Lack of sun and a generally chilly mien made this site a no-go for a two-day stay, and we had decided on a compass-led crossing to Broughton Island first thing in the morning. We took a bearing for Card Point, the shortest crossing possible from our position. We were confident of our bearing and technique; nonetheless, it was with some nervousness that we launched into the blank white mist. All was still, no sound of engines or even of birds. There was nothing to tell you you were heading one way or another, and only the reflection on the water even showed up from down. It was unnerving, disorienting, and a great success.
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| Into the white |
We hit Card Point dead-on; we couldn't have been more accurate if we had been staring at it the whole time! Rather than disturb a mama black bear and cub at the first lake-fed stream, we pushed on to Cockatrice Bay. It was a bit of a hike up the stream to get past the brackish water, loudly singing bad songs all the way to deter bears.
Just before Dobbin Bay we began to hear whales blowing fairly regularly, and soon we began to see them. We got a great show with the big humpbacks surfacing, blowing, and diving all around us. They stayed with us all the way to Fife Sound, and one fellow gave a fantastic display of tail-slapping.
Near the enticing maze of islands that guard the entrance to Booker Lagoon, a big humpback surfaced too near for comfort - maybe 50 feet. All this time there was weird wild groaning and gargling sounds from farther ahead: sea lions? A bearing off Gordon Point to Duff Islet got us there. Near Screen Islet we saw them - a sea lion haulout. They made their arguments and counterarguments, their complaints and exclamations. A big one slid off the rock and stood sentry, keeping us in his beady eye with his snout raised vertically from the water. There was a horrendous stench upon the air, which we soon put down to a sea lion carcass guarded by a couple of eagles, one of them very ratty-looking.
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| Dinner and dinner's guardian |
After a snack hunkered down in the chilly wind at Gander Bay, we set off eastward into the Benjamin Group. On the north side of Eden Island the currents were significant - we could even hear them like a river rapid in the middle of Fife Sound. We rode some fun fast currents in toward John Island to check out the south campsite.
I wouldn't call it a campsite. Lots of potential in this sheltered little bay, but it would need considerable work to make it anything like a destination. With some development, two separate one-tent sites would afford relative privacy and the potential for a group evening campfire on the beach, although at spring tides there'd be no beach at all.
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| The most comfortable spot at John Island South |
Through Old Passage, a pretty, kelpy channel, to the Insect Island site, where a top-notch midden beach indicates a long history of use. The Insect Island site is roomy and well-used - tons of room for at least a couple of large groups - level open forest and views over Misty and Blunden Passages. We had narrowly missed the window of opportunity to bag the prime site (to the south) but the second-best site was pretty great too. The previous tenants hadn't extinguished their illegal campfire. With wildfires raging across all of Western Canada, how could you not at least do your bit and put your damn fire out before you left a campground? Seriously, people.
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| The beach at Insect Island |
We had a great chat with our neighbours, who gratifyingly grooved on the Mariners. Thanks to Sullivan Bay we had a little bit of extra booze, so we indulged ourselves and decided not to set an alarm for the next morning.
Lat: N 50°45'17.3"
Lon: W 126°37'32.4"
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