Gulf Islands – Salt Spring and Wallace Island Kayaking

Lucky for us, we both have family on various islands (Salt Spring, Vancouver Island) and we are currently basing ourselves on Salt Spring Island, with Dave’s mom, stepdad and dog Mati. After almost 6 months on the road based in our car, the luxuries of family, home-baked cookies and a warm indoor fire are amazing (and let’s be honest, not having to cook on a campstove in high wind and get out of a tent to go pee in the middle of the night are also pretty nice changes…)


Megan experiencing the wonder of the Comfy Chair

With just under two months to go before we take back our house and resume ‘normal’ life, the adventures (and of course rain) of BC await. Salt Spring is an excellent base, we have been canoeing, sailing and climbing since we’ve been here. The climbing is found high on Mount Maxwell, the bluffs are short conglomerate rock faces with a gorgeous view of the water below. One catch is that there does not appear to be enough climbers on Salt Spring to stem the tidal wave of moss that seems to accumulate on the rocks in this climate…the result is that most of the climbs are quite dirty, with the more difficult (mid 10’s) being completely overgrown. However, the moves are fun and it makes for a good one day outing.

Last week we rented a tandem kayak and paddled across to Wallace Island to set up a base camp from which to explore some of the smaller adjacent islands. Wallace Island is largely a provincial park, with a gorgeous campground (and most importantly, a covered cooking area) and a small dock. We spent two nights on Wallace, with one day spent circumnavigating the island and another spent exploring the Secretary Islands. This is an excellent area for viewing all kinds of marine life – we saw everything from eagles to mink to a huge harem of seals that we scared from their comfy rock lounging.


Dave in our tiny double kayak


Starfish colony


Sun-Star

However, after being rained on for a large part of the trip we were pretty happy to return to the warmth of the Salt Spring house and cozy up…we’re getting used to indoor life again!!!


Fire Good!