Portage Inlet explore

I put in from the gravel beach at the Victoria Canoe and Kayak Club. It's just in from the Tillicum Bridge, where the Gorge Rapids happen:

(Slack tide this day—this was a reconnoitre à pied, looking for a ramp in the park across the water from the VCKC.)

Some rowers taking advantage of the slack:

It gets quite ripping through there with the tide.

Here's my little trip—just paddling, no amas or sailing rig:

The pin is at the VCKC. The channel to the Admirals Road Bridge (Maple Pt above) is shallow and has lots of eel grass in it. Not a great place for sailing, as the foils would keep catching weeds.

But, under the bridge and around the corner to the North, it gets deeper and less weedy. The view reminds me of the Muskoka area of Ontario:

I went up Colquitz Creek as far as I could:

Discovered a little footbridge farther up:

Past the footbridge it started to get gnarly:

 

After checking out the creek I paddled over to where the chart says there's a ramp, but it had been deconstructed, I guess.

That was my little trip in September. I didn't go under the Tillicum Bridge.

Here's an old video that shows some of the upper harbour areas, starting at that bridge:

And here's a more modern one showing a bit of turbulence under the Tillicum Bridge:

Evening paddle

I put in at the end of my street for the second time. It was a perfect evening for a paddle. 

I almost stabbed a seal pup in the face with my paddle! Lost my cadence by it! No photo, of course, it happened so quickly, and I wasn't going to go back and disturb the thing any more than I already did. The seal pup was just under the surface, right where my blade was headed, looking up at me. Mom was nearby.

I've got a name for the piece of aluminum at the end of the skeg that the boat rests on. I was likening it to a toe nail. Now I'm calling it a "skid plate".

Above, the skid plate hangs in, not sliding on the wet cement of the ramp. The cart is farther forward than I've had it before. It worked well for going uphill stern-first, with me pushing on the bow, but next time it'll be centred better.

In some of the photos you can see a seat back. I've been negligent in documenting that and the fibreglass seat I made from a mold that John has.

Below is my track from this evening. You might be able to go there in the Navionics web app. You can see the airport "runways" outlined in green: 

Around the second corner was the sweet little cove below. The whole area is under-developed and therefore fairly natural, because it's DND land. The islands in the DND areas have "No Trespassing" signs on them.

I saw some pigeon guillemots, lots of geese, quite a few oyster catchers and a number of seals with their babies. The babies have a soft call that sounds like "Ma".