Things that go thump in the night
Kayaking Gwaii Haanas
by Berry Wijdeven
Kayaking Gwaii Haanas
by Berry Wijdeven
I wake up to a thump. It’s pitch-black. What’s going on?
Thump. What IS that? Or, for that matter, where AM I? This is not my bed. My bed is much more comfortable. I sit up and my head brushes against some fabric. What the…?
My brain slowly, reluctantly grinds into gear and I realize I’m in tent, wrapped in my sleeping bag.
I’m on a beach. We were dropped off here last night, on this isolated stretch, miles and miles from nowhere. I’m on a kayak trip.
Thump. Could it be a raccoon, turning over rocks, looking for crabs? Or a bear trying to get into one of our kayaks, looking for food? Our food!
I zip the tent door open and step outside. Ready for anything....sort of. But nothing is moving on the beach. Nothing is mangling the kayaks.
Thump. There it is again. This time, standing outside the tent, I can pinpoint the direction the sound is coming from. It’s coming from out on the ocean. I scan the horizon. It’s a windless night, the ocean is flat calm. Nothing.
Thump. I focus my eyes. There! There is something out there. I squint my eyes some more and there, in the distance, lit by the moon and a thousand stars, is the tail of a humpback, slapping the water, scaring up some late night snacks. Again. And again. The sound reverberates through the silent night, carrying for miles. I am fully awake now, the only person, perhaps, to experience this. This is amazing. This is Gwaii Haanas.
Thump. What IS that? Or, for that matter, where AM I? This is not my bed. My bed is much more comfortable. I sit up and my head brushes against some fabric. What the…?
My brain slowly, reluctantly grinds into gear and I realize I’m in tent, wrapped in my sleeping bag.
I’m on a beach. We were dropped off here last night, on this isolated stretch, miles and miles from nowhere. I’m on a kayak trip.
Thump. Could it be a raccoon, turning over rocks, looking for crabs? Or a bear trying to get into one of our kayaks, looking for food? Our food!
I zip the tent door open and step outside. Ready for anything....sort of. But nothing is moving on the beach. Nothing is mangling the kayaks.
Thump. There it is again. This time, standing outside the tent, I can pinpoint the direction the sound is coming from. It’s coming from out on the ocean. I scan the horizon. It’s a windless night, the ocean is flat calm. Nothing.
Thump. I focus my eyes. There! There is something out there. I squint my eyes some more and there, in the distance, lit by the moon and a thousand stars, is the tail of a humpback, slapping the water, scaring up some late night snacks. Again. And again. The sound reverberates through the silent night, carrying for miles. I am fully awake now, the only person, perhaps, to experience this. This is amazing. This is Gwaii Haanas.
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/published/gwaiih-2.jpg?1566933274)
Believe it or not, even on Haida Gwaii we sometimes have to “get away from it all”. At times we manage to fill our lives with so many real and imagined necessities that we lose our connection to the surrounding landscape, to the place. Sure you can go for a long walk on North Beach or make the trek to Rennell Sound, but to really break away for a week or so, Gwaii Haanas is the place to go.
So when my neighbour Jo invited me to join her on a group kayak trip, I said yes before she even finished the question. At the time Jo was running Green Coast Kayaking, a company which offers guided kayak trips into the park. Hanging with Jo is always a blast and getting into Gwaii Haanas is an opportunity I seldom decline.
So when my neighbour Jo invited me to join her on a group kayak trip, I said yes before she even finished the question. At the time Jo was running Green Coast Kayaking, a company which offers guided kayak trips into the park. Hanging with Jo is always a blast and getting into Gwaii Haanas is an opportunity I seldom decline.
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/published/gwaiih-3.jpg?1566933313)
Travelling to Gwaii Haanas, even when living close, is an adventure all by itself. The ferry to Moresby Island, the drive to Moresby Camp, saying
hi to your fellow paddlers, your new bestest friends for the next 7 days, loading the gear and layering up. Then two to three hours bundled up in an open boat at 30+ knots, bouncing around, trying to stay warm while taking in the scenery. It really isn’t until the transport boat disappears on the horizon after dropping the group on the intended beach, until the sound of the outboard fades and the silence descends upon you, that you realize you made it. You’re in Gwaii Haanas! And right then you breathe easier.
hi to your fellow paddlers, your new bestest friends for the next 7 days, loading the gear and layering up. Then two to three hours bundled up in an open boat at 30+ knots, bouncing around, trying to stay warm while taking in the scenery. It really isn’t until the transport boat disappears on the horizon after dropping the group on the intended beach, until the sound of the outboard fades and the silence descends upon you, that you realize you made it. You’re in Gwaii Haanas! And right then you breathe easier.
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/editor/gwaiih-5.jpg?1566934132)
Camping and travelling by kayak involves a lot of busy work. Loading the kayak, unloading the kayak, setting up the tent, tearing it down. Breaking up camp with a large group, getting everybody packed up and settled in their kayaks, can take up to two hours. Taking your turn preparing food for the entire group, collecting firewood, doing your chores, even in Gwaii Haanas it takes a concerted effort to be in the moment, take in those amazing surroundings. But when you do….
There is nothing as sooting yet exhilarating as gliding along in an ocean-going kayak, tracking, in near silence, the shores of the islands. Watching a bear scavenge on a beach head, follow a marten scamper across the rocks. No outboard motors screaming, just the sound of the paddles rhythmically slicing through the water.
There is nothing as sooting yet exhilarating as gliding along in an ocean-going kayak, tracking, in near silence, the shores of the islands. Watching a bear scavenge on a beach head, follow a marten scamper across the rocks. No outboard motors screaming, just the sound of the paddles rhythmically slicing through the water.
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/published/gwaiih-6.jpg?1566933830)
It’s hard to believe how much food one can stow into a kayak. Pounds of oatmeal, jars of tomato sauce, cans of beans, bags of rice, just fill ‘r up! When we started kayaking years ago, we’d pack light to save space and keep the weight down. Lots of crackers and noodles. But when we got involved with multi-day group kayaking trips, we were in awe of the amount of food our co-travellers carried with them. One year a guy even stashed a ten pound bag of potatoes in the hold! Mind you, the kayaks, especially the doubles, once loaded, get mighty heavy and need six people to carry them from the beach to the water. But once the kayak is in the water, that weight acts to provide balance and stability. And it adds momentum, once you get going. The benefit of all that food? The camp meals were unbelievable!
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/gwaiih-7_orig.jpg)
Our guides, having toured the park for years, know the area through and through and managed to land us at some stunning campsites. Sites where you just can’t bother to start preparing dinner or put up your tent for the first few hours, because all you want to do is to find a comfy spot and take in the scenery. Or have a snooze.
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/published/gwaiih-9.jpg?1566934020)
Other days, we don’t get that lucky with camping spots and feel fortunate just to have a place to rest our weary souls. On warm sunny days the winds tend to pick up by early afternoon, as do the waves, making being on the water not that much fun. When the gang has had about enough bouncing around, we may be paddling in an area where landing spots are in short supply. Again, though, the guides come through as they know locations which appear inaccessible, but where we are able to squeeze our kayaks to safety.
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/gwaiih-10_orig.jpg)
When you prepare for an extended kayak trip in Gwaii Haanas, proper rain gear is foremost in mind. Which is kind of funny, for on the last two trips rain was not a problem. We had beautiful, unrelenting sunshine the entire time. Which is fantastic and amazing. Not getting soaked, not having to pack wet gear, not huddling below tarps, sign me up! Extended sunshine, on Haida Gwaii, does come with downsides. Getting drinking water from normally reliable creeks becomes tricky. Sun rays bouncing off the sea surface burn unsuspecting faces and blister helpless lips. Fortunately one of my travel companions gave me a spare lip balm (thank you Nicki!), but by that time my lips looked like they’d gone through a cheese grater and talking was becoming tricky (which may have accounted for the silence we enjoyed while paddling).
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/published/gwaiih-11.jpg?1566934235)
I’ve had the good fortune to visit SGaang Gwaii a number of times and stepping onto the old village site of Ninstints never fails to unleash a wave of emotions. There is the exhilaration of having made it to this remote place, especially if the journey across the open water from Moresby Island had it challenges. There is the amazement of witnessing the beauty and richness of the site. There is a touch of dread, for the village has a haunted quality which permeates your being. And then there is sadness for the events which precipitated the abandonment of the village. But when you take the time, when you sit down, quietly and in the moment, and absorb the surroundings, what you are finally left with is a feeling of awe.
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/published/gwaiih-13.jpg?1566934344)
When we paddle away from SGaang Gwaii, on our way to
an amazing
meal at Rose Harbour, joints aching after a week of paddling, lips blistered from
all that sun, a gathering of rarely seen tufted puffins land on the water near our kayaks as a humpback breaches in the distance. Oh yes, this is Gwaii Haanas.
an amazing
meal at Rose Harbour, joints aching after a week of paddling, lips blistered from
all that sun, a gathering of rarely seen tufted puffins land on the water near our kayaks as a humpback breaches in the distance. Oh yes, this is Gwaii Haanas.