Guide Lauren
How could we resist an activity called Yak-N-Whack? Every evening before dinner the options for the next day’s activities are announced and you let them know what you want to do. There are always multiple choices and it can be hard to choose, but Yak-N-Whack was an all day activity that involved a long kayak to a picnic lunch spot followed by a short bushwhacking hike, and then kayaking back in time for cocktail hour. Sounded great!
Gear up! Since we would be bushwhacking we needed to wear our rubber boots, waterproof pants and wet weather gloves, along with layers for warmth. But the sun was shining! Woohoo! Sunscreen was applied.
Launching off the aft
Our friends Sid and Mary, and guide Wilson
After launching off the aft we all started paddling out of the bay where the ship was anchored and we were soon surprised by a humpback whale off to our right that surfaced, showed us the length of its back, then a nice showing of its fluke as it took a dive. Wow! Tami’s camera was still in her pocket so no picture, but what a fantastic start to our expedition.
We continued paddling south along the shoreline and soon had to briefly pull into shore to remove layers as the sun was shining strongly and we were quickly warming up. The older men also found it an opportunity to “unload the morning coffee”. The tide was low so we could easily see some of the interesting geological formations and sea life stuck to the rocks.
Interesting life forms visible at low tide
These barnacles were huge!
As we rounded one point that revealed a shoreline with some beach, the kayaks ahead of us exclaimed that they had just seen a black bear on the beach! Unfortunately their appearance had scared the bear off and it had skedaddled by the time we could see the beach. Drats! Of course we accused the guides of just making it up to get us to paddle faster.
We also passed the site of an abandoned cannery. The only thing remaining were some rusted metal parts near shore that looked like old boilers. Every time a new beach came in sight, we thought that must be where we are stopping for lunch, only to find ourselves paddling right on by.
Old boilers at the cannery site
Washed up crab pots
Lauren looking into cave
We continued south and approached the mouth of a creek with flat shoreline on both sides. As we neared we could see a group of five deer playing on the shore to the right of the creek. They were frolicking around and seemed to be having a grand time. We beached our kayaks on the beach to the left of the stream and the deer continued playing, even splashing around in the water. We sat and ate our picnic lunch on the logs and watched the deer; they approached closer to watch us. If that stream hadn’t been there it seemed as if they might have just come on over to join us. Eventually they meandered up the creek.
The playful deer
Looking for a place to land
Pulled up on the beach
Our guides broke out some hot chocolate as well to go with our lunch. Then they broke out our special surprise to celebrate their first visit of the season- a bottle of schnapps! Mmmm, that went just fine in our hot chocolate. Cheers!
Adding some schnapps
The kayaks were dragged up the beach, tied together and fastened to a large log. We headed off on our bushwhack and followed a deer trail up the hill. In case you’ve never noticed, deer are shorter than humans. We got to do some whacking and the branches got to whack us. But be careful not to grab onto the devils club! On of our party later spent some time picking out stickers from an accidental encounter. Apart from the boobytraps it was very fun. We eventually found an open area where muskeg seemed to just be forming. Very spongy. We kept hearing the mystery bird sound of the trip – a low, deep repeated call, hauntingly thrumming through the trees. Very atmospheric.
Bushwacking – looks like a sasquatch
Spongy area, but didn’t loose anyone
Too soon it was time to paddle back. We would be paddling against the current and the wind, so we needed to allow extra time. It was quite the paddle across some open water, but we found our rhythm and churned away. It made us appreciate how far we had come. We eventually rounded the final point and there was the welcome sight of our ship waiting for us, with time to spare before happy hour! We did feel we had earned some extra cocktails.
Later, Susie told Tami that lunch on the ship had been another Dungeness crab feast. Tami was crestfallen. Good thing Susie was only joking!
Saw this while ship leaving the area at the end of the day – apparently it gets touched up from time to time out of respect
Just a pretty scene