Training Log Archive: Carbons Offset

Salmon fishing on my brother's boat from Campbell River. Caught four that were nice but not quite big enough to keep. Then Carbon reeled in the big one that is feeding us and a bunch of others tonight.

C • Saw the photo 3

Quadra Island
A figure 8 loop of:
Bite the Bullet, Lady Lumps, Cash Only, Rose Garden, Dick's Ride, Yellow Mud, Mud Lake, Ridge Trail, Seven Sins, Dead Fish, Walden Road, Straight as a Dime, Silk Stockings, Back Door, Little Black Dress, Silk
Stockings.
Did our climbs on the less-used trails so that we could descend the most popular trails. As a result, a lot of the climbing wasn't as flowy and parts of Yellow Mud could use to be trimmed wider and have a few fallen trees removed. I think most locals probably ride up the roads and then descend on these popular trails.
The descents of Dead Fish, Back Door, Little Black Dress and Silk Stockings were good but maybe not enough to justify what felt like a fair bit of non-flowy climbing... And/or we were also a bit tired from the hike (maybe it could flow a little better with a little more speed).
Glad we checked it out, definitely enjoyed some sections of it, but I wouldn't rush out of my way to hit it again. Maybe if I was already on Quadra Island.

Only a little bit of the hike left today. The channel crossing was pretty shallow and uneventful. The big highlight of the day was seeing a grey whale feeding in the surf right beside us as we walked the last stretch of beach! Watched him for about 20 minutes. Then met Ray, the native guy who collects the trail fee. The official looking price sign mentioned a 20% discount for groups of 6 or more. When Revy asked about this, Ray smiled and said "oh, not today". Worth a laugh :) Then discovered stinging nettles by the bench by the outhouse at the end of the hike. Not worth a laugh. I've either never encountered them, or probably encountered them on that bum slide I took in Tasmania. Now I know what they look like and will never forget.
Weather was beautiful today and for the flight out. This meant we got to do the "exciting approach" for our landing. Carbon wasn't thrilled at the idea of that ("don't be alarmed if we get really close to the trees..."), but enjoyed it.

Woke up to a wolf on the beach, sort of near our tents. Very cool! Apparently there are 200 of them on Nootka Island. Then saw a black bear later in the morning, plus a couple of snakes.
What a different world when the sun is out! Great scenery. A long day with rope climbs and descents in the forest, some tricky routefinding, and pea-gravel beaches - you would walk as far as you could on the drift logs instead of walking in the little rocks. Also lots of spots where we were able to walk on the ocean rock shelf. Lots of little crabs. Pushed extra far today to set ourselves up well for an easy day tomorrow, minimal stress about low tide for a channel crossing and the possibility of an earlier flight.

Raining most of today, eventually soaked through the rain gear. It rained so hard and loud last night that I feared the tent couldn't withstand that much water, but the tent was great. Not a huge day today, stopped early at our intended destination: Calvin Falls. A really pretty spot. James worked hard and got a fire going for us. No one at enough of the pasta I brought ;)
Bocce tournament on the beach. The darn moisture in the sand made it stick to everything; it felt like such a relief to wash your hands.

Took SUPs and a kayak out from my brother's dock and into the estuary for a little tour. James started on Jordan's SUP while I took the 12 foot Costco Pelican kayak. James stayed on his knees, so I soon swapped with him and gave the SUP a try. Stayed dry even when I snagged the fin a couple of times on shallow spots.

Took a float plane (1952 DH Beaver) from Gold River, a very windy and bouncy flight near the end with great scenery along the way including seeing the Atlantic salmon jumping in the fish farms below, landed in Louie Lagoon where we were able to hop off the pontoon of the plane and onto the shore without getting our feet wet, pushed the plane back out, and began our hike to the first campsite nearby at First Beach. Every night, Big Fish would hunt around and find a laundry basket that had washed up on shore to be used for hanging our food. Revy was very persistent in his many attempts to get the rope set up ;)

Cumberland
Decent weather but many big puddles from yesterday's rain (we heard from BigFish and Little Fish that Cumberland got pounded while they were there yesterday). Rode Thirsty Beaver, Climax, Angry Butcher, Space Nugget and others.
A big pause while BigFish broke and repaired his chain.