Recent Trips
Vancover Island Backpacking
This trip was a 60 mile backpacking trip along the coast of Vancouver Island along the Juan de Fuca Marine trail. We did it over 9 days with the first day just for traveling and taking an easier route back with both hiking and traveling on August 15th.
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Day 1
Our journey began 7:00 am at the Greenlake Park and Ride. We then departed for the Vancouver ferry terminal. After a few hours of driving we had time to finish our food shopping in Vancouver and make our ferry. After the ferry it was about another hour across Vancouver Island to the China Beach campground. After many hours we arrived with plenty of time to set up camp and cook dinner. After dinner we hiked a couple miles to Mystic Beach where we stored the food for the second half of the trip.
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Day 2
We left camp early after realizing that we had forgotten to buy tortillas. Waiting for the Port Renfrew market to open no earlier than 11:00 am. Following that small hiccup, we embarked on our hike from the Botanical Beach trailhead. Our first day entailed a 14km hike to Little Kuitshe Campground. The terrain was rougher than expected with unrelenting ups and downs along the shore. The hike went smoothly and we arrived at camp around 5:00.
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Day 3
After a leisurely morning, we departed for our next leg: a 12km hike to Chin Beach. The hike was more of the same, constant up and down through rough terrain with the added bonus of suspension bridges. This day cemented our slow hiking pace, nice when hiking, but not so nice when all the good campsites are taken. We secured a campsite on the cliffs above the beach and far away from the bear boxes. We had to improvise our food storage by leaving packs full of food on top of the outhouse.
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Day 4
After retrieving our food from the outhouse, we sat down for a cliffside breakfast. We left camp for the hardest leg of our journey. The 12km hike involved the steepest and most treacherous hill of the trail. This was also our closest encounter with the tide, we had to run across one beach while the waves receded. After a long journey of mud, hills, and beaches, we arrived at our Bear Beach. This was one of our best campsites, beachside and creek adjacent with plenty of swings, perfect for our two day stay.
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Day 5
Our ‘rest day’ provided a much needed reprieve from our packs and 18 km of hiking. We started by hiking to Mystic Beach to retrieve our food cache for the second half of the trip. We then hiked the remaining 2 km to the end of the trail. This day showed us how far we had gone and how far we had to go. We capped off the day with our first group meal: rehydrated chana masala and another beautiful sunset on the beach.
Day 6
After two days, we said goodbye to Bear Beach and headed back to Chin. We were somewhat fresh, no cleaner, and our packs were freshly laden with new food. This grueling stretch had not gotten any easier. We tackled the same hills and mud, but this time in reverse. Despite these challenges, we made it back to Chin Beach in time to secure another beachside camp. The day was characterized by a strange sense of deja vu as we retraced our steps.
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Day 7
We awoke to a gray morning and wales! Carol’s shouting alerted us to a pod of grey wales just offshore. After that incredible sight, it was a relatively short journey to Sombrio Beach. The day was cool and misty, providing a nice change of pace. Sombrio is accessible to the public, so we encountered many casual beachgoers near our campsite. Upon our arrival we received a tip about a secret waterfall trail, which turned out to be beautiful. The clouds parted for the afternoon, providing perfect conditions for some much needed swimming. We cooked dinner on the beach while we dried off. The day ended with a magnificent sunset over the beach.
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Day 8
The Penultimate leg of our journey. It was a longer, more moderate hike back to Payzant creek, where we stopped for lunch on the second day. This section of the trail was especially muddy, not ideal for hiking in Tevas. It was a beautiful, sunny day and our hike took us along the beach past numerous tide pools. This was the day where our fatigue really started to show, we hiked quite slowly the whole way. While the campsite itself was wooded, there was a trail down to the beach where we spent our evening cooking, eating, and playing games. It was the first day with any real rain which only started late at night.
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Day 9
A hasty morning marked the beginning of the end for our journey. After a short hike through a light rain we returned to our cars. We then retraced our initial drive: across Vancouver Island, onto the ferry, and back down to Seattle, with plenty of stops for food along the way. It was a bittersweet day as we returned to civilization and said our goodbyes.
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Tatshenshini River Whitewater Rafting Expedition
A group of three movers and six youth set off on the August 2024 Tatshenshini Expedition last summer. They rafted 140ish miles, from Shäwshe/Dalton Post in Yukon Territory, Canada, to Dry Bay in Alaska. In total, it was 13 river days and 2 travel days full of glacier walking, seeing icebergs roll, cool river dynamics, hikes, crazy views, long(ish) river days and lots of exploring and playing in the amazing landscape.
Day 1: Haines-Shäwshe/Dalton Post-Silver Creek
We rigged relatively quickly and had our first taste of northern mosquitoes. We rafted through some flat water, and then entered the canyon. The rapids were fun, and not too hard, though there were a lot of rocks to avoid.
Day 2: SIlver Creek-Sediments Creek
We got to see our first bear in the morning, which was really cool. Initially we decided we were likely going to stop before Sediments Creek, but we all felt motivated to keep going, so we ended up doing 22 miles in about 6 or 7 hours for a longer river day.
Day 4: Sediments Creek-Henshi Creek
We left Sediments Creek in the morning, again with an early start to beat the wind.The weather was a bit less sunny but not really rainy, and the river began to get really big and braided which was super cool, but also tricky. We also got to go through Monkey Wrench rapid, which was very fun. We finally settled at Henshi creek for the night, and decided to lay over there the next day since we had been moving fast and still had so many days left.
Day 6: Henshi Creek-Petroglyph Island @ the Confluence
We got up in the morning and rowed through more wide, braided river. It was windy, but not too bad since the river was moving pretty fast. Navigating the braids was still tricky, and there was more missing channels and running aground. Then we went through S-bends, which had some massive holes that would have definitely flipped a boat, but were also easy enough to avoid. We were able to make it to Petroglyph Island to camp, but not without some struggle.
Day 8: Petroglyph Island - Walker Glacier
Once we got on the Alsek, the river got so much bigger and it looked almost like the ocean.The weather took a turn for the worse. This was our first encounter with the fabled sideways rain, and everyone got pretty cold so we were all taking turns rowing. Luckily, Walker Glacier was not so far, so we were not out in the weather for too long.
Day 9: Walker Glacier
We woke up to nice weather and went to scout out how we would get to Walker Glacier. Navigating around the icebergs was not too hard, and after a bit we made it to the glacier. Most of the glacier we walked on was covered in a big scree field, which a few people’s joints did not enjoy. We also walked around on some flat ice and jumped over a few small crevasses, which was very cool.
Day 10: Walker Glacier - Alsek Lake
We left camp in the morning and continued on our way to Alsek Lake. We had kind of a slow river day, with a few stops. We made it to the peninsula, and then stopped to scout the entrance to the lake. On the peninsula we found a bunch of yummy wild strawberries, and determined that the so-called “channel of death” was safe given the lack of wind.
Day 11: Alsek Lake Exploration
We unloaded two of the oar boats and Neptune, and then set off rowing across the lake with the intention of making it to Alsek Glacier. The row was long and the weather was not horrible, but still a bit cloudy and cold. The icebergs were beautiful, and we made it almost to the glacier before we turned back for camp. According to Andy’s watch, we rowed about 11 miles.
Day 12: Alsek Lake - Gateway Knob
We decided to get up and row down the lake to the Knob, so we would have less far to row on the last river day. Before we left, almost all of us got in the water for a quick polar plunge, which was very, very cold but also a lot of fun.
Day 13: Gateway Knob - Dry Bay
We left early, with quite warm weather again. Rowing off the lake was slow, and one boat almost had an iceberg roll right underneath them. We then had a fair bit of flatwater rowing until we reached the takeout. We derigged and cleaned and deflated boats pretty quickly, and were able to rest for a bit before the ATVs came.
Day 14: Dry Bay - Seattle
We woke up to a sad drizzle of rain, and packed up camp and arranged the gear for the airplane best we could. We flew easily to Yakutat where we got burgers before getting on our flight back home via Juneau.