Vancouver Island in Winter

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VI Circle 2008
January 14 – 31, 2008

Although Vancouver Island has been circumnavigated by kayakers in the past, the trip has never been done entirely during the winter months. The weather can be harsh and conditions are often less than ideal, and with the shorter daylight hours, paddling often must take place during darkness. The distance around is about 700-750 miles and although the most difficult sections of the circle were likely to be along the west coast of the island, each portion of the solo journey would pose its own unique challenges.

I set out on the 14th of January from Larrabee State Park, just south of Bellingham, Washington, on an ugly, gusty day. The total distance covered that day was two miles before I pulled ashore and set up camp. Two down, 748 to go. Over the course of the next couple weeks, I was able to improve on the daily average, and for the most part, the paddling conditions were not too onerous. The cold temperatures were the biggest obstacle, along with a sore left shoulder that made each day fairly painful. I had torn a ligament in my shoulder the year before, and the repetitive nature of pushing a loaded boat through the water for 8-10 hours a day was taking its toll. Other than these two things, however, the trip was going well. Vancouver Island is a beautiful place, and the scenery made the cold and the pain seem easier to endure.

By the end of the first week I had made it past Nanaimo and up into the Strait of Georgia. I camped each night close to the water and awoke to thick frost or snow every morning. On the water before sun-up each day, timing my passages through some of the trickier sections, I had made it to the village of Sayward, in Johnstone Strait, by the end of the second week. Paddling conditions had deteriorated somewhat by this time, with high winds coming more frequently and as much as 6 inches of snow falling on occasion. My feet were often numb with cold and felt more like a couple blocks of wood than parts of my own body.

Leaving Sayward on a Monday morning, I paddled northwest up the Strait with the current pushing me along nicely. Near the aptly-named Windy Point, I was slammed with outflow winds coming from the mainland inlets that turned what had been fairly favorable paddling conditions into a frothy maelstrom of 4-foot wind waves in a matter of a few minutes. I started to make my way from the middle of the Strait toward the island shore, a relatively short distance that took me about 40 minutes to cover. I took a forward stroke when I could, but the morning had mostly turned into an exercise in bracing that quickly made my shoulder scream. In the course of the paddle, my bracing strokes became less and less effective, and I began to worry that if I were out in the soup for too much longer, I might not be able to hold myself upright. I didn’t even want to think about having to roll.

I lay in my bag that night, rubbing what would prove to be another tear in my rotator cuff and appraising my chances of continuing. I knew that this was just the beginning of the technical kayaking and it was obvious that I was no longer up to the challenge. A trip that had taken a year to plan was over, just like that. I woke to a beach buried in new snow, packed my kayak for the last time, and limped back to Sayward. Mary drove up from Tacoma a few days later and picked me up and we drove back home.

Another try in the future? It seems unlikely now. There are other places I’d like to see and life is so short. Still, I am sure this unfinished business will nag at me in the months ahead. For now, I will have to be content with knowing that even though I only made it a third of the distance, it was still a wonderful experience, one that I know I will always remember as some of the most difficult and rewarding paddling I have ever done.
 
For a complete report on this Flag Expedition, go to http://vicircle2008.blogspot.com   
 
Ken Campbell