2016_05_25_Nechako

Day 6 Wednesday June 1 – Wayne's Cabin to Looney Island

May 25, 2016

Wake Up Time: 4:00 am

Departure Time: 5:40 am

Distance Paddled: 32 kms (Total: 175)

Total Paddling Time: 6 hours and 5 minutes

Weather Conditions: Very Good with calm water at first but wind did pick up

It was getting clear to us that the morning routine by this time was becoming very methodical. We were performing our morning tasks with great efficiency to the point where coffee and porridge where ready at the same time and this is all while packing up our camping gear.

Getting breakfast ready under the outdoor cooking shelter at Wayne's Cabin.

Looking at the departure time on this day, we whittled down our time for breaking camp from the expected 2 hours to 1 hour and 40 minutes. There was definitely no slacking off in the morning. We would become very anxious to get out on the water while it was still very calm. Keep in mind that this stage of the journey (i.e. stage 2) was that part that we were warned about for high westerly winds and now that we were travelling predominately westbound, this was a major concern. So, no messing around from here on in. Generally there was a window of calmness very early in the morning until about 10:00 am. That's what we were shooting for from now on and we would bump up our wake up time to 3:00 am in a few of days.

Since Arnie did not see the other cabin that Maria and I saw on our hike yesterday, they decided to paddle down the end of the bay so that Arnie could see it and I decided to sit in my kayak and wait for them at Wayne's World. Now I didn't think the other cabin was that far away but, after about 10 minutes, I started to wonder what they were up to. When they finally got back to me, Maria said that they had paddled 2 kms round trip already. Wow that was surprising to me. So in reality Maria and Arnie actually paddled 32 kms that day.

So off we went to paddle to our next destination. On our very first 10 km break we saw a bull moose swimming across the Tetachuck River. This was quite a sight to see. We watched this moose cross over to the other side but, for some reason, we couldn't see him get out of the water. He must have gotten out and walked into the bush. These animals blend in very well with the trees.

There was definitely a current flowing against us in the Tetatchuck River but it was a very mild current and didn't really hamper our progress much. We finally got out into the open, on Tetatchuk Lake, where there was no longer a current. But, eventually the wind started picking up again and we began to experience what the high wind conditions could be like going in this direction. On the very last stretch, prior to reaching the islands that we wanted to camp at, we had to paddled across a fairly large bay to get to these islands. At this point, the water started to get quite rough and it took us a while to get across the bay area.

Couldn't find anything on this guy. This memorial is sitting out here in the wild all by itself.

Some more dead trees in the water from dam flooding. Lots of underwater forests. Very eerie.

From dead calm.

To windy and choppy.

Perfect spot for lunch.

We finally got to the islands (i.e. there are two of them). The first island did not look very good for camping so we started to look over at the second island and paddled over that way. As we paddled to the second island, I noticed what looked like a nice long sand spit on the south end of the island. Arnie and Marie, who were ahead of me, seemed to be paddling more towards the other end of that island. I tried blowing my whistle three times to get their attention but I guess they couldn't hear me as the wind was blowing against me. Eventually they stopped and looked back at me and I started pointing towards the sand spit. We both paddled over to this spot to check it out and decided that it would be an good place to camp.

Of course, as with most sand spits like this, they are usually in very windy spots and this was no exception. It was windy but, nonetheless, a really great spot to camp. We had a great view of the lake in both directions. There was also a fair sized bush on the beach that provided us with a good wind break where we could sit out of the wind. It was also the perfect spot to have a camp fire. We didn't need to worry about sparks flying into the forest and having the risk of starting a forest fire. The wind would blow any sparks right out onto the lake. We had a great camp fire that night.

When we got settled in, I started looking across Tetachuck Lake, in the direction that we came from that day, and suddenly came to grips with how far we were paddling each day. Today was a 30 km paddle. So I was looking at this small, barely visible point of land way off in the distance and asked Maria if that's where we came from. She said: "Yes and that's only about 20 kms away. We started off about 10 kms before that, around that small point". Which wasn't visible from the beach where we stood. Then it really started to hit me that we were covering enormous distances each day on paddle boats. It seemed surreal to me to see this distance across this massive body of water. I didn't really get a sense of this until that moment.

Looking back from where we came, couldn't get over how far we were paddling

Later that day the wind started to die down and things got calm again. That's when we were graced by the presence of six beautiful loons not too far out on the water from our camp. One of them was off to the side by itself a fair distance away probably guarding a nest. But the other five sort of lined up facing us. They were quite funny to watch because they seemed very curious about us. They were sitting in the water looking at us and then looking at each other and then back at us as if they were having a conversation with each other about us. It was hilarious. But later, we got the sound of the loons. It is an amazing sound to hear in this wilderness especially as it got darker. There's nothing like the sound of loons at night or early in the morning. There was a great echo off the distant shorelines from the sound of these loons. We decided to call this place “Looney Island”.