Lake

Latitude/Longitude

Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 37' 50" N 125° 31' 52" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.631° N 125.531° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 317220 5500634
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092F12

Trip Date: July 27, 28, 29

View from the Beach at Ralph River looking North

It's been awhile since I stayed in a provincial campground and I have to say it was a pleasant experience -- especially the clean, comfortable, and virtually odorless outhouse!

In fact the last time I stayed in a provincial campground was October of 2008. coincidentally I stayed at the Buttle Lake site on a solo paddling trip. The campground then didn't make much of an impression. Anglers and families were enjoying a last camp of the season, their voices rising and falling through the trees while I drank my tea and looked up through through the treetops at a star filled sky. It was a melancholy trip, with brown leaves in the wind and dead wasps on the surface of the water drifting past the canoe.

But the Ralph River campsite has a different feel when we drive in. The folliage along the road is slightly soft with dust but not as dusted as all the trees on nearby logging roads. There is the sense that all nature is approaching the fullness of summer, everything extended like a cat stretched out in the sun.

All the sites on the water side are occupied, but we find a nice spot near one of the trails to the beach.

Our Campsite at Ralph River

We set up camp, talk of automobiles and canoes, and our children, and then after the day's wind dies down we go out on the water with our canoes.

The sun goes beyond the peaks of Strathcona mountains, the sun wash from the eastern hills slides upwards, the shadow of clouds almost stationary, the calm of dusk fills the valley.

We circumnavigate the bay in front of the campground, exploring a sheltered cove full of toad tadpoles. We get out on a rocky shore and walk carefully to avoid stepping on one of the thousands of tiny toadlets hopping around, some still with their tadpole tails.

We paddle back towards the campground and up Ralph River a short ways past two fly anglers, one in an anchored boat and one stalwart fellow standing in the icy water up to his thighs. Paul has fun playing in the current in the Rendezvous and we retire in the fading light to a cup of tea and quiet evening in camp.

The next morning we are on the water again and paddle out past the point of land on the far side of the bay towards the source of sound we heard in the night, a cataract cascading towards the lake down the very steep western slope.

We admire the clarity of the water and that lovely color that mountain water gives to objects below the surface...

...including large stumps and roots of trees that were harvested, we imagine, prior to the flooding that occurred with the construction of the Strathcona Dam in 1958. The dam backs water up into both Upper Campbell Lake and to a lesser degree, Buttle Lake. The Strathcona Dam is part of a three dam network including the John Hart Dam (John Hart Lake/Resevour) and the Ladore Dam (Lower Campbell Lake) and was developed in part to meet the needs of the Elk Falls Mill.

BC Hydro intends to invest more than 1 billion dollars beginning in 2012 to upgrade the three hydropower facilities on this system. Together the three projects generate 237 megawatts and produce up to 20 percent of peak demand on Vancouver Island in the summer and 10 percent of peak demand in the winter. Other hydro electric projects on the island are much smaller.

Some 3186 hectares of land were flooded around Upper Campbell and Buttle Lakes. The entire bay in front of the Ralph River Campground was dry land prior to the construction of the dam system.

We are happy the lake is at a high level and we can glide over the the stumps admiring their eery shapes. We also spot large house-sized boulders under the water that had clearly tumbled off the nearby mountainside, one appearing to be laying on top of a sheared of log.

"The current practice of operating the Buttle/Upper Campbell reservoir near full pool during
summer likely reduces impacts on fish by providing stable littoral habitat but there is little
benthic productivity in the drawdown zone (Sinclair 1965; Lewis et al. 1996). Access into the
three main spawning streams (Ralph and Thelwood creeks, Elk River) is not affected by
drawdown levels (Lewis et al. 1996)." -- Bridge-Coastal Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program
STRATEGIC PLAN Volume 2 (December 2000).

After Lunch we head to Jim Mitchel Lake for a nice paddle before returning to Buttle and putting in at the Price Creek trailhead and paddling up Thelwood Creek.

Thelwood Creek appears to be at a high level, and this years robust snow pack might account for it's generous flow. The Canada Geese we disturb seem almost unable to fly. I've seen this behaviour a few times recently and wonder if it has to do with the breeding season.

After returning to the put-in we continue out under the bridge. In the following video keep an eye out for the family of mergansers as we head under the bridge.

Despite the threat of rain we head out into the lake towards Myra Falls. We don't hear the roar of the falls untll we round the corner and are almost upon them.

Despite the strong head wind on the way back we consider seeing Myra Falls to be a highlight of the trip.

Morning View from Ralph River Campground of either Mount Thelwood or Mount Myra, I'm not sure which...

Back at camp we relax after a very full day of paddling.

Antler Lake

2011-08-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Island Backroad Mapbook 4th Edition - Map 30 G5
Atlas of Canada Link: Antler Lake

Latitude/Longitude

Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 48' 15" N 126° 3' 1" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.804° N 126.05° W UTM
Coordinates: 9U 712224 5521062
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092E16

Trip Date: July 30, 201

Paddling North near the first picnic area

Antler Lake is a sedgebender's dream. There are two picnic spots and the second one affords a short set of stairs to the water where canoes can be carefully placed amid sharp rocks. We paddle north along the western shore, enjoying the shade and avoiding the late afternoon sun.

At the little point just past the first picnic area we find a sunken boat. This seems to be a common feature on many of the island lakes. I've seen sunken or abandoned boats in Lawson, Blackwater, Mirror, Sumner, and a ditch near Ward.

We head back along the shady side of the lake and examine honeydew on a log near the southern boundary of the main lake.

Paul heads for the marsh

Then we head into the marsh beyond. This area of the lake is easy to overlook on maps. In the Atlas of Canada link it is the area under the "e" and the "r" -- a magical world of beavers and yellow throats.

The first opening in the marsh is warm and full of sunshine and Paul sees a family of otter (or maybe beaver) before they instantly disapear under the water, not to be seen again.

The second section is closer to the shady western shore again and we slow to take in the striking colors and contrast of shade and sunlight.

At the end of this pool is a small opening in the reeds and we slide through.

This brings us to an intimate backwater where we spy a beaver lodge and a large under-water store of branches. The beavers will have a happy winter this year.

Paul drifts past the beaver lodge

Note the collection of winter food the beavers have stashed in the lower left

We investigate the inflow further, but before long have to turn around

Eventually we make our way back out of the beaver's private pond, and watch fish swimming over the algea covered bottom of the larger pools beyond.

The spot is alive with birds. As I am turning to follow Paul out of this area I see a small hawk or kestrel diving towards me, swooping up over my head to catch a bird in mid-flight and then returning to a high tree with it's catch.

Paul puts the glasses on it, but can not make out what it is.

We keep paddling and soon round the bend that brings us back to the wide entryway to the lake.

Along the eastern shore is an expanse of sedges

Paul can't help bending a few...

Back on the main lake again we rest in the shade and watch the brilliant greens of early evening reflect across the water.

As we arrive back at the picnic spot a family is unloading their inflatable dingy and fishing rods. We wish them luck with the fishing and head for home.

Jim Mitchell Lake

2011-07-31T11:35:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Island Backroad Mapbook 4th Edition - Map 23 A3
Atlas of Canada Link: Jim Mitchell Lake

Latitude/Longitude
Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 31' 5" N 125° 36' 1" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.518° N 125.601° W UTM
Coordinates: 10U 311780 5488306
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092F12

Trip Date: July 29, 2011

The Road up to Jim Mitchell Lake is actually pretty good -- but steep, really steep. Virtually no pot holes or washouts and several stretches of new gravel and fill. Someone is doing a good job of keeping this road in shape.

Near the top of the road, on a level spot, sits the parking lot for the steep hike in to Bedwell Lake. We pass a large silver Chrysler sitting in the parking lot and look at each other in disbelief. We turned the hubs in on the Tracker 10 minutes ago because of deep loose gravel on a steep hill.

We continue to the lake. It isn't much to look at from the put in. A smallish body of water under the shoulder of nearby Mount Myra, the summit hidden behind the nearness of the slope. There is snow within sight on some of the surrounding hilltops. A wind blows at us and a few drops of rain hit our faces. We sigh and unload the canoes in silence, having driven up that steep road when we could have had a perfectly nice paddle at the bottom of the road in Buttle Lake.

The Put-in at Jim Mitchell Lake

On the water we head across to explore a waterfall which we can see dropping through the dark forest but there appears to be no place where it enters the lake. Once we reach the other side we discovery a hidden jog in the stony shoreline which reveals the icy water bursting into the lake with some force.

We turn and head towards the western end of the lake.

Dark forest gives way to steep slopes of fractured stone.

As we near the first curve in the shoreline the colonization efforts of the flora is impressive.

Both the forest and the water have a feeling of great depth.

We paddle around the corner to a part of the lake that is hidden from the parking lot view and discover another waterfall, and the amazing ability of trees to grow in very rocky conditions.

At the far end of the lake we find the spot where Thelwood creek flows in from Thelwood Lake.

Paul practices his eddy turns in the current.

Then we sit and listen to the whiteness of the water, the silence of the sky, and the gentle lap of waves against stone.

Back at the put-in the Tracker seems small on the exposed road down to the water's edge and the snow-chilled air reminds us of how quickly the elements can turn on you in the mountains.

James Scott Mitchell was described as a "six-foot youngster of quiet habits and a good bushman" who left the main camp of the British Columbia Topographical Survey for a camp near a lake known then as Crystal Lake. The main camp was situated where Price Creek joins Thelwood Creek, in the wide delta at the head of Buttle Lake. Mitchell made his way to "first camp," slept the night, and headed on for "second camp" in the high country beyond. He never arrived. No trail existed beyond first camp, so he was following blazes. He had packed supplies in 11 times already so knew the way well. At a place known as the "upper ford" the 17 year old Jim set down his 50 lb pack and surveyed the creek to find a way across. How he received a concussion and died, is not known, but most likely he fell on the slippery rocks. The creek washed his body downstream where it was found lodged on a sand bar.

in 1947, 10 years after the accident, Crystal Lake was re-named Jim Mitchell Lake.

Collier Dam Park -- Lower Lake

2011-07-24T01:11:00.000-07:00

Date Visited: July 22, 2011

Collier Dam Park contains two small lakes and a stretch of second growth forest, well on it's way to maturity. The lakes are small, and mostly man-made. I walk through the park almost every day. On one walk I watched an otter dive and retrieve freshwater clams, crunching and slurping like a medieval king. A few weeks ago I watched a beaver cruising under the cedar bows that hang out over the second lake. Once I watched a merganser diving and swimming underwater, a trail of bubbles describing it's progress.

Creek in Collier Dam Park

I have watched and been chased by barred owls. This year two families at least occupy the forest around the lakes. On the trail by the parkway I startled a buff colored rabbit for several days in a row, actually for about a month. I would round the corner and it would dart into the salal. Not a big rabbit. I haven't see it for several days. The young owls are flying on their own. Two nights ago I stopped with a young couple enraptured by one of the owlets sitting on a low branch, several robins scolding from nearby trees.

First Lake

There is a family of ducks that travel between the two lakes, but I can't identify them. Yesterday when I was paddling on the first lake I saw them and put the glasses on them. A mottled body like a mallard's but with a white circle around the eye and a patch of solid grey on the back of the head. While I was looking at it, I tried to memorize the details, but already they are fading. I will look for them again tomorrow.

Put in

I have seen canoes, skiffs, and anglers in both pontoon boats and float tubes. There is almost always an angler on the shore of one lake or the other. I thought they had caught all the fish but then, the other night, out near the centre of the first lake, two rings, one after the other. At least one fish remains uncaught.

The nook where the water flows in from the second lake.

When the lakes were last stocked, a few months ago, I stood one night near dusk and watched a school of the stocked fish circle past me, rising and diving like porpoises together. I recognize the anglers now, the regulars. They don't notice me much, intent on their goal. It is a community park, well used.

On this visit I put the canoe in at a little spot near the old stone wall where the anglers stand. I paddled up to the place the water flows in from the second lake. Paddled under the newly laid water main that now stretches across the creek. I paddled back out and around the lake. People were throwing a stick for their dog to swim for. A young man was swimming. It was peaceful and quiet. Is anyone as blessed as I am to have this lovely spot so close at hand?

Anglers Heading Home -- December

Placid Boatwork's Spitfire -- Ready for Service Again

2011-07-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

In my last post I noted finding a crack in the gel coat of my Spitfire and so I took James up on his kind offer of his workshop to do some restoration on the little pack canoe.

The Crack

Repaired -- Yes there are carbon fibers close to the surface, but under a coat of gel.

Along with repairing the crack, I also used rubbing compound on some of the cosmetic scratches above the water line, and the entire bottom of the boat. Then I waxed the whole canoe with 3M 09009.

Then I sanded the decks and painted them, and the gunwales, with spar varnish.

First outing after her spa treatment

Look at those diamond wood decks!

Such a thing -- to paddle a work of art

It seemed to paddle faster too -- but perception is everything...

I just can't get over those beautiful diamond wood decks. ;-)

Time will tell how the varnish holds up on the gunwales, but for now they look great!

Waiting for My New Canoe

2011-07-17T02:12:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I sold our old tandem canoe. It had been in the family since some time in the 70s. My brother bought it, my dad fixed it up, and I inherited it. I paddled with my own children in it for many years.

Graham and me on Brewster Lake

It went to a family from Duncan. They moved from Northern Quebec to be closer to relatives here on the island. The fellow explained to me while strapping it to their van that he had a kayak, but wanted to teach his kids to paddle a canoe. I felt deep gratitude knowing more kids would enjoy that trusty old hull. She has always been around kids, starting off her life at a summer camp on Kootenay lake before joining our family. Who knows how many more kids will experience the joys of cruising a remote shore in the quintessential Canadian icon. Many more I hope.

So I saved money and researched a new hull to compliment my little pack canoe. On a recent paddle in the Cowichan Valley I discovered a crack in the Spitfire's gel coat.

So I e-mailed Joe at Placid Boatworks and he gave me instructions on how to fix it. I chipped away the compromised gel, and then with Paul's supervision mixed up some new gel coat and filled it in. Lots of sanding and buffing followed and now it is repaired and ready to paddle again. While I was at it I varnished the gunwales and polished the entire hull, first with rubbing compound on the deeper scratches, then with wax. I can't believe how nicely it turned out. I'll post some photos when I get her back (I did the work in James' workshop -- Thanks James!)

A few weeks ago I ordered a new canoe after a marathon research project over the winter comparing a variety of boats and getting wonderful advice from the long suffering folks over at CCR -- see the exhaustive, and perhaps exhausting, thread on the subject here.

The canoe I ordered was a Bluewater Mist from Peter Harris at Pacifica Paddle Sports. In the end it came down to a decision between the Mist and the Clipper Packer. I had paddled the Packer with Paul in moderately windy conditions on Cameron Lake and was impressed with the performance of this understated canoe. Here is a video I took of the Packer, paddled ably by Paul:

The Packer handled the wind and waves well, and I think I would have been happy with one, but delays sorting out details with Clipper presented an opportunity to reconsider the Mist.

It's funny how circumstances and timing effect a decision. We were driving back from Cameron Lake and Paul and I were talking about canoes, and he told me again about his favorite navel architect /philosopher, Phil Bolger, who once alluded to the number of boats that sit unused in marinas and he said they were bought to fulfill fantasy uses. Paul finished the story by saying, "And then he added perceptively, something to the effect of, 'but fantasy is a real pleasure too'".

That quote stuck with me like a bur sticks to a dog. So much of paddling for me is participating in a way of life. A romantic ideal that sustains me and reminds me of beauty, solitude, freedom and quiet pleasure on the water. What's more, paddling is a compelling metaphor for the ideal way to navigate life's journey.

Here is an old flyer for the Sawyer Autumn Mist, which is a close sister to the Bluewater Mist:

I liked in particular this line:

"The hull is a vee/arch/vee of uncommonly refined shape, with hollow entry and exit lines for efficiency at touring speeds, a gentle transition curve from working hull to freeboard to slip waves easily, a radical step flare at the bow for dry running in waves, and a slightly rockered hull to both facilitate turning and provide a more efficient displacement line."

I decided that this beautiful and versatile hull was the best fit for both my romantic ideal and my practical need for a stable boat I can take out in wind and waves. A little longer than the Packer (10 inches) and a little wider at the gunwales (2 inches) with slightly less rocker and a higher bow. And of course that radical step flare at the bow. The main factors for me, however, that shifted my preference from the Packer to the Mist, are a few small details of design that really please my eye: plumb stems, the classic David Yost tumblehome, a slightly more graceful shear line. Small things, but aesthetically significant ones.

I hope the Mist will live up to it's reputation. Here are a few choice quotes about the canoe from online reviews and comments:

"versatile and capable solo canoe for both open water and Class I streams."

"The Autumn Mist was my second solo boat and my favourite and most used of the various canoes I have owned."

"Tracks well, turns super, sheds waves, and has a surprisingly high load capacity for so short a boat...I take it out when it is so windy other canoeists stay ashore and it has never given me any cause for concern."

"If you've not paddled a solo in seas you won't believe the advantage you have. Have both a flat, bent and twin paddle for this boat depending on the circumstances and I have little problem keeping up on any paddle used. I've had the Autumn Mist on two BWCA trips....Of all the Sawyer canoes I think it was the best."

"Mist was an under-appreciated boat in its day. It was pretty quick, tracked and turned pretty well and hauled gobs of flesh and gear."

"Just a great all-around solo canoe if you want stability, speed and decent river capabilities..."

"I have been paddling the golden glass version of the Sawyer Autumn Mist for years. This is a very versatile and capable solo canoe for both open water and Class I streams. It paddles very easily with great glide so you can go for miles without getting tired."

Joco on CCR posted these photos:

Ozark Paddler on the BWCA site posted these photos:

I ordered my Mist in Navy Blue, influenced by the stunning photo on the Bluewater website of the Splitrock in that colour.

Waiting is hard, but the unseasonably cool weather and rain is helping. Well, ok, not much. But soon I will be filling this blog with photos of my new Mist, and celebrating a fantasy I hope many others can enjoy too.

Larry Lake

2011-05-18T22:57:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Island Backroad Mapbook 4th Edition - Map 14 D5
Atlas of Canada Link: Larry Lake

Latitude/Longitude
Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 49° 7' 5" N 125° 26' 18" W
Decimal Degrees: 49.118° N 125.438° W UTM
Coordinates: 10U 322073 5443446
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092F03

Trip Date: May 11, 2011

Larry Lake

Larry Lake sits in a stoney depression on the top of "Hydro Hill" on the way from Port Alberni to Ucluelet and Tofino. After descending from Sutton Pass down the picturesque Kennedy River valley the road takes a winding jog up and over Hydro Hill before descending again to the shores of Kennedy Lake. It's one of those "blink or you'll miss it" spots, a mere gap in the rocks where motorhomes and 5th wheels pull out for a break. There are often anglers at the water's edge and the day I was there the couple who were fishing caught two nice trout on a simple worm in the time that I was out on the water.

The put in is a tad rocky and not ideal, but a light solo goes in no problem. I paddled the lake clockwise and within a minute I was behind the first point and in a different world. The traffic noise fades and there is the sound of water trickling down stone and wind through pine needles.

The First Point if Paddling Clockwise

The rocks drop steeply into the water and continue into the depth. Shore pine are everywhere, in appealing bonsai like shapes, and even the hemlocks are graceful in their form.

Hemlock

After making my way slowly through the first bay, I got out on the first little island which is really charming. Like spending some time on the back of a turtle.

Small Island

As I paddled away from the first small Island I made a deliberate attempt to slow down and look at each tree and rock formation. There were some larger trees overhanging the water and a pleasing vista when I looked in almost any direction.

North Western Shore

Rounding the bend into the northern bay I had the great pleasure to examine up close a recently cleaved cliff revealing the complicated combination of limestone and basalt. The face was already stained with a variety of lichen and algae.

I paddled through the little bay on the northern tip of the lake where the only outflow from the lake drops sharply towards Kennedy Lake.

Lots to Look At

Then, feeling ready for some lunch, I made my way over to the "large" Northern Island.

A 60 second paddle.

Lunch in Sweet Solitude

A Short Climb to Look Down on the Lunch Spot

Looking North West

Everywhere a Bonsai

Evergreen Huckleberry -- not so green but lovely anyway!

Two Kinds of Stone

With lots to see in a very small area, Larry Lake has got to be one of the most compressed areas of beauty on Vancouver Island. Anglers know about it already, but I think the meditative paddler will find much here to contemplate as well.

Thanks Larry, your lake is awfully nice.

Patterson Lake

2011-05-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Island Backroad Mapbook 4th Edition - Map 24 E7
Atlas of Canada Link: Patterson Lake
Latitude and Longitude: 49o 20' 59" North 124o 58' 59" West

Trip Date:May 11, 2011

Me taking in the last warm glow of the setting sun on Patterson Lake

The sign at the head of Turtle Main is worrying. Then just past the power lines, a shinny new yellow gate, open but with the pin just sitting on top, like someone is planning to lock up later. I drive through reluctantly. Last night I had hoped to paddle on Trail Pond today. Something happened on that little gem of a lake that is forming an important thread in my new book. It had to do with a duck, and I wanted to paddle it again to be there and to remember in the spot it happened. But as I stand looking out on Trail Pond on the new road bed, covering over the old with a layer of rock and course gravel, I know I can't stay here.

The hillside that slopes down to the road is newly logged. I let my eyes wander up the mess from stump to stump, to mud, to slash. The raw breaks on all the rocks give the sense that a lot of crushing has gone on. I think about the power of hydraulics, diesel, and the internal combustion engine. I try to imagine the cut in 5 year, in 10 years, in 20 years. This favourite place will not really be bearable for at least that long. Until then I will have to divert my gaze, or go somewhere else.

Turtle Lake Main -- Information Sign

Today, rather than take a chance getting stuck behind a gate, I go somewhere else, up the valley further, to Patterson Lake. The land around Patterson Lake has not been logged for a long time, there are some nice patches of forest there. But I frown when I see the new road pushed in beside and on top of the old one. The old one had been beautifully gentrified by age, a shady trail on the verge of disappearing. I park in the old spot, bits of crushed rock scattered through the bushes and over the old road from the new road higher up the bank. The moss covered rock the children climbed on during the last visit has been decapitated.

Despite my sadness, I decide to paddle here before it is logged, perhaps the last time I will paddle it for a while. I sigh, take down the canoe, put it in the water, and head onto the lake.

The first time I paddled on Patterson Lake I had my two young sons with me in our old yellow fiberglass canoe. We were looking for fish, and the "lake" was a disappointment. Too shallow and marshy for fish of any size or abundance. We packed up and went to Dickson Lake that day.

The peat Islands near the first Put in on Patterson Lake

Then, about 10 years later I returned on my own. I saw the place differently. I had different eyes, a different need.

Kalmia microphylla -- Western Bog-Laurel near the first put in on Patterson Lake

Today I paddle out through the weedy channels and notice Western Bog-Laurel is in boom on the peaty islands. I examine the bog laurel to see if it's stamens are triggered or not. As the flower unfolds it's 10 stamens each have their tips tucked into a small pouch at the tip of the petals and there they remain, held with tension, until an insect comes along. As the insect seeks the nectar it brushes the stamen which springs loose and dusts it with pollen.

Kalmia microphylla - Western Bog-Laurel

The majority of the stamens on the plants I examine are not yet triggered.

I move out beyond the peat islands and disturb some Canada Geese who honk at me and fly a short distance away. I turn away from them and go around an rocky island. Further down the lake a Kingfisher splashes into the water like a thrown stone, a flock of birds peep in the forest, creepers maybe, and the burbling call of a Winter Wren rises from a thicket of salal.

Here is a video of my paddle through the first part of the lake. It is about 3 minutes long and due to the quality of the upload, the end is actually the clearest:

When I get to the main beaver dam, the new bull rushes are a foot above the water along the shallows and the old cat tails are inflated into fluffy plumes. I get out and carry the canoe over the dam and proceed down the lake. At the far end I can see the road again, and a new clearing on a stony shelf.

The far end of Patterson Lake, where it drains towards Sumner Lake

Someone has arranged rocks for a fire pit. Last year when I paddled here, this end of the lake felt remote and safe. Now, it feels like all the other places in this valley, slightly trampled, threatened, vulnerable.

The New Clearing

While I am pondering the change, a raven flaps down the length of the lake and perches near me, watching me. I wait for her call, for the warning to others. But all she does is turn around on the branch, tilt her head and stare at me for a long time.

I go to the outflow and look over the lip of the dam down into the narrow little revine beyond. The beaver dam here is multigenerational, dirt and wood along the lip have filled in and formed a kind of solid mass. I turn around and head back up the lake, this time hugging the southern shore, looking at all the trees, remembering them. An eagle rounds the bend in the lake, flying between the trees and swoops down towards me. I look up as she flies over, the tips of her wing feathers dark against the bright sky.

As I approach the middle beaver dam again I here the high peeping of a duckling and look amist the burgundy stalks of a water shrub and see a grey and white speckled ball of fluff, it's big eyes in it's small head. I hear another peeping start up deeper in the sticks, and then another. I look around for mom or dad, but they don't seem to be anywhere around.

I paddle on and when I step out of the canoe at the beaver dam the late afternoon sun comes out and I set up my tripod to take a photo. Then I take a couple of shots of myself as if to say, I was here when...

Patterson Lake is on Timberland land, privately owned, gone forever from the commonwealth. Part of land that was traded to a coal barren for a railway. I paddle here because of the benevolence of Timberland, because of Timberland roads, and because the province of BC enforces certain rules on logging practices.

The trees within a short distance of this wetland's shore will not be cut. Patterson Lake will be preserved, even if the forest around it is taken.

I feel weary as I load up my vehicle and wash the pond algae from my canoe. I turn off the radio as I drive through Port Alberni. Cameron Lake is as flat as I have ever seen it when I drive by. I had gone to the woods for restoration, for rejuvenation. I'm filled with a mixture of gratitude and sadness. Sabi is elusive today.

Betty's Petite Yonah

2011-04-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

Trip Date: April 9, 2011

I pick up Jeff at 8:50 and we head to the Whitespot to break our fast with the rest of the Sedgebenders. Discussion ranges from how the Sedgebenders got started to the strike at the local University. Several of us, including me, have the Giardino omelet. The Arrabbiata sauce is fresh and "yum!"

When we are finished eating we head to Westwood lake for the main event of the day, the christening of Betty's new Clipper Packer canoe.

Clipper Packer

Clipper built this boat to exacting specifications: "Dr. says no heavier than 22 pounds." Gotta hand it to the Clipper folk, they pulled it off. Think they were pretty proud of her themselves -- as suggested by their blog post about it.

Clipper Packer and Three Other Canoes

The canoe has that fresh kevlar gleam and we admire the cleaver design -- graphite reinforced foam ribs and elegant wood gunwales.

James and Charles examine the gunwales

Notice the graphite seat which sits atop a foam core graphite substructure. Both the seat and the foot rest are nicely adjustable.

An Awfully Pretty Design

I have not seen a Packer before so appreciate having a good long look at ever inch of her. Many elements of the design are subtle. There is a slight tumblehome and the paddling station is roomy, easy to get in and out of, but also snug with comfortable access to the water.

A Simple Curve to the Gunwales

When we are all together James reads two Wendell Berry poems and I an excerpt from Paddle Whispers by Douglas Wood. Then we open some Campaign and toast the day and the occasion.

Water and Wine

I Christen thee Petite Yonah

It's Official

Then we prepare for departure. Betty is the first off.

Light as a Leaf

Paul is next, followed by the rest of us.

They're Off

The day so far has been better than expected, some clear breaks in the sky and fairly calm, but of course as soon as we are on the water....


Jeff and I are in his Cedar strip Tandem built by his Brother in Law

Paul in his Solitude and Betty in Petite Yonah

Wind Gets Up

Oh the Joy of Paddling Your Own Canoe

Betty Seems to Think it Was a Good Choice

Lynne and Charles, Long Time Paddlers, Put Paul's Clipper S Through It's Paces

Back from the Paddle

The Clipper S is outfitted with knee braces, a foot rest, and a kneeling thwart. Very nice.

The Packer Does Have a Nice Little Bit of Rocker

After we get back to the put in, Betty allows Paul and I to take Petite Yonah for a spin. Paul has loaded 2 water bags for ballast and shifting the bags around produces changes in the trim. Paul comments on the noticeable difference this makes in tracking. The little craft has lots of buoyancy and we agree that it could be loaded with a fair bit of gear for a trip.

Paul has two paddles to try, his ZRE classic carbon and a maple otter tail. The little Packer leaps up to speed with the ZRE and when I take up the otter tail I find the boat handles extremely well. It also is remarkable for it's good initial AND secondary stability.

I try a variety of strokes and find that the boat responds well to my favorite, the Indian stroke. Sculling is easy and an abrupt switch to a reverse scull doesn't freak me out -- that ample stability is really nice. Turning is easy, perhaps because of the Packer's modest rocker, and yet the boat seems to track well. In general the hull slides along very nicely without too much effort. No wonder this boat has stayed in production. It is a winner.


The Sedgebenders

Losing the Light

2011-01-30T13:48:00.000-08:00

I stand alone on a weathered outcrop of Quatsino Formation Limestone, hands in my pockets. The lake stretches before me. The heat spike of midday generated wind, stirred up waves, filled ears with the buffeted rasp of rushing air - the smaller sounds were lost in the white noise. But now it is letting up. Silence is piling up between the grass blades. Waves slap out a quiet metronome against a limestone pillar off to my left and gurgle amid the eroded shapes at the base of the outcrop. The long shadows of the trees no longer move over the ferns and moss where I was sitting a few minutes ago and dusk is gathering inside the forest. There is a Gaussian blur at the edges of everything.

I hear my father's voice in the back of my head, "we are losing the light; we better get back to camp." He retreated to camp towards the end. Not a surrendering, just a practiced prudence. My mother too, gave up her hope in fairies for the surer offer of a guardian angel and Jesus.

As a boy I noticed the books dad read. His Saturday mornings at the kitchen table; coffee and a paperback. James Michener, Tom Harper, Farley Mowat, C.S. Lewis. His choices sometimes courageous. He faced ideas, arguments, squarely. He deliberated in the prickly discomfort of uncertainty. I remember him reading Kierkegaard, his eyes moving back and forth while I poached an egg. A slim book, but hard. "You can read it," he said, "anyone can read it. Understanding it though…." And then years later he quoted from it. One line drawn out, memorized because it was worthy, a perfect expression of something my father understood. A small perfect reminder carefully sequestered in his mind:

"Only one deception is possible in the infinite sense, self-deception."

Richard Emerson Powell (Dad) Reading in his Retirement Years

He quoted Robert Burns, often. Liked, To A Mouse. Not the popular verse 7 with its "The best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew, and leaves us nothing but grief and pain," but instead the first verse, in the original,

"Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murdering pattle."

In his younger days my father was a hunter. He taught me to shoot and cast a fly. But by the time I was middle aged he had given it up; first the deer, then the grouse, lastly the trout. In the end the burs of wilderness stuck only to his jacket. Inside was receding dust and ash from two orbiting planetoids: refined tender awareness; and a stubborn satellite of fear.

Richard Emerson Powell (younger than I am now) shows a grouse to the Little Black Bandit From Ghost River Ranch on a hunting outing when I was a 15.

The Burns poem was cherished because the ploughman in the poem, Burns himself, felt great kinship with the mouse who had worked so hard to prepare for the winter only to have his house devastated by the passing plough. The ploughman realized that his life required him to plough, yet to see the small creature put out of his home was pity.

"I love that," my father would say, "the sound of it and the just of it."

He loved it because it was almost a different language, yet even if brattle and pattle were unfamiliar words, there was enough comprehensible that the incomprehensible could be guessed. That, it seems, is how we get along, my father and I, comprehending what we can, and guessing at the rest.

I get up and make my way back towards camp, walk through a forest, deep moss spongy underfoot. I pause to listen to the ringing stillness under the cedars. I emerge onto the stretch of sand and walk close beside the water on the hard plank of smoothly washed sand. The gentle lapping of the waves as I idle along the beach, the low angle of the sun revealing deeper tones of amber and blue.

Night brings the cool awareness of how thin my clothing is, how long a bear's claws are, how squishy I am between my bones. The heat goes out of me, the darkness an insatiable absence, the inexorable force towards death. Only the sun is excessive enough to sustain us. When it is elsewhere, we all zip up, wait, shiver.

My father, his aging heart expanded, his fear of darkness crowding in, turned to religion. He had always turned to religion. He trusted it. And the religion he turned to was a vagabond companion.

My father's "tenderness" snuggled alongside of several other virtues he had selected and nourished over his lifetime. One of those was reverence, and his religion seemed confused on the subject. He still had the idea, despite his own rationalizing to the contrary, that a church was a unique place where you presented yourself before God, made your confession, and accepted absolution. Church as forest glade.

It bothered him that the new community, made mostly of a new generation, didn't wear formal clothing to church, a niggling problem with no solution. How could they not see that it was disrespectful, that being off the hook didn't mean a licence to slovenliness? It also bothered him that those outside the church couldn't accept the gospel. Why, he puzzled, could people not just accept this gift, this forgiveness and life? He must not be communicating it correctly; the fault must lie with him. He would have to try harder. He talked and talked; his loved ones shying away from the intensity in his voice, horses unable to put hands over their big ears. In the light of death, he wanted to shout, it was all so important; this one decision for Jesus.

Richard Emerson ties a fly to his fly-line as we walk between lakes in the Kootenay Mountains

The darkness sucks and sucks. And as I stand on the lake shore, feeling it suck the heat out of me, I think about my own decision for Jesus. Year after year, inexorably, unrelentingly, the darkness had sucked my faith away.

Like my father I turned to the close warm comfort of that old story, I turned like my father, to that faithful friend religion. Looking for the place to nestle deeper, looking for the red checked wool coated chest of my Father Writ Large, fresh in from splitting wood, fresh in to hug me, reassure me it was all going to be ok.

I am the mouse turned out. The plough crashed through my house; I face the winter alone, without shelter from the icy facts of a dark cold universe. Others seem able to hold on, but I keep slipping off the over turned hull of Christianity. I am the weak one, the doubter. I will surly drown.

In Fear and Trembling Kierkegaard argues that you can hang in a belt from the ceiling and make the motions of a swimmer, but throw yourself in the river and you find that the motions you made while hanging in the belt, no matter how practiced, don't make you a swimmer. He says that the same is true of faith; that going through the motions, or "wearing the jewel of faith," as he puts it, is not the same as living it. From the outside the two can look the same, real faith and faith as an overcoat.

He then goes on to give one of the most satisfying portraits of the engaged individual I have read, a person interested in everything, celebrating everything, entering in wholly to everything from his evening meal, to the frosty walk to church, to the singing of psalms with his neighbours. Moving through each moment aware of it, absorbed in it, revelling in it. A mind alive.

This to Kierkegaard was the spine, the place to hang a body on, and paradoxically, the place to let go of the body. He says, "Carefree as a devil-may-care good-for-nothing, he hasn't a worry in the world, and yet he purchases every moment that he lives, 'redeeming the seasonable time' at the dearest price; not the least thing does he do except on the strength of the absurd. And yet, and yet - yes it could drive me to fury, out of envy if for no other reason - and yet this man has made and is at every moment making the movement of infinity."

The movement of infinity.

Kierkegaard says this soul has discovered that by practicing resignation infinitely he can achieve a tranquility that "drains deep sorrow out of existence." The key, I think, is loss. Resignation in the positive sense that Kierkegaard means it, is acceptance of loss. Yet once accomplished, this movement from hope to acceptance allows the individual to take each pleasure as a gift. When you face loss squarely and really look at it. Look and look and look and do not turn away. "Ok, I've seen it, I am less secure, robed, diminished." Then each kindness is a marvel, each green bud a miracle, each grain of salt a wonder.

Loss is a hinge for the door of gratitude to open on.

But Kierkegaard says this "knight of infinite resignation" doesn't have the highest bliss, though he does have "the bliss of infinity," and that highest bliss is reserved for the one who can leap into the absurd position of believing he will get it anyway. He uses the example of a dancer who leaps and lands exactly on mark, and is able through practice to turn walking into a perpetual act of leaping. The absurd is any situation that defies rational explanation but never the less is. It is the religious experience of trusting that all will be well, even when there is no reason to believe this. Absurd is irrational, illogical, emotional, intuitional. And by launching oneself wilfully into this state, one achieves the highest bliss. According to Kierkegaard.

On Monday nights I travel with my friend Ian to a group that meets in a church. Recently we watched a DVD series called "Saving Jesus." One night, we faced the change that comes when we let Jesus be human. Fully human. Let fear stand up on it's hind legs and growl. Look and look and look at it. There is an antidote to fear, one of the speakers on the DVD hinted. It is trust. "Trust? Is that true?" I asked. Everyone thought about it. No one was in a hurry to agree or disagree. Someone suggested that it is love, not trust, which casts out fear. "I think that is a scripture verse," someone said.

Later I look up the verse. John 4:18. The context is judgement - fear of judgement. And love casts that fear out. I realize that judgement is not what I am the most afraid of; even though Rabi Kushner says that the fear of rejection is the most frightening thing of all. No one wants to be cast into the outer darkness. Unliked. Unwanted. Alone.

In theory the idea that we are loved by God, that our religion insures it, casts out the biggest fear there is. But all fear? If God loves you, can anything else matter? But bad things happen. We can not trust God to keep us safe, because we are beaten by the neighbourhood bully. We can not trust God to provide for us, we lose our job. We can not trust God to keep us safe from cancer, we get it anyway. We can not trust God to keep us from dying. Every single one of us does. There are bears in the forest.

So if trust is the antidote, and we can't trust God, what do we do? Religion isn't about belief, it is about who you belong to, says Rabi Kushner. It is not really about answers, certainty, or comfort. Real religion is just the reassurance that others know our name, that others will listen to our story, remember us when we are gone. Stand around our grave. Religion is human companionship. The opposite of being alone.

As the Quakers might say, "we trust that of Christ in everyone, in everything."

The river into Wolfe Lake where I found some wonderful volcanic rocks in red and green from, no doubt, nearby Mount Pinder

Perhaps that is why on this Sunday I spent the day studying the mountains and trees, opening my soul to deep green star embers and the difficult choice between wading in the creek looking for pretty stones, or doing the same at the lake edge. This is where I belong, this is my sanctuary. I meet God here.

I crawl into my tent, zip up the flap, pull the sleeping bag up around my ears. If a bear comes, I think to myself, I will not have anyone else to help me, I am in the outer darkness. I have arrived at an absurd moment. Yet really, I am not alone. The humans that lived before I was born impressed upon all the other species that we humans are dangerous, not food. If I can relax a bit it is because my aunts and uncles before me, for millions of years, have banded together against the darkness. I have their memory in the genes of bears, and I have bear spray and a tent. The community of humans is all around me, even when I am alone.

This thing I do, here in the dark, is a kind of swimming. I am not hanging in a belt, I am not thinking about sleeping in the wilderness, I am about to actually do it. I lay my head down and entrust my life to the long evolution of my species, and the parallel evolution of the bear. It is risky, but a calculated risk. I'm back at camp, the light is gone, and I leap into the absurdity of sleep.

Blogs Crammed Full of Water, Wilderness, and Wonder

2011-01-16T18:45:00.000-08:00

Friends tell me they don't get the whole blog thing. I agree with them, they don't. Some of these friends are readers, some even read online, but they see blogs as "diaries made public," and certainly there are a lot of those kind of blogs. Some of those I rather like. But others have much more. Some have deep quality writing that moves, inspires, or enlightens us, some have practical information tested in real world settings, and others show us places and images which motivate us to get out into that beautiful world of water and land.

You can see down along the right hand column some of the blogs I recommend for Vancouver Island paddlers and outdoor enthusiasts; and even more off-topic blogs on my profile page. The Outdoor Blogger Network has lots to explore and I have even more over on my Google reader. I can't seem to get enough.

Today I'm just going to pick out 5 to highlight because they are unique and striking and I've been meaning to recommend them for awhile.

Pause For Beauty

The Heron Dance is an ongoing expression of Roderick MacIver, a nature artist, writer, and canoeist. The Heron Dance's Pause for Beauty blog usually includes a watercolour image as well as a quote from a literary figure, artist, etc. or a reflection from Roderick. The blog is good, but even better is the e-newsletter he puts out by the same name which includes longer writings and opportunities to purchase images and books published by the gang at HD.

What I like so much about Rod is summarized in the "About Heron Dance" section of the blog. Here is a brief excerpt: "Creative people are above all else people of ideas, and underlying the creation of all art is an iceberg — spirituality, intuition, dreams, perhaps meditation or journaling, a relationship with solitude." Live with that idea for a few minutes!

Check it out and subscribe to the newsletter -- his canoeing related entries are top notch.

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Hunter Angler Gardener Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast

Hank Shaw is an interesting character who looks a bit like me, so maybe that is part of the reason I like his blog. Mr. Shaw's writing is casual, witty, and understated while at the same time communicating valuable information about foraging and cooking wild foods. The photos are from Mr. Shaw's partner, Holly A. Heyser and compliment the writing to such a degree that I'm not sure which I appreciate more. My mouth waters often browsing this blog.

I stumbled upon HAGC when looking for Chanterelle recipes, and I have to say, it was a wonderful stumble. Kind of like the act of Chanterelle hunting itself. See: http://honest-food.net/2010/11/05/chanterelles-in-all-their-forms/

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Vancouver Island Lake Adventures

Russ Porter and his wife Arlene are livin the life. Their photo-rich travel reports reveal their light-hearted spirit and love of nature. This is one of the best outdoor blogs that focuses on Vancouver Island I have yet seen, and shows just how evocative good photos can be. Check it out.

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Fly to Water

Speaking of photographs -- not many nature photographers can beat Brett Colvin for bringing the outdoors into sharp focus. As a bonus Brett's recent post gives tips on just how he gets some of those amazing shots. If you are a photographer, don't miss this great blog.

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The View From The Canoe

Scott Schuldt gets out in his Penobscot every few days and writes spare, wonderfully crafted, trip reports full of salient details and observations. I take great pleasure in relaxing into Scott's view and I think you will too.

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As you can see my taste runs to the thoughtful, the authentic, the well written, and the nature focused. And I havn't even mentioned all the blogs I enjoy, only the ones I think are most germain to readers if 100 Lakes on Vancouver Island.

I hope you will take the opportunity in the comment section below to tell me about blogs I might have missed, or should check out, or are new, etc. I look forward to your recommendations!

Can You Teach an Old Paddler New Tips?

2010-12-01T23:48:00.000-08:00

When people find out I have a canoe for sale, they often ask, “why are you selling it?” and the answer is rather pathetic. I want the Maserati Gran Turismo of canoes and I have a Volvo V50. That is to say, I want a high end solo canoe, and I have a high end multipurpose canoe.

The Solo Plus

I purchased the Solo Plus, Wenonah’s answer to a “do it all” canoe, because I wanted a canoe that could be paddled tandum or solo. The Solo Plus is good for solo weekends and weeklong trips; ok for tandum day trips; and not a bad compromise between efficiency and practicality. Somewhere between a performance boat and a family friendly recreational hull. I liked that I could sit in it or I could kneel in it. The gunwales were narrow enough to use a double blade. And after using it for two years I realized that I was moving consistently and with greater conviction away from tandem paddling towards the true solo experience.

The SportPal

The turning point came on a trip this summer with Tom. Tom sports a Sportpal. A light aluminium hull with clever innovations from the period of everyman ingenuity following the second world war. It was a time of adaptation of military material to civilian purposes. It brought us wonders like aluminium foil and Tang. I love the Sportpal for it’s robust design, engineered practicality, and amazing multipurpose slyness. It is the Solo Plus with oar locks, a movable seat, and a place to put a mast for sailing. It has a sort of recalcitrant thriftiness that is evident in a host of perfected ideas. The true jack of all trades watercraft. You can even put a motor on it.

The Summersong, the Sportpal, and the Spitfire

While I paddled and Tom rowed our way along Amor Lake we met Ron, a relocated easterner in possession of a Sawyer Fibreglass Summersong. The Summersong is also a product of it’s age, and while the Sportpal has the look and feel of the sixties, the Summersong has the look and feel of the eighties. It has the same post-war cleverness (three height fully adjustable seat) with the lines and performance of a high tech race craft.

Summersong by Sawyer

In the months that followed I would learn that the Summersong was a product of a particularly innovative period of solo canoe design that focused on performance hulls for hit and switch single bladers. It was produced in the heyday of the solo canoe, at the cusp of shift in interest among paddlers to kayaks. The Summersong was sleek, fast, and light. Everything I held dear.

Ron said he had an Autumn Mist as well but preferred the Summersong

The shift to kayaks came about for a variety of reasons. New composite materials, extremely enthusiastic kayakers, the low profile on the water and low centre of gravity from sitting low in the boat, the efficiency of the double blade, the solo nature of the kayak (tandems are out there, but few and far between), and the decked design that tends to increase the boat’s seaworthiness. The west coast was a hotbed of kayak design in the 70s, 80’s, and 90’s and kayaks have displaced canoes in retail outlets. One Island shop told me they sold 100 kayaks for every canoe they sold. I think that social pressure has played an unfortunate role in overshadowing solo canoes with kayaks.

Duncan Watts and Matthew Salganik (http://www.princeton.edu/~mjs3/musiclab.shtml) are researches who set up an experiment to test the long held assumption that other people’s choices affect our own choices. They created a website on which their test subjects could download music and see what other subjects downloaded. Everyone could rate songs and ranked them and see what other people’s rankings were. Some tunes became hits, ranked highly and downloaded by many and others did not. The music was a collection of 48 original songs from aspiring but unknown artists. The curious thing was that each group of participants had a different “hits” list from other groups. There were a few songs that hovered near the top of the list in all groups, but everything else varied wildly from group to group. It seems that the songs that are actually good stand out, but the ones that are only mediocre are perceived differently depending on what other people say about them. Often people have bought kayaks when solo canoes would have been a better fit. But they were influenced by what everyone else was paddling.

Kayaks are great for all the reasons I mentioned, but one unfortunate aspect of their meteoric rise to popularity is that boat designers also shifted their attention to the new crafts and it wasn’t until well into the 2000’s that people started to buzz about new solo canoe designs again. A few companies released new designs through the 90s, but many of the best designs out there today are 20 years old or older. And there is nothing wrong with that. The Summersong is a beautiful boat that seems like perfected technology for flat-water cruising.

Summersong on Amor Lake

Trouble is that Sawyer Canoes no longer exist, and the designs have been handed over to Scott Smith at Superior Canoes. Scott would build me a Summersong, but getting it to Vancouver Island poses a bit of a challenge. Before trying to work out a way to get a Summersong, or the equally desirable Rapidfire, or any of the other excellent boats in the same category from American manufacturers I decided that I would look around and see what local dealers could provide, and which Canadian companies would ship to me.

My first list looked like this:

Bluewater Splitrock
Bluewater Mist
Wenonah Prism
Swift Osprey
Clipper Solitude
Clipper Packer
Souris River Tranquility

The Bluewater boats, the Prism, and the Clipper boats were all available from local dealers, and the Osprey and Tranquility were available via shipping directly from the manufactures. I had also looked at the long racing hulls like the Wenonah Advantage and Clipper Freedom, but friends had talked me out of them because of their near zero rocker and significant length.

The logic went like this, “You never paddle very hard Richard, and these boats are for athletes.” After I got over my initial shock at this obvious hyperbolic statement, I had to admit that there was a nugget of truth in it. I was attracted to the idea of a low lean racer, but would I appreciate the strengths of these boats in a healthy chop on a large open lake? I was also put off by the need to lean them in a certain way to get a nice turn out of them. I kept flirting with them, especially the Advantage, both because they are beautiful boats and because Advantage owners can be quite persuasive in their enthusiasm.

Then I hit the forums (Canadian Canoe Routes and Paddling.net). It became apparent that everyone and their dog loves the Swift Osprey. I heard only one negative comment about that boat — it doesn’t paddle well with a rear quartering wind or going at an angle to the wind combined with big waves. But few boats do. I learned pretty quickly that the Splitrock was a racer like the Advantage and eventually set it aside. I learned that the Prism was not as well regarded as I had thought, and like the Mist, Packer, and Solitude was designed for sit and switch paddling. The Wenonah Argosy went onto the list for awhile, as did the Vagabond and Rendezvous. I had paddled and loved the Rendezvous, but eventually let go of that dream as it is not readily available in ultralight or graphite.

I had a very helpful talk with Peter Harris of Pacifica Paddle Sports who suggested the H20 boats. I had looked at the H20 boats on the Frontenac Outfitters Site, but didn’t think I would be able to get a hold of one, but Peter seemed to think he might be able to arrange it.The 16.6 and 15 went on my list.

So after much thought and review I came up with a rule of thumb:

"a differentially rockered boat in the 15 foot range will reward a recreational paddler with fast acceleration and easy cruising with a single straight paddle, and a slightly longer boat, in the 16 to 16.5 range will not respond as well at lower horse power because of skin friction, but will perform better with a double blade on the long open sprints."

Given this, I set aside all the Wenonah boats except the Argosy, Many of the best boats for what I like to do are only available in the States and back east at that.

Here is my current list:

	Osprey	Mist	Packer	Argosy	H20 16.6	H20 15
Length	15'	14'10"	14'	14'6"	16'6"	15
Weight	30 lbs	35 lbs	34 lbs	30 lbs	34 lbs	32 lbs
Price	$3,000.00 plus shipping ($400) Kevlar Fusion, Carbon KV trim	2500.00 plus shipping ($400), Golden Brawn	$2000.00 CAD KV Ultralight	$2000.00 US KV Ultra-light	$2500.00 + shipping ($400), Super Kevlar	$2500.00 + shipping ($400), Super Kevlar
Width at Water	27.5"	28"	27.5"	27	29.5"	26"
Width Max	?	30"	29.5"	30	?	?
Width at Gunwales	26"	26"	24"	27	25"	27"
Rocker Bow	1.5"	0.5"	minimal	2.25"	1"	2.5"
Rocker Stern	1"	0.5"	minimal	1"	0.5"	1.5"
Bow Height	18"	17"	16"	18"	18"	17
Centre	12"	13.25"	13"	13.5"	12.5"	12
Stern	15.5"	16"	16"	16"	16"	15
Made in	Canada	Canada	Canada	USA	Canada	Canada

All of these boats do have a narrow water width, are in the magic waterline length range (14 to 16 feet) and are light. The front runners, the Osprey, Argosy, and H20 Boats have differential rocker.

The best choice at this point seems to be the Osprey, but it is the most expensive and I would have to trust the shipper and make any repairs myself.

The Argosy suffers from being regarded as not particularly fast or good in windy conditions — more of a down river hull. The Argosy is the least expensive.

The H20 Boats are relatively unknown. All are narrow at the gunwale which will allow for paddling with a double blade. The new and enticing H20 16.6, despite Charlie Wilson’s reservations, still looks good. It has a white bottom, great colors, and could potentially be faster than the Osprey.

The Mist and Packer have lost their lustre due to a less than optimal length and minimal rocker.

Here are some helpful tips I picked up along the way:

I appreciated John Winters excellent little article How to Buy a Canoe Mr. Winters has a great little list of questions to help clarify the process.
The choices I have listed above do not include a good number of excellent boats that are available but outside my narrow set of preferences. Unless you are very wealth there is no point pinning over a glorious hull from a company who doesn’t have a dealer in our area or doesn’t ship direct. If you don’t mind driving across the boarder to meet up with a delivery driver, or travel to the eastern United States yourself, then many more options open up.
Designing solo canoe hulls is done with thought towards the stance the padder takes (sitting, kneeling, with a bent shaft single, double, etc.) and the intended use (ponds, calm flatwater, big waves on lakes, mild rivers, whitewater, oceans), and also the level of skill the paddler has. Few of the boats on my list would be immediately comfortable to a beginner.
The weight of the paddler also matters and some boats have seats that are much more flexible than others (to allow for trim differences with different weighted paddlers).
The most recognized names in solo canoe design are John Winters and David Yost. From what I can tell, all their designs are well appreciated. There are many other hulls of merit, but if it has the DY or JW name, it probably is a safe bet.
There is a difference between efficiency and speed. Generally longer boats are faster, but may take more power to get them up to speed. The Square root of the length, in feet, multiplied by 1.55 roughly equals mph up to development of the two wave wash but the fastest speeds require significant power, definitely more than something like the Indian stroke will produce -- so boats greater than 15 feet are probably not worth the extra skin friction if paddling with a single blade is going to be the norm. Shorter boats have less wetted surface and so are much easier to get up to speed, if the top speed is more limited. Width and hull shape address efficiency at any given length.
A high cadence is the most important factor for achieving speed.

The Secret Lake the Faller Showed Me

2010-11-20T23:03:00.000-08:00

Logged Area Surrounding Black Lake

I have known a few fallers. As a boy, a timber faller, his dented orange hard hat and red checked jacket, talked to my father at the truck window about the way the earth thumps when the big trunks land. They were big trunks in those days. I watched the man step off the road, over logs, up the bank. His friendly wave before picking up his saw. The tattered ends of his jeans lifting and dropping on his high shafted boots as he stepped over debris and slash. Dad started the truck, and we headed on to the fishing hole. I turned in my seat to watch one of the trees at the edge of the cut fall down hill. The springiness of it as it landed.

A faller, his nostrils full of wood dust and the smell of chain oil, feels the power of internal combustion attached to a flying chain of blades, the challenge and exhilaration of dropping large pillars of carbon, tons of wood - the neck stretching openness in the canopy for the blue sky to step around in fractals between the remaining treetops.

Plug for the gender mold. The archetypal-larger-than-life-macho-logger. Steel toed boots, the heavy fabric of faller chaps stained with oil, the saw jamming fabric shirt brown with sweat and dirt, the constant current of danger like an eel in a river, the constant numbness in the arms from vibration, the finger tips buzzing.

After the saw is snuffed into silence, after the foam removed from ears, after the sky begins sucking away as much heat as the sun brings in, now low to the horizon - then he stops and ponders the beauty of the place, the funny way the cut opens the forest like an ancient story opens a deepness in the soul. The sweet smell of cut logs mixed with the minty crackle of gum. Good to end a day alive, and then go for a beer with the others in the warm loud span of laughter and forgetting.

A Fire Warden I met on a dusty logging road this summer on the hottest day of the year showed me a lake I could paddle on. His lake. One of his secret spots. He found it years ago when he was a faller. We sat in our vehicles, window to window talking about the changes in the forests - small contractors, more fatalities, a changing way of life. Companies from China securing fibre rights, converting mills to specialty products. And then, he said, he was married to a woman who was Chinese.

The walk to the lake was worth it, he told me, because he had saved a swath of old growth trees. The hillsides around the lake were covered in uniform carpet of new growth as I looked around after easing the canoe into the water from my shoulder.

The same familiar shortness of young trees. But along the edge of the water on one half of the lake a fringe of large trees. The faller's gift. He had asked the timber boss if they could be saved. The saws were already wining their way down the hill overlooking the lake, the trucks hauling away the big cellulose tubes. The boss said no, then a few days later, called back, "OK," he said, "The rest won't be cut." Sort of a miracle.

I paddled and admired the stand of old growth. At the south end of the lake, I tied the boat and walked in the shallow water.

The air was hazy with smoke from distant forest fires. The wind had been blowing earlier but had dropped. The shade of the massive trees seemed to provide an oasis from the heat and smoke. The pattern of wave splash along the rocks.

They are rugged. They curse and spit and compete and joke. The rough company of men. The guys who gave me a ride when I locked my keys in my Tracker a few years ago looked at me reluctantly from their Silverado LT 4X4. Working hard not to call me an idiot to my face. In the woods, regardless of how stupid someone is, you help him out.

Almost all the lakes I wish were protected, I accessed from the edge of a logging road. The patchwork quilt of cuts visible from space, and me disappearing like the speckles on a trout's back after you let it go.

on the hillside
a logger steps from log to log
hot saw swinging

It's Hedgehog Season!

2010-11-18T21:20:00.000-08:00

Hydnum umbilicatum

I have been struggling with some pain from a chronic health condition, but walking seems to help, so I have taken a few long lunch breaks over the last few days to walk through the forest near my home.

Being under the trees, the rain water dripping all around me, the warm glow of hedgehog mushrooms dotting the deep moss -- it reminds me of being a child looking for Easter eggs. Hedgehogs are the colour of the inside of orange peel. A soft warm peach colour.

"All of our senses and capabilities, even our spiritual capacities, are based on ongoing contact with the natural world," said Stephen Kellert, professor of social ecology at Yale University. "Contact with nature is essential to our heath and physical well-being."

Today was cool, just above freezing when I headed out, and I was surprised to find that several of the mushrooms I left in the field to fatten up a few days ago, were already large enough to pick. I always try to take half of the mushrooms in a patch. I leave the rest to cast their spores and in case there are other pickers coming along after me.

This has been a good year for Hedgehogs and I have seen very few Boletes although last year seemed to produce Boletes in large numbers. The mysterious factors behind mushroom proliferation...

The leaves are now off most of the trees. The alders are looking ratty, though still holding their old green leaves, the invasive hawthorns are fringed with tan and orange, still green near their crowns, the apple trees in the neighborhoods show wet apples as the leaves thin and turn to gold. The Oaks, maples, and deciduous shrubs have all given up their brown and red and gold to the relentless rains.

Soon only the winter oyster mushrooms will draw me off the trails. Then the long sleep of winter. And THEN paddling time!

Sold! -- One Close Friend, memories not included (I'm keeping those)

2010-11-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

November 5, 2010
January 30, 2011 -- Sold

2008 Wenonah Solo Plus canoe for sale, Kevlar® Ultra-light layup with black anodized aluminum gunwales, burgundy gel coat, and Super Seat. 45 lbs.
Price: $1650.00 Canadian

Current price on the Wenonah Website (USA prices):

Feature	Price
Kevlar® Ultra-light layup	$2399.00
Burgundy Gel Coat	$0.00
All-black aluminum trim	$100.00
Super Seat	$39.95
Total:	$2538.95

Here she is:

She is sitting on Anutz Lake and earlier in the morning I snapped this shot from her gunwales:

She is currently set up for solo paddling from the centre seat:

This was the view I had from that seat on that particular paddle:

You can see I have taken out the front seat.

But the boat can be paddled tandem as in this shot:

That's one of the beauties of the Solo Plus. But I have to tell you, she shines best as a solo, and that is how I have mostly gone out in her.

Her is a shot that shows the excellent centre seat and how easily you can reach the water with her ample tumblehome:

So if you like a single blade style of paddling, she is well suited. But if you like to use a double blade, that is fine too:

One of the things I like most about her is the feeling of secondary stability and sea-worthiness. Here I am paddling her on Cedar Lake in a bit of a wind. Note the low profile which means she does not catch too much wind:

This boat has great lines, consequently I have taken just a few shots of her over the 2+ years I have had her. Here are a few of my favorites:

On McNair Lake

On Lower Campbell Lake

On Dickson Lake at Sunset (Thanks James, for washing her out while I took pictures. What a friend!)

River Near Claude Elliot Lake

Now that last shot was taken after we did some down-river paddling, and over the years she has, well, you know, grazed and tapped against a few rocks here and there. On this trip a tiny piece of Gel Coat came out and I patched it as some as I got home:

And in the interest of full disclosure, there are a few scratches on her. Here is a video to give you some idea:

Here are a few more shots of what her hull looks like the day I made this post:

And:

You can see a tiny hole in the gel coat there which I just discovered when I took these photos. Pretty minor, and a good polishing would bring her back to showroom shine in in no time. Most of the scratches are on the bottom, but there are a few above water line, and of course on the gunwales:

But all in all she is still in very fine shape.

One aspect of the Solo Plus I really like is the adjustable seat. Here is a video close up of that feature:

The inside of the boat has been treated annually (sometimes more often) with 303 and is in good shape:

She has been stored on these horses the whole time I have owned her and in August I refinished the thwarts by sanding them down to wood and applying 4 coats of spar varnish.

Additional Info:

Reviews of the Solo Plus at Paddling.net
My review when we first picked it up.

If you are interested in coming by to have a look, please e-mail me at: inboxonmars at yahoo.ca

I don't have the capacity to arrange shipping. You will need to pick the boat up in person.
Payment must be certified cheque or bank draft.

I am not flexible on the price, as I believe it is reasonable, and I follow the old Quaker idea that a price should be the price, no games or dickering.

~~I'm not in any hurry and will amend this post to say "sold" when someone buys her. If it doesn't say that on this post, she is still for sale~~. This Canoe is now sold.

Second Nanaimo Lake

2010-10-17T23:51:00.000-07:00

Trip Date: October 17, 2010

Off road vehicles, 2 of them customized 4Runners, with chopped beds, external cages, and large tires, in a line as a local explains to them that the gate has just been closed. Disappointment and anger on the young men's faces. I wonder, "where will they go now?"

We are not headed for points further up the valley -- we are just going to the boat ramp, though the image does give me a twinge of chagrin. All this land owned by a forest company and the public barred from using it much or most of the time. An old deal which has rubbed people wrong year after year. A give away to big business in exchange for a railway that is only lightly used these days.

The boat ramp has a number of vehicles parked around it. Guys out on the water fishing. We put in with the sound of retreating 4x4s and paddle out and away, heading down to look at the outflow.

The autumn colors warm the landscape but we can see our breath in the shade.

As we approach the bridge we see the smooth surface tilting into rapids so we turn around.

We head back towards the main lake.

The sun is warm and provides a sense of comfort. Two ultralight planes fly low overhead, heading up the broad valley slowly. The day has the feel of a Sunday, lazy and relaxed.

In the distance we see another canoe. People are out enjoying the air, water, and sunshine.

The bushes along the shore are various shades of burgundy and amethyst. The Ninebark is yellow and orange.

We paddle slowly and take it all in. Further up the lake we coast beside a large wall of stone with large and small trees growing out of cracks. It is too dark in the shade of the hillside to take pictures. I have to just soak it in. I keep looking and looking and can't get enough. At one point a bright yellow clump of Ninebark protrudes out from between a vertical fissure in the rock face. Paul and I both comment repeatedly on the beauty. We talk about people we know that have a hard time seeing it or valuing it. I think about learning to appreciate abstract art in my first year at University. Removing preconceptions and expectations and just looking at what is before you. Letting the art evoke a feeling.

We round the corner and eat our lunch on a log strewn shore with the sound of water or wind, we never can decide which, coming from the dense forest behind us. Two fly fishermen go by in a skiff. We chat with them and they tell us that the Elk were not on the gravel bar today.

In order to make sure we are out before the gate is closed, we cut our trip short and head back. On another day we will explore the sand bar and maybe see those Elk. Two blue herons fly over us low and close enough to see the feathers moving in their wings.

We stop on the way home and wander into the woods looking for Mushrooms.

There are Chanterelles -- slightly waterlogged and perhaps indicating the peak of the season, and a small patch of Hedgehogs, firm and smelling sweet. These are Hydnum umbilicatum. I have not gathered them before.

The teeth or spines are clearly visible under the magnifying glass when I get home.

There is also a Western Amethyst Laccaria, which I am not as sure about both in the field and when I get home. But when I look in the books I gain confidence. I will do a spore print tonight. Edibility of this mushroom seem in question but it has a lovely fresh smell.

I also saw but did not gather what I think was a either a Zellers or Admirable Bolete. Being not on wood, but on the side of the road, I lean towards the Zellers.

I have a satisfied sense of gratitude as I put my mushrooms in the fridge at the end of the night. It has been a good day.

Stella and Lower Stella Lakes

2010-10-11T01:10:00.000-07:00

Trip Date: October 3rd, 2010

James and I had visited the area of Stella, Lower Stella, Pye and McCreight Lakes last year but the day had been windy and the lakes were uninviting. This day the Weather Network predicted low winds so we decided to try again. A sign at the entrance to Rock Bay Road informed us that the road would be closed the next day for logging in the Stella Lake area. We congratulated ourselves on visiting the lakes just in time.

We stopped briefly at McCreight, but the long narrow valley seems always to channel wind down the lake. Today was no exception. We drove on, enjoying the country between McCreight and Stella, a lowland of meandering streams and deep water marshes.

Lower Stella looked calm and inviting, but we checked our watches and decided we could probably get a paddle in on both Stella and Lower Stella; so headed on to Stella. At the put in a lone angler was navigating his aluminum skiff with an electric motor towards the beach where he was camped. The wind was running out of the South East and the sheltered bay was inviting enough. We set off along the North Eastern shore protected from the main wind by the protruding headland at the transition to the main lake.

Once we passed the headland we headed Southwest towards the island that stands off from the point between the two large bays on the Northern end of the lake. Rocky on the southern shore and lush and dense with foliage on the Northern side, the island does not appear to receive many visitors. No obvious campsite was evident but there was a fire ring on the high rocks on the western side. I got out and crashed through the bushes for awhile trying to find a route to high ground before giving up and returning to my canoe.

We headed back to the put-in, enjoying the Northern shore and outflow before taking out and heading to Lower Stella.

Lower Stella is the haunt of generations of anglers. A grandfather on our last visit was introducing his grandchildren to the special place. A fisherman's poem is carefully nailed to a tree near the put-in and because there is no easy way to launch a boat of any significant size, I suspect only canoes, light skiffs, and pontoon boats make it onto the lake.

The light was fading but we headed out, circumnavigating the lake counter clockwise. The inflow is picturesque, but the most endearing aspect of the lake is the long southern shore with it's grassy fringe and striking contrast of light alder trunks against the dark forest behind.

With the chill of evening penetrating our shirts we finished out paddle and headed to have a look at the Pye Lake Rec Site, which we found and wandered through in the last light before dark. Pye was also calm and we wished we had a little more day left to explore it. We decided to return again on another day.

Fore more photos of Lower Stella visit the photo gallery here.

McNair Lake

2010-10-07T22:54:00.000-07:00

Trip Date: October 3, 2010

As I gingerly ease the Tracker in and out of the large holes that crater the road leading away from McNair Lake, the springs in the seat creak and we sway this way and that. My passenger (contented and glowing from sucking in great drafts of beauty) leans over conspiratorially and says "You won't blog about this place, right?"

I've heard this appeal before. The concern seems to be that if I show people what a special place it is they will all flock to it and trample the beauty into mud and gravel and then throw beer cans and old tarps in the water. We have seen this in too many other places already.

Lunch At McNair

The trouble is, that if the yahoos don't be-spoil it the forest companies probably will. The trees around McNair are getting big enough to harvest. Before long the saws will start to whine and the hillsides will lose their beautiful blanket of undulating fir to be replaced by a patchwork of logging cuts. Beauty is not nearly as valuable as logs and fiber.

I'm not against logging. I'm not a tree spiker or tree hugger. But I have to confess I feel pretty sad to think that this area will soon look like a half plucked chicken.

The Sayward forest should, in my humble opinion, be protected because of it's beauty. But my opinion isn't likely to have much effect on changing the fate of this place. Still, I do what I can. And part of what I can do is post some photos and at least let posterity see what a beautiful place this was before the loggers had their way with it.

Because of course once the saws get busy it will be a hundred years or more before it will look like this again. I'll be long gone by then. I wonder if my photos will remain? Probably not.

So what is this post about then? Perhaps just one human mind contemplating how everything changes and celebrating the beauty while it is still here.

For more photos of McNair Lake, click here.

Chanterelle Season!

2010-09-19T01:07:00.000-07:00

I was not overly motivated to get out on the water this weekend, but I did take two long walks between rain showers and saw lots of mushrooms, including hundreds of Fircone cap -- that funky little mushroom that grows out of fir cones littered on the forest floor.

Of the edible kind I saw a few Rosy Gomphidius, some puffballs, and happily some Pacific Golden Chanterelles. Of the non edible variety I was fortunate to see what I believe was Clustered collybia along with some very large Rosy Russulas and some very badly mangled Wooly Chanterelles.

From Mushroom Hunt -- September 18, 2010

To view a video of the habitat I found these in, and some more photos, see the album here:

Mushroom Hunt -- September 18, 2010

Farewell Lake

2010-09-17T01:04:00.000-07:00

I visited Farewell Lake with Tom in the late and lazy days of August. It was a perfect day on an enchanting "off the beaten path" lake in the Sayward Forest.

We ate our lunch here at the place the outflow becomes a creek over rocks too shallow to admit canoes at this time of year.

For more photos visit my Jalbum Album of Farewell Lake.

Pixie Lake

2010-09-07T01:34:00.000-07:00

The road from the main to the put-in is overgrown and has two large deep puddles. We waded in to test the depth before putting the Tracker in 4 wheel drive and fording through. At the lake edge a swarm of wasps arrived to examine the hot vehicle.

I stood back nervously but James was brave.

After a few minutes the wasps lost interest and we put out onto a strange and eerie world. the shoreline bristled with dead trees, watershield decomposed under the sun, dark deep water slid under our hulls.

We did not see any pixies, but at one point James commented that it was the sort of place you thought you might look into the water and see ghostly white faces looking back with dead eyes.

Memorable would be a word to describe the experience.

Here is a photo album of the paddle: http://www.homestead.com/rrpowell/files/PixieLake

Fairy Lake

2010-09-05T00:51:00.000-07:00

Fairy Lake Photo Album: http://rrpowell.homestead.com/files/fairylake/

Lone Tree Island

2010-08-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

I visited Lone Tree Island (on Goose Lake) three times in as many years. The first time was with my 15 year old son, Graham, in 2008. He idled away into a nearby bay while I tied my canoe to a weathered log and got out to have a look around.

The fissured black rock under foot was warm in the afternoon sun and wavelets lapped at it's edge. The traction of the rock felt satisfying, it's sureness underfoot, a relief when so much around was either slippery or muddy.

I walked carefully across the island's moss, mostly dry and whispering underfoot, then looked for a long time at the lone pine tree, rooted in a low depression of the rock on the northern edge of the island. Probably the only place where anything like soil could gather.

The tree's roots snaked out across the rock in ribbons -- wiry tendrils with thin living veins on the underside. Scared, gnarled, old.

Walking up to the tree I found that the limbs contained twisted bunches of branches resembling some internal mass of arteries exposed during an operation. Severed branches ended in sticky pitch. The human compulsion to cut wood.

I moved slowly, noticing sprigs of hard hack, the conical cluster of fuzzy pink flowers that bees love. The moss compacted underfoot. Looking down I saw red ground plants, and as I ducked under one of the big branches, a layer of pine needles crackled under my Keens like they would in a fire.

On one side of the tree limbs had been hacked off, hurried amputations as if from a machete or Sandvik bush axe -- the wounds scabbed over with hard cloudy pitch.

I turned and looked back at my canoe; the burgundy hull bobbed slightly against the dark gray volcanic rock, the sun bleached log spanning across to a smaller island and bright green sedges glowed in dappled sunlight.

I sat on the rock by the canoe for a few minutes, feeling the place, connecting to it. I looked back at the tree. Hoped it would survive for a long time.

A few weeks later I brought James to the spot. The nearby campsite was occupied, so I didn't spend much time on Lone Tree Island. But paddling past I couldn't help wanting to get out. I noticed how the tree, from the side, had the look of a bonsai, the triangle of branches like something out of one of Peter Chan's books.

The water around the island was flashing, the amber silt like a blanket tucked in underneath.

We returned to our campsite and the next morning, for some reason, I was drawn to a place I could look out on Lone Tree Island. What was it's allure? What made it so pleasing?

Just recently, after not visiting Goose Lake for a year, I returned with friends, and one evening I made my way over to the island again.

I pulled Paul's Wenonah Rendezvous (Classic tuff weave lay-up) up on the North side of the island this time, resting the hull on a spot of gravel and sedges.

I walked a few paces to a slight rise and looked again at the tenacious pine. The setting sun was still lighting the hardy tree in a warm glow, while I stood in the cool of the shade from the trees on the western shore. The weathered old log was gone, no doubt it floated free in one of the winter storms. Nothing stays the same, everything changes. But the rock, the general shape of the island seemed comfortingly constant and the tree - it's survival questionable, added tension to the scene.

I looked across to the northern shore of the lake at the small island at the end of the peninsula there. I thought, for some reason of the film adaptation of Great Expectation with Ethan Hawke, where young Fin is out walking in the shallows searching for fish. There are, after all, many places in the world like this, stretches of shallow water with little islands. This place, just happens to be near me, and in the grand scheme of things, it is not particularly spectacular or special. But of course, it is. And that is the mystery.

Places like this have something of the desert, something of the desert island. This island is basically a rock, and in a setting such as off the nearby west coast of Vancouver Island, it would be lost, subsummed into the common place by all the other similar rocky outcrops -- just one of many. But here, surrounded on all sides by forested shores, it takes on a quality something like a refuge, a breathing space, a contrast to dense forest.

Here, in this context, the solidity of the rock is comforting, the tenacity of the lone tree inspiring, the nakedness of the rock sensual and appealing. It is a testimony to the combination of things, to the rule of a special place being greater than the sum of it's parts. It is artistic, or perhaps more accurately, aesthetic. Easy on the eyes, pleasing to the feet, a sense satisfying locus.

Part of the appeal is that this hump of rock, evoking somehow the sense of a whales back breaking the surface, is so solid while just inches beyond it's shore the silty bottom deepens into a death trap of sucking glue. There is a prickly awareness being here, like walking past sleeping alligators, like sauntering just out of reach of a caged tiger. The danger is there, but the chance of mishap is slim as long as you keep your wits about you.

And then there is the view, in every direction, of green wilderness. There are logging cuts here and there. For the moment they seem tactfully hidden from view, but there are no houses yet, no docks and breakwaters, no developments or marinas. But of course there could be, might someday be. While Lone Tree Island is just a part of a larger landscape, it draws some of it's appeal from being situated within a wider vista. A Wild vista. And I guess I hope it will stay that way.

So much wilderness is being purchased, controlled, and managed, that I feel sad contemplating the ultimate fate of places like this. Will Lone Tree Island be free sold to the highest bidder? Or can this patch of Crown Land remain with the people, protected from development. I hope it can.

Goose Lake --
hearing the wind coming
tree by tree

Goose Lake

2010-08-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Island Backroad Mapbook 4th edition - Map 40 B5
Atlas of Canada Link:Mohun Lake (North)
Latitude and Longitude: 50° 8' 24" N 125° 29' 48" W
Decimal Degrees: 50.14° N 125.497° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 321589 5557209
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092K03

Trip Date: July 27 to 30th, 2010

Goose Lake Map

There is a lot of traffic on Goose Lake these days. As the first leg of the Sayward Forest Canoe Route there is a steady stream of canoes and kayaks heading north towards the portage to Twin Lake. The Northern bay has some decent trout in it too, so that brings anglers in skiffs, powerboats, and Zodiacs. The rotting pilings from the old bridges at the narrows keep the water skiers out, but not the jet skis. And it is only going to see more traffic as the population of Vancouver Island increases.

So why am I broadcasting the location to the world wide web? Because I would like to see this fragile and beautiful environment protected so people can keep on enjoying it for a long time to come. As Michel Gauthier points out in his excellent guide to the Canoe Circuit, "By using the resource, we plant a stake in the ground, a flag that represents our will, our wants, and our desire. The more of us who paddle the circuit, the bigger the flag, the more visible it is to them [the policy makers]. We become a constituency. Our use of the resource forces government officials to take us into consideration when they make decisions affecting the area we have claimed."

The beauty of this place may not be grandiose, but it is impressive in it's subtlety.

The first subtle beauty of the place is it's shallowness.

Notice the paddle swirls in the bottom mud behind Paul in this shot? there is something magical about zipping along over the honey colored silt only a few feet below. Schools of stickleback dart away and even the dusky speckled leaches are beautiful to watch as they nose alone sunken logs in search of hiding places.

The golden color comes from the lake bottom which is a soft blanket of decaying algae, pine pollen, and organic matter. In places you can thrust a paddle 4 feet into it without striking anything solid. All the water from Goose and Mohun lakes (and their tributaries) appears to drain out the small creek that leads to Morton Lake. For most of the year the flow is gentle, so the silt has a chance to settle out.

What this means is that it is a great place for aquatic plants to grow, particularly Yellow Pond Lilly, Watershield, Floating Leaved Pondweed, and Water Lobelia.

Floating-Leaved Pondweed

Here Paul examines a bed of Verticillate Watermilfoil mixed with Widgeon grass:

The Milfoil, a native species, forms slightly disturbing underwater brain structures:

This is sedgebending territory, with a fair number of reeds and rushes for good measure.

The second subtle beauty of this place is the rock. There are a number of rocky islands and points, as well as rocky escarpments and rock gardens.

Rock Garden with Water Lobilia

I think the main rock here is a basalt. According to this map the Goose Lake area sits squarely atop Karmutsen Volcanic Rocks and Quatsino Limestone. One prospector states that "As we head north from Campbell River towards Sayward, the area is almost entirely underlain by Karmutsen basalts near the top of the section." On Goose Lake these volcanic bones emerge in places to add a solid contrast to the softer textures of water and woods.

All of the good campsites have this stone underfoot, but it is particularily obvious at G5, 6, and 7 and the un-numbered site in the Western Bay:

We appreciated the Shade to Eat Our Lunch In

There is a swirl of stone on this point that looks like it may have been a popped bubble of lava:

One of my favorite places on Goose Lake is Lone Tree Island, which I will devote another post to entirely. This island is a large stone projecting from the water with a beautiful pine with undulating roots that stretch out across the rock:

Lone Tree Island contains the third subtle beauty: Pines. Shore Pines to be exact. Also called Bonsai Pines and Bog Pines. The scientific name is Pinus contorta and it is well adapted to growing on rocks and beside the water.


Sunrise over Pine at Campsite G6

Campsite G6 is on the south side of a picturesque island on which are growing numerous beautiful specimens, not least of which are the ones growing in the campsite itself.

The dense "cloud-like" bunches of branches on these specimens make great shade and the trees are strategically located to provide shelter from the sun most of the day.

That tree on the right has a good example of how the pine trunch and branches twist and turn as they grow. Here is a close up:

The contorted pines continue to grace the landscape when they fall down and loose their bark, revealing their beautiful twisted interiors.

This combination of shallow water, volcanic rock, and trees with deep character make this a place to experience wabi sabi in abundance. It is an experience worth savoring.

I hope that you will visit Goose Lake and tread lightly when you do. But please do visit, and tell your friends, and tell your political representatives that this unique and beautiful treasure needs to be protected, enhanced, and saved for your children and their children.

The campsites need better toilets and some signs to let people know how fragile the environment is. Tables would prevent the cutting of trees and small wooden docks in places would prevent the deterioration of the shoreline habitat.

A big thanks must be given to the Comox Valley Paddlers who have installed the cedar toilet boxes in some campsites.

Lets hope that Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts which now managers the area will receive funding to maintain and protect this valuable natural resource. This is a premier recreational location in western Canada and deserves careful management.

Blackwater Lake

2010-07-10T02:21:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Island Backroad Mapbook 4th edition - Map 39 G3
Atlas of Canada Link:Blackwater Lake
Latitude and Longitude: 50° 11' 2" N 125° 35' 9" W
Decimal Degrees: 50.184° N 125.586° W
UTM Coordinates: 10U 315386 5562301
Topographic Map Sheet Number: 092K04

Trip Date: July 1st, 2010

Blackwater Lake is a long narrow, somewhat winding, lake with a range of shoreline features including reed and sedge filled bays, rocky points, and an interesting estuary at the south end of the lake where the water from Amor lake flows in via a short creek.

Paul and I arrived mid-morning after camping for two nights on Mohun Lake. The steep path down to the water was somewhat off-putting but we decided it would be worth it. The little beach where you put the canoes in was sandy and clean with a view to the southerly stretch of the lake.

We paddled south, the wind for the most part at our backs, and Paul was dive-bombed by a defensive gull who apparently thought he was getting too close to her nest. We stayed to the western shore and when Paul pointed out that I was paddling past a beaver lodge I looked at the lodge and into the water and saw large plumes of mud stirred up below my canoe. We did not, however, ever see the beaver, so I'm not sure where she surfaced.

Along the shoreline of the wide curve of the southern estuary we noticed that small cones had collected in hollows in the silt along with what at first looked like deer droppings. Upon further observation I believe they were actually pieces of the peat-like material that formed a mat higher up on the beach. The pieces of compacted soil had been rounded by wave action and jostling with the cones and together they had uncovered the colourful sand below. Fresh water clams were secured in several of the indentations.

We tentatively ventured onto the delta of the estuary at the end of the lake and gingerly walked around taking photos. The ground was muddy and appeared to have recently been underwater.

I took multiple shots of the inflow to stitch together later with Photoshop.

The drop in water left some lillies to flower without boyancy.

We paddled back along the eastern shore and eventually spotted two fluffy balls of feathers that turned out to be ambulatory gull chicks with black spots all over their heads. The call of the mother was unlike most gull's I had heard, and the distinctive colouration of the chick's heads made me confident I would be able to identify them at home. It has not proved easy. The chicks were near a cliff face, hinting that they may have been Glaucous-Winged gulls. The raptor-like call also suggested this. In memory the parent's seemed mostly white and smaller with greater wing to body capacity that Herring or California gulls, leading me to wonder if they might have been Bonaparte's Gull, but I think I would have noticed the black head.

Passing the put-in we ventured down stream towards Farewell Lake. On the way we investigated an abandoned canoe.

Abandoned canoe
water line higher
on the inside

The outflow wound around a bit, then presented us with a large log jam. Paul got out to look beyond the jam, but there was another one only a few hundred yards downstream. We decided to head back upstream.

It had threatened rain for most of our paddle, and the wind had been strong at times, but as we made our way back towards the put-in, blue sky took the place of the clouds. Climbing back up to our vehicle we shed sweaters and shirts.

I was able to take some shots for a high dynamic range photos which captured well the quality of this beautiful Sayward Forest lake.

The Aleut Paddle for Canoes

2010-07-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

Canoe purists are attached to their single blade paddles.

I've come to understand that it is, at least partly, about identity. Kayakers swarm over every inch of fresh and salt water these days, and canoeing seems have lost devotees to this new fangled craze.

Canoe lovers respond to this distressing situation in at least four ways that I have observed. We 1. ignore it and go on paddling the way we like, 2. defend canoeing by pointing out the advantages and pleasures, 3. examine the kayaking trend to see what all the fuss is about, and 4. strengthen our attachments to the beloved open boat, spurning the skirt and double blade and paddling proudly to our own drummer. I have done all of these at various times and today I want to rock the boat a little by suggesting something that may make the canoe purist's blood either freeze or boil.

First let me say that I agree that there are a lot of good reasons to use a single blade paddle with a canoe, especially when kneeling or sitting on a high seat, and especially when in a tandem canoe. The tandem canoe and single blade paddle evolved together and they should stay together.

Except. It's not that simple. Pack canoes have been paddled with double bladed paddles since Nessmuk set out in his first pack canoe, the Wood Drake, in 1880. John Macgregor popularized the "kayak blended with canoe" Rob Roy 15 years earlier. Macgregor and Sears (Nessmuk) together galvanized interest in solo paddling in open and semi-open boats. That was 140 years ago.

Image of a Rushton Pack Canoe - Courtesy of St. Lawrence University

The Pack canoe has had a variety of revivals since 1880, but the first fellow in recent years to generate some interest in open solo canoes was Bart Hauthaway, a former Olympian and Olympic coach in slalom kayak. According to industry guru Charlie Wilson, Hauthaway penned and molded upwards of 30 variants of pack canoes and sold Old Town Canoes a mold and model of the Pack canoe concept in the late 1950's or early 60's which Old Town produced for several years.

Peter Hornbeck, Charlie Wilson and Joe Moore, Dave Curtis, and a variety of other enthusiasts started building high end pack canoes using Kevlar and carbon starting in the 1990's. By 2008 most major manufactures of performance canoes produced a pack canoe or high performance small canoe. Today you can pick up the 33 pound Roylex Pack canoe from Old Town for around a $1000, spring for a custom built composite in the $3,000 range, or purchase or make your own wooden hull with one of the many patterns that are now readily available.

As Charlie Wilson says, "The reason all these builders make pack canoes is simple. They are very light, easy to get into and out of and easier to load gear in than a kayak while retaining the left right left cadence of the kayak paddle. Anyone will reach a destination with an absolutely minimal learning curve."

Many canoeists do not consider a pack canoe to be a "real" canoe. They prefer to call them "deckless kayaks" but a review of the literature reveals that kayaks were originally considered to be in the class of boats called canoes, and became separated in people's minds partly as a result of the camp movement of the early 20th century which focused almost exclusively on tandem open canoes designed for stability and carrying capacity. Everyone who experienced camp and those rugged tandems, associated them with the term "canoe."You paddle a tandem canoe, of course, with a single blade paddle.

The meteoric rise of kayaks in the latter half of the 20th century eclipsed the market. Open tandem canoes sales stalled and the venerable crafts took a romantic association with bygone days, a slower pace, and a certain tradition and aesthetics. The camping culture started in the 1920's has almost been forgotten in recent years, but those of us who remember it try to keep the spark alive.

The divide between canoe devotees and Kayak enthusiasts can be wide in places, but there are also a good number of us who have a foot in both boats, so to speak.

Because of this divide, when I recently suggested to some canoe lovers that a "canoe" be paddled with a double blade, and, horror of horrors, a Greenland Kayak paddle at that; feathers were ruffled, postures were taken, and the temperature dropped a few degrees.

But, suggest it I did and still do. First, let me show you the paddle that I think may span the divide, then make the case for when and with what canoe's I think it should be used, and you can respond to my ideas in the comments section. Here is the paddle in use in my Spitfire:

Looks kind of fun doesn't it? And here it is up close:

A thing of beauty, wouldn't you say?

This paddle was carved by Nanaimo paddler Charles Alton, based on a design unearthed in the Finland National Museum in Helsinki (FNM #228), with significant adaptations for use in a canoe.

Yes that's right, Charles designed this paddle for use in a canoe. He retained the grooved power face and asymmetrical Aleut profile and the Aleut length (some Greenland paddles are considerably shorter). He told me that the Aleut themselves have been known to use 96 and 100 inch paddles, but for starters he designed this paddle at 95 inches. 95 inches is longer than the 92 inches often produced in the Aleut style by contemporary Greenland Paddle makers. Charles gave it a squared end, a longer than average loom, and included custom designed drip rings made from medical tubing. As Charles explained, "I made the drip rings out of 1/4 inch surgical tubing. I happened to have some on hand, in black. There is a cable tie inside the tube that holds the whole assembly together. After I pulled the cable tie tight and trimmed off the excess I was able to work the ends of the rubber tube over the lumpy end of the tie and hide it." They work great. The paddle itself is made from Red Cedar. It is light and a little springy and feels warm and comfortable in the hand.

In ongoing trials comparing the Aleut and traditional "Euro" blade double blade, I find the Aleut to perform better than a Euroblade in small pack canoes and slightly rockered solo canoes (I paddled with a similarly sized Greenland paddle in the Wenonah Rendezvous).

It performs adequately but un-remarkably in larger tripping boats such as the Wenonah Voyageur. In response to this observation Charles suggested a slightly larger blade and longer length for tripping canoes, and I believe this change would increase the effectiveness of the paddle with heavier boats.

The blade edge is thicker than some Greenland Paddles on the market, but slims towards the tip. I initially found the paddle fluttered but realized it was largely due to my familiarity with standard double blades. Once I reduced the pull strength and increased the cadence of my paddling, the merits of the paddle suddenly became apparent.

Firstly, when using this paddle the arms can be held lower than with other paddles, the narrow blade does not have to be lifted out of the water as far or as forcefully and the length means that a high angle stroke is not required. The narrowness of the blade naturally mitigates wind resistance and the shape of the blade means that at whatever angle the blade is used, a significant amount of blade connects with the water. In short it is comfortable, forgiving and versatile.

Secondly, the entire length of the paddle can be comfortably and pleasingly utilized to make wide sweeps. One commentator on the Canadian Canoe Routes forum said, "What Greenland paddles have over the long Euro blade is that they are relatively easy to use in a vertical position to hang turns. That may be because of their relative shortness." This is an advantage over a Euro blade, not over a single stick. The awkwardness and length of even a short Greenland paddle loses out to the nimble precision of a well wielded single blade. Also, and not unremarked by a few canoeists, Greenland style paddles get your hands wet doing this kind of thing -- i.e. if you dip the end you plan to hold in the water first, your hands will get wet.

Thirdly, it just looks so nice and a person can learn to make his own thereby allowing creativity both in design, length, and material.

So what about that Aleut grove? Well, frankly, neither Charles nor I have noticed any advantage over the single ridge or rounded surface, but it is a nice aesthetic reminder of where the power face is, and perhaps there is an advantage I have not noticed yet.

When I was first playing around with this paddle, Paul agreed to take video's of me using both the Aleut style blade and my Gray Owl Zephyr. It is a little hard to notice the difference from the video, but when I put more force behind the strokes my arm height increases with the Euro blade. Have a look:

Now, when Paul shifted to a higher vantage point, you can see a little better how the paddle looks in use. At the time of filming I had not read anything about Greenland paddles or Aleut paddles, but note how I intuitively grasped the paddle as is generally recommended. The paddle "whispers to you" you how it wants to be used.

Pros and Cons List

Pros

This paddle is well suited to a pack canoe or lightweight solo canoe because it requires less effort to produce the same results.
It is light.
It naturally encourages a gentler force with a higher cadence. Paddling seems effortless.
The drip rings work.
It can be used easily for wide sweeps with pleasure -- no sharp blade to deal with.
It is aesthetically appealing.
It can be used for fending off attacking seagulls or that suddenly spotted deadhead or rock much easier than with a Euro style blade because of the balance and shape.
It is awkward but not impossible to scull and do the j-stroke and other canoe strokes with this paddle. All are very difficult with a Euro blade.
A more quiet paddle than a Euro blade, it allows you to see more wildlife.
Low angle straight blades like this allow you to proceed in very shallow water without hitting bottom.

Cons

Despite point 8 above it is awkward to do any kind of stroke other than the straight forward left-right pull.Sculling is not as effective as I would like but draws and sweeps work fairly well.
Without a ferrule it is awkward to carry in the vehicle and on portages. Ferruled paddles are available from several paddle makers, but some people have noted that this both reduced the smooth use of the paddle for sweeps and other strokes, and reduced the aesthetic appeal.
Like all double blades, your lap and hands get wet. The good news is, that with Charles' drip rings and the inherent lower angle of use, this is significantly decreased.
This paddle is not well suited to large heavy solo canoes. The Euro blade allows for more powerful strokes to get the craft up to speed. Charles suggestion of a larger blade, may help with this.
One of the big advantages of this paddle to kayakers, that of increasing the ease of rolling, in not utilized in a canoe.

Summary
Given a choice of this paddle or my Euro blade, I would choose this paddle every time for use with my Spitfire or any similarly sized boat.

The main advantage is the flexibility of use (being able to easily use it for more than one kind of stroke) and the increased cadence with reduced strain and effort.

While I have not used it with all of these boats I would imagine it would work well with any of the Hornbeck and Hemlock boats, as well as the Rob Roy, Wee Lassie, Rapidfire, Merlin II, Magic, Heron 17R, Advantage, Bucktail, Yellowstone, Argosy, Vagabond, Prism, Seal Solo, Packer, Solitude, Tranquility, Swift Adirondack Pack, Shearwater and Osprey, Old Town Pack, Vermont Tupper, and the Bluewater Mist, Adirondack, and Splitrock. To name but a few.

Final Thoughts
Of course I have only been using this paddle for a few weeks, but I wanted to get this post up to let people know about this as an option. Using this paddle reinforces for me the growing conviction I have that paddle shape matters a lot, and that long thin blades are often better than short fat ones for recreational flat water paddling.

I still always carry a single blade and when I am out solo I use the single blade a lot to idle along enjoying the scenery. When I am with other paddlers who like to go places, however, this particular paddle really allows me to keep up without feeling exhausted at the end of the day.

It also has something most double blades do not -- a feeling of grace and tradition. This style of paddle, made from wood, is beautiful, functional, and minimal. In short, it satisfies the aesthetic sensibility as well as the practical one. I think it is the perfect match for a light, elegant solo canoe.

The Defintion of Kanjaku

2010-06-26T00:09:00.000-07:00

light stripped of blue
warms the shoreline reeds
the oboe's voice

Summer morning, toes in wet grass, reaching for the kite resting on the back of the lawn chair, large piece of duct tape over the tear. Also an evening as dad brings the power boat in, the wind blown out, the waves gently slapping stones, me on the dock, watching, sand in a line on my thigh. Also up the West Fork, fly rod in hand, sweat drying on the back of my neck, the way the elderberry flowers are half turned to berries, the redness of ripe against green. And recently the sound of cooling metal, the softness of the silence lying out across the lake after the engine is turned off.

Near Regan Lake

There are moments, fat as summer raindrops, which hit you from a blue sky. The sudden awareness of awareness. The sudden appreciation of slackness that would be exhaustion if you had worked for it, the sudden slumping of something inside, like a pile of sand slumps as it dries out next to a sand castle. That very fine sound of grains tumbling. It is a pleasant sensation, a deep adjustment in the muscles. And complex, because while being relaxed and tired, it is also sharp like pricked dog's ears.

Brewster Lake

In Chinese the word is xian, in Japanse, kan. A state of mind that is free from worry, open to embrace the Dao. The root kan is joined to jaku, which means lonely or still. Jaku has a active element though, even in the stillness, like the action of making oneself loose and open. Shaking out cares, limbering up. One translator puts it simple as, "carefree idleness," and that is not bad, but there is the missing element of being open to the larger meaning in things, to being open to the smaller meaning of things. Being open to whatever there is without expectation or anticipation. Just letting go and being present.

Gray Lake

out over the dark lake
wing tips peep
sharp specs in the silence

All Eyes on Izon Designs

2010-06-08T23:13:00.000-07:00

A beautiful canoe made by a talented and iconic boat designer is always a treat to see in action. This Discovery Channel production is a warm celebration of one of Skip Izon's performance tandem designs:

Skip, quoted in the Grand Bend Strip Community Newspaper in August 2008, said, "The third [design I created this year] I call The Little Tripper. It’s a 12.5’ open kayak, like a little canoe, but you use a double-bladed kayak paddle. You’re out in the open, so you’re out in the sun. You’ve got access to all your stuff, same as a canoe, but it’s light and fast like a kayak. So I’m trying to get the best of both worlds."

Ah, doesn't that sound perfect? Best of both worlds, kayak and canoe? Wait... I have one of those! I know, I know, but it feels good to gloat a little sometimes.

And the exciting news is that Skip is interested in getting his designs to manufacturers who can create more affordable versions for the average person on the street. So far, however, it doesn't appear that his Little Tripper has been picked up by anyone.

Chana R. Schoenberger writing for Forbes said, "Izon's boats come unadorned with flashy graphics or trims. "If you can make a natural shape, it ends up looking pretty," he says. "It borders on art." His customers agree. Many row their canoes in the summer, then hang them on the wall in winter."

Schoenberger indicated in the Forbes piece that Izon started selling designs to manufacturers in or around 2003. Hudson Boat Works, Mad River Canoe and Raven Works are listed. Hudson Boat Works' website does not include photos with their boats, let alone reference to the designer. Mad River Canoes doesn't brag about who designed their hulls either. Raven Works appears to have gone out of business or at least let their domain registration expire. There are numerous links to them from canoe and kayaking sites across the web, but the tent is gone and only a digital wind now blows across the empty stake holes where the site used to be.

Not mentioned by Shoenberger is the Souris River Skeena. This is a white-water-capable tandem tripper with an attractive flat water layup that unfortunately still weighs in at a hefty 50 lbs.

I will keep my eyes peeled for other Izon designs and if you are as interested as I was, you might try searcihg for the drool-worthy pictures of the Shadow River Chipmunk I found online.

Looks like Mr. Izon does not have a website for his company, Shadow River Boatworks, which is not surprising for a fellow who does all his engineering and design calculations by hand without the aid of a computer.

If anyone knows of Izon designed boats being built in a less expensive layup, I would be pleased to know.

Lake List Updated and Plans for this Summer

2010-06-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

I have now visited 134 lakes and paddled 77 of them.

Updated the lakes list: http://www.stillinthestream.com/files/lakesvisited.html

I'm planning two longer trips this summer, one to the Kennedy Lake area and one to the North Island. The North Island has the most potential for lakes but the Kennedy Lake area has some areas with high potential, particularly the Kennedy River Bog and Muriel Lake.

Muriel Lake

Of course I will also be checking out some of the lesser known lakes in the Sayward Forest and revisiting some favorites.

I recently purchased a copy of Michel Gauthier's excellent book: A guide to the Sayward Forest Canoe Circuit and will be reviewing it here soon.

http://www.dogwoodavenue.ca/index.html

Wenonah Solitude and Rendezvous

2010-06-05T01:20:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my friend Paul took some photos of me trying out his Solitude and Rendezvous canoes when a few of us got together with different boats and paddles. I thought I would post a brief review of the two boats with some of Paul's photos.

Wenonah Solitude (now built by Clipper):

The Solitude is a classic Jensen design with minimal sheer and a low stern. The tumblehome is modest but pleasing and the boat paddles equally comfortably with a single or double paddle.

This is an efficient hull that feels slightly more zippy than my Solo Plus but with relatively similar glide and tracking. The Solitude is shorter (15.6 for the Solitude, 16.6 for the Solo Plus) and a bit closer across the beam (28" at the widest and 30" at the waterline compared to the Solo Plus at 29" and 31.75" at the water line). It turns a little easier that the Solo Plus, matching the exact depth at the paddling station but with a different shape in relation to the ends. The Solo Plus has a more pronounced sheer line making it seem lower to the water at the paddling station.

I would recommend this boat for the kind of day tripping I like to do on flat water. Short two or three day trips would also be quite comfortable in this craft.

The boat's most noteworthy quality, in my estimation, is it's clean lines and somewhat minimalist aesthetic quality. Here is a shot of Paul in the Solitude that accentuates the rich aged look of both the kevlar and wood gunwales. A genuinely pretty boat.

And also...

Wenonah Rendezvous

You can see three different paddles in this shot, and despite the look on my face I was happy with how this boat performed with each one. The bent shaft carbon fibre paddle of Paul's that I am using in the photo really accelerated this canoe nicely and I was surprised at how little effort it took to keep this moderately rockered boat on target. I'm generally not keen on bent shaft paddles for solo paddling, but because this boat is so easy to maneuver, it was actually almost effortless to paddle with a standard Canadian stroke.

My Cree/Iroquois style single blade was also comfortable, though slightly less enjoyable than it's performance in my Spitfire. I'm still mulling this over, but for some reason the Cree/Iroquois blade is perfectly suited for the little pack canoe, while in this boat if felt merely adequate.

The Greenland style double was also comfortable to use with this boat, perhaps surprisingly given the higher paddling station (15"). Our craftsman extraordinaire, Charles, subsequently designed and fashioned a longer Greenland style paddle (actually an Aluet design) for use with our solo canoes and I will be reviewing it in an upcoming post.

I have to confess that paddling the Rendezvous disrupted my long held beliefs about rockered boats. I had always considered them to be designed for, and best suited to, river travel. For the kind of flat water paddling I now do, I have been leaning toward minimally rockered racehorses like the Wenonah Advantage. Now I am not so sure. I have to take my hat off to the designer of this hull - maybe Mike Cichanowski? There is something magical about it.

It is nimble, easy to correct and keep on target, and amazingly exhilarating to paddle. It SEEMS to go faster with the same amount of effort I would put into paddling other boats. Next to the Rapidfire, this is the hull I am now most enamored with. Just a lot of fun to paddle.

So thanks Paul for letting me try out your boats, and for taking some shots of me in them. It was a great day and very educational.