Serpent Group to Cultus Sound: Sept 12, 2018

As nice as the Serpent site was, and as much as we'd have loved to spend the day exploring in the Hakai area, discretion is the better part of catching the Last Ferry of the Summer, so we packed up and headed north to make sure we would be on the right side of Superstition Point tonight.

We had calm conditions, no wind and little swell, as we crossed Kildidt Sound into the Kittyhawk Group. The water in Brydon Channel was like glass. The photo below is actually flipped vertically so the reflection on the water is at the top of the image.

We stopped for a quick snack at an islet that we'll call Shazam Islet on account of its cartoon lightning-bolt shape:

This whole area is pretty much ideal for leisure kayaking. There are a million little islands and protected routes, and lots of subsea life (including a vast patch of anemones looking like nothing but a field of Aloo Gobi). I began to feel a twinge in my hip that felt like a muscle tear — a war-wound from yesterday's battle that became more and more persistent as we paddled.

Even in calm conditions, Superstition Point is a bit of a bear. Clapotis and confused seas, and larger waves than the surrounding areas, no matter where you turn. Fortunately, it's a pretty short traverse, and we fought through it just fine. My hip cried out at every stroke as we cruised into the big yellow sand beach at Cultus Sound. I'd hoped we might end our day at the north end of Hunter Island and maybe spend Thursday doing a loop through Gunboat Passage, but I needed to give it a rest or I'd have trouble getting to the ferry. After lunch and coffee, Jon set off to do some exploring up the sound while I set up the tent in a beautiful glade and pottered around doing not much of anything at all.

Besides the strategic location, it's easy to see why Cultus Sound is a popular site. It's got a lot of amenities, a lot of room for groups, a big sand beach, and it's well protected.

It was the buggiest of our camps on this trip, home to little midges, but they weren't too bad, and we didn't have any bugs to speak of anywhere else so the comparison isn't really fair.

Jon paddled up to Kinsman Inlet, where he found some entertainment riding back and forth on the little rapid there. He says the rapids were friendly and fun and easy to paddle against the flow around high tide, with the current still in the direction of tidal flow.

He also found some good clear water from a stream there. Triquet water for comparison:

We spent a quiet evening watching the waves splashing on the rocks out in the sound and the tide gently lapping at the beach while we discussed our mistakes of yesterday. The biggest error we made was that both of us had our charts folded so that Superstition Point was near the fold, so we couldn't get a good visual sense of the layout of the area. We were also definitely not prepared for the charnel house of energy that was concentrated in the Superstition Point/Swordfish Bay area.

Serpent Group to Cultus Sound, Sept 12, 2018: 16 km
(does not include Jon's side-trip to Kinsman Inlet)