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Broken Islands Kayak, Day 2
Pacific Rim National Park
Monday, August 3
Breakfast, Day Two
Day two of our Broken Islands kayaking adventure dawned grey. The forecast for our days out in the islands had generally been good, though, and I suspected that what we were experiencing was probably some sort of typical morning coastal cloud. Hopefully, it would burn away as the morning progressed.
Scones, English muffins and coffee
As Jenn and I had our oatmeal and instant noodles, the parade of gourmet food from the others continued. The highlight of breakfast were homemade scones made by Juju (Arn's mother). These weren't pre-made, but actually formed from raw ingredients and baked in a skillet. Skillfully managing to cook without burning them, she passed slices around for everyone to try. The scone combined well with some centrifugally-made hot coffee by Arn's dad Roy.
Gloomy Morning
Phalanxes of Paddlers
Our crew and campsite
We didn't have a specific plan for the day. It appeared that most wanted to stay settled here at our Dodd Island site, so we decided to do a day trip, and return back here for another night.
Quiet corner
CC Ritual
A new day's journey
We decided to head south, exploring some of the islands in the far southwestern corner of the Broken Group. We weren't sure how far we'd get - that would depend on our group's stamina level and on the ocean conditions.
Passing Turtle Island
Aha - blue sky ahead
Tree-crowded Islet
We paddled south through the small passages that are formed by the clustering of Dodd, Willis and Turtle Island. We then headed out through the Thiepval Channel, a large open area of water that bisects the Broken Island group roughly through its middle. Above, we could see the cold grey of the early morning clouds start to burn away, with patches of blue appearing here and there.
Seeing the sights
Nel's Cushy Ride
Crossing Theipval
In many locations in the Broken Islands, one encounters coastal terrain that varies greatly between the roughly 3-metre high and low tide levels. Often there will be shallow passages that are navigable at high tide, but completely dry at low tide. These intertidal areas can be very fun to explore by kayak, when the water is just barely deep enough to allow passage. That is assuming, of course, that the sea is relatively calm. Passing over rocky shoals with a big surf can be quite treacherous.

We were approaching one such area right now - an area of small islets, shoals and crags sprinkled between the two larger islands of Trickett and Lovett.
courtesy JInnes
Kyle
Interesting shallows
Not very deep
Conditions were just right for us - winds were light, seas were calm, and the tide was just high enough for us to glide over the shallows. With the sun now out and at the right angle, the shallows twinkled and glowed just a foot or two below us. It wasn't a spot particularly rich in marine life, but still, very nice.

Just off to the right after the shoal crossing, a nice little strip of beach on an unnamed small island beckoned to us, and we decided to stop for lunch (and probably not a few pee breaks).
Kayak Break
Kayak Break
Broken Islands Beach
Driftwood Cabin
Fresh Lunch
Jenn heads south
We still had some exploratory energy in us, so we decided to continue our exploration, heading south. We were starting to approach the slightly wilder southwestern portion of the Broken Group. Further from civilization, less sheltered and more exposed to the open Pacific Ocean.
The Pack heads south
Arriving Clarke Island
Premium Campsite
The skies above continued to clear off, and the wind picked up a bit, making the waters a little choppy. Off in the far distance, though, I could see surf breaking against the headlands of islands. To my newbie kayaking senses, that seemed slightly unnerving.

We made our way down past Owens island, noting that the white surf was only concentrated in very specific areas around certain points (and were thus easy to avoid). The next island south was called Clarke Island, and was the location of one of the park service's backcountry campsites - much like the one we were camped at on Dodd Island. We decided to pull in to investigate.
Clarke Island Campsite
We glided up onto a beautiful little beach at the very northern tip of Clarke Island. It was by far the nicest strip of beach so far, filled with a nice, fine-grained beige sand.
Craggilicious
The campsites were immediately above the beach, and were superb. A beautiful grassy bench was surrounded by thick overhanging forest. The spots closest to the northern point had a superb view over a craggy foreshore, many rocky islets, and a large expanse of blue-green water, all the way north to the mountains of the Mckenzie Range. Too bad we hadn't packed up our camp gear, because this would have been a fantastic place to spend the next night. On the other hand, it seemed fairly busy, so we would have had to have crowded in amongst a lot of other campers. Perhaps another time...
Clarke Island Beach
Broken Islands Experience
Wide-angle from Clarke
courtesy JInnes
The 9th Hug
Even though we weren't fortunate enough to be camping here for the night, our visit to Clarke was worthwhile. The marine vistas from the northern point were - at least for me so far - the most evocative of what I imagined wild Pacific Northwest coastal scenery would look like.

We enjoyed about forty minutes of downtime at the northern tip of Clarke Island. It was now about 3pm, and we still had plenty of time left for exploration. However, a majority of the group wanted to start back towards our camp on Dodd, so points further south of here would have to wait for another day (or trip). Slightly too bad, because we learned later that there were several interesting historical sites on Clarke and the immediate island to the south, Benson Island.
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