I did the 3.75 mile “neighborhood walk” (up Wa Wa Kie/Smith road to Fox road, down Fox road and trail to Sutil Road, then the Kay Dubois trail 1.5 miles back home). The gang went shopping and I took a few photos of boats and scenery on a high wind day, then we all walked the Kay Dubois trail to Long John Silvers Fusion Glass studio where we had another great visit with John. He’s an amazing human…88.5, and he looks and acts like someone half his age. My take on his secret…he’s intellectually curious, and has stayed active.
Anna photo of us and Aria the day they left to go to Victoria and then home.
A great paddle on a perfect day for Anna, Nic and Don, and an epic play day back at our place for Granny and Aria. We launched at the end of Valdes road, and paddled up the coast of Quadra to a little past Bold point where we had lunch, paddling through the crescent both coming and going.
Anna, Nic and Aria’s last full day on Quadra. We did a picnic on a windy day at Rebecca Spit. A major highlight was seeing an orca breach twice right between us and Heriot Bay…close. It happened so quick that we didn’t get a photo (I got a blurry photo of a fin). A great pasta with homemade marinara finished off our dinners, and one last game of Skull King.
A day of leaving. Anna, Nic and Aria left for Victoria for two days before taking the ferry across to Port Angeles and driving home. It was a great ten days with them. And the humpbacks came by to say goodbye. I was having my morning coffee on the deck (I make it on the deck so I don’t disturb anyone in the place) and was editing photos when I heard a close by “poof”. I went to grab my camera and a humpback breached right in front of our place. A second breach immediately followed and it all happened so fast I didn’t get the camera out in time to capture it. But wow, was it amazing. I shouted out “Holy Shit” when the humpback came flying out of the water and of course woke everyone up. There were two humpbacks and unfortunately they didn’t breach again. But still got some decent photos and they came by again about two hours later. The rest of the day was Donna doing multiple loads of laundry (bedding, clothes, towels, etc.) and I did my laundry later too. I did do a bike ride down to the spit to check on the premium campsites along Sutil channel for Anna (a possibility they would camp next year so they could bring Nimbus, their Golden Retriever). The sites looked really nice. So now it’s just the two old folks for the next month (and Brad for the next 7 days).
We hiked out to Maud Island and Seymour Narrows (about 6.5 miles RT) with Brad. Fairly windy conditions created pretty good waves in the Narrows. We saw a humpback whale there too. Also saw distant whales off of Marina Island in the morning and a large group of humpbacks in the evening also off Marina.
Donna went to the Saturday market and a few other places while I did a 12.5 mile paddle. She dropped me off and picked me up at the Spit so she could have the car for the day. Kayaked over to Heriot Bay, and around the entire shoreline of Hyacinthe and Open Bays, through the gap just past Valdes road and to “Captain Don’s Bay”. Saw 6 or 7 eagles, seals, a mink and the usual beautiful scenery. Also ran into a guy from Erie,CO who I met back in 2019 at the Spit launch ramp. He and his wife had just discovered this neck of the woods and overnight became enamored of the area and sea kayaking. They bought a house in Deep Bay (near Denman Island on Vancouver Island) in 2022. That morning we had whales cruise right in front of our place just a little bit past “Eagle Rock”. The closest ever. And a nice sunrise too.
Aria on the Coho ferry heading back to the USA.
“Mystery animal” - mink, right in the middle of the photo.
Some Anna photos from departure and Victoria
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