James Island

We always seem to forget about kayaking around James Island. Located off a decent launch site up the Saanich Peninsula at Island View Beach, James used to house a munitions plant a century ago. These days it makes an ideal outing for paddlers, not too far from the mainland of Vancouver Island, but far enough that with a little imagination you can get that "we're out in the wilderness" feeling.
However, be warned -- it is a private island. But it is for sale. Start saving.

And so we were off on this bright sunny Sunday. Louise is gaining more experience in her new kayak and she looked forward to the first long paddle in her new ride.


The crossing to the cliffs on James' south shore went reasonably well. We encountered a few patches of slightly confused water...befuddled water might be a good way to describe it. Once we reached the shore, the water calmed down as we paddled along the shore.


Here we saw a young eagle.

We also saw an otter scampering along the shore. Running away from the eagle? Who knows. He was in a big hurry -- this was the only shot of him I got.


As we headed up the east side of James, we started to remember what a slog paddling around the island can be. The current never seems to go where it's supposed to, and the wind can come up and down quickly, blowing in from odd directions. Adding to the slogginess of the paddle was the fact that neither of us was feeling very energized today. Louise was really feeling it as her new ergonomic paddle doesn't allow her to cheat, or in other words adjust her grip on the paddle to favour her bad shoulder. In the long run this will help strengthen her bad shoulder; in the short term, her shoulder sometimes becomes very achy when she kayaks.


We got a reminder of the slog as we turned around the sandbar at the north and an unexpected breeze from the south blew into our faces and against the ebbing tide. We decided to cross back here, a longer crossing but at least we'd be paddling along the mainland shore if the wind got worse. This resulted in a longer paddle, as we now had to go around the large sandbar on the mainland.

But it's still a gorgeous place to paddle.

Trip Length: 15.69
YTD: 124.68 km
More pictures are here.

Pssst! Wanna Buy an Island?

For Sale: 780 acres of land featuring an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, a 5,000 square foot owner’s residence, six guest cottages, and a Western-styled ghost town. All on your very own private island. Mind you, you'll need a whole lotta dollars to buy this island. 75,000,000 of them.
James Island, a Gulf Island halfway between Victoria and Sidney, is being put up for sale by its reclusive American owner, Craig McCaw.
For most of the 20th century, the island was home to an explosives manufacturing plant. 10% of the bombs used by Commonwealth countries in WWI were produced here. But the plant was closed in 1972, and the village disassembled in 1979, and McCaw bought the island almost 20 years ago.
We've kayaked here a few times over the years, and we've heard the occasional story concerning private security guards on the island not taking kindly to kayakers who've paused on the sandy yet private beaches. (In fairness, I must point out that we have never suffered such an occurrence.)
So what do you say? Every kayaker on the planet puts in a couple of bucks and we'll buy the place. And everyone can camp for free. Deal?

Return to James Island

I'm not sure how it happpened, but in looking at my paddling records here on the blog I realized that somehow it's been almost three years since I paddled to James Island. And that's odd because it is a great place to paddle and a good stepping stone to other islands.

So this morning Louise and I headed to Island View Beach to launch on a warm and gorgeous spring day and rectify that oversight. A little breezier than expected, but nothing untoward. We were hoping the currents would work in our favour by taking advantage on the flood as we headed north around James Island, and ride the ebb the other way.


We didn't see a lot in the way of wildlife today. We saw a few ducks, and the occasional seal popped up to check us out. Eagles were a little more plentiful, but they were feeling shy and mostly stayed out of camera range. But we did see lots of unusual things flying in the sky.
First there was this plane. We were on the water about three hours and the entire time we were out this plane was practicing approaches to Victoria Airport. We thought he was doing "touch 'n' go's" but as we paddled up the coast we realized that he wasn't even doing that -- he was just coming in for an approach, then he'd peel off, fly a circle over us, and return for another approach.


We paddled along side the shore...

...then began our crossing to James. We were still watching the plane when we saw another object in the sky...

...and moments later we were overflown by a Canadian Forces helicopter.


We made it to James and turned around the sandspit at the far end and headed back.

We put in for a brief rest stop. James Island is now a private luxury resort owned by a former cellular phone magnate. It has its own airstrip and Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course. And, as some kayakers have discovered, an overly zealous security force.


The plane flew around again and we could finally make out the markings - Nav Canada. Nav Canada is the country's civil air navigation services provider, and provides air traffic control, flight information, weather briefings, aeronautical information services, airport advisory services and electronic aids to navigation. At least, that's what their website says. We later found out that Nav Canada was conducting calibrations of the airport's localizer and glide path instruments. It takes about six hours of flying in at various altitudes and approach angles to ensure that the airport's systems are up to spec.


Soon we were at the south end of James, passing under the cliffs.


This was the best I could do for eagle pictures during our lovely paddle.


Trip length: 14.55 km
YTD: 60.29 km
My pictures are here.

James Island Counter-Circumnavigation

A bright, sunny and cloudless day at Island View Beach. With nary a breeze, we decided to set sail, er, paddle for the near side of James Island. From there, we would decide our next move.


It was the elite group of paddlers today: myself, Paula, Alison and Louise. Marni McBean and Silken Laumann wanted to join us, but frankly, they're just too slow. Below, Louise and Paula set the pace towards James Island...

... and Alison keeps up.


We reached the south-west corner and decided our next stop would be the south-east corner. The south shore of James Island is really strange, like someone came along with a giant saw and cut the end of it off. This is exactly the sort of thing that a glacier might have done in the last ice age...

...except that the cut runs roughly east to west, and one might expect glacial cuts to be running roughly north-south. This prompted some lively geological discussion.


At the next corner, we decided to cross to Sidney Island. From there, we crossed to the next island, then decided to cross to the next island and so on and so forth. And that's how we made it to Japan!
Okay, yes, I'm kidding. But the view was tremendous today. We really felt like we could just go from island to island. Paula was blown away by how far we could see. The Island right behind Paula's head in this picture is Galiano, about halfway to Vancouver...

... and if you look carefully, you can see Vancouver's North Shore mountains behind Galiano.


We actually decided to circumnavigate James Island again. And unlike last time, when the tide turned just as we rounded the far end of the island (so that we were always fighting the current), this time the tide turned just as we put in. So yes, the first part of the paddle down the far side would be a tough slog, but once we turned back, it would be pretty easy. That was the theory, anyway. And we went in the opposite direction compared to last time, just to keep it interesting.
So onward ho!




I tried to get a picture of a crab that Alison had spotted, but no luck. Still, the water was very clear.


We put in...

...for a stretch...

...and a rest.



Off again!


We turned at the north tip of the island and crossed back to the mainland. And with the tides and currents with us for a change, it was a welcome break from the hard work of the first leg of the trip.


As we paddled along, we suddenly heard a roar off our stern. "Holy DELETED EXPLETIVE!" I shouted. "There's a DELETED EXPLETIVE seaplane taking off beside us!"


Meanwhile, the herons ignored both the seaplane and my use of colourful metaphors and kept right on eating.


A four-hour paddle and we all survived. What a gorgeous day! And did I mention that Mt. Baker looked spectacular today?


My pictures are here.

The Alternate Paddle

With eight people paddling this sunday, it looked pretty interesting on the beach. I was trying out my new camera (a Minolta Weathermatic Dual 35), which didn't go exactly as planned. For some reason only four out of 26 shots came out in focus.
However, this shot of the launch preparations wasn't too bad...


The decision was made to paddle a circumnavigation of James Island, a fairly straighforward proposition. The tide was on the ebb flow until about 11:55 am, creating a fairly strong current where the channel narrows on the west side of James. It was about here that Dennis and I decided to head off across to James and paddle around the south side of the island.

Our route wasn't really planned;there is a strong current running west to east along the beach on the south side of James Island, so once we made our way across, it was very simple to keep going. All you had to do was not paddle for a while and you were halfway down the beach without noticing it.

The silt/sand cliff is pretty impressive--not so much for being there, but for still being there. It looks like it should take about one rainstorm for the whole thing to end up at the bottom of Haro Strait.
Once we had let the current push us down to the east side of the island, it was a simple jump across to Sidney Island. We put in briefly at the south end of Sidney for a stretch--turned out that this was the same time that the rest of the paddle group had put in on the east side of James for the same reason. South end of Sidney Island

It was very tempting to make the trip over to Darcy Island--former site of B.C.'s leper colony. But right on cue (as Maureen had mentioned), the wind came up. Not that it was bad--a moderate offshore blow, but there was no telling how strong it would become, and it meant that we would be paddling back directly into it.



As we paddled slightly south to the Sallas Rocks, we noted that the distance to Darcy was a bit deceptive--like the approach to Sidney island, it looked as though the more we paddled, the farther it would be to our goal. Very very frustrating....

But as we passed the first of the rocks--and fairly large they are too at low tide--our paddling and talking startled a number of seals basking. On the chart above, they would have been on the rock next to the (2) under the "S" in Sallas. And not one or two seals, but a couple of dozen. Some stayed put, but most hit the water and then these large heads popped up to check us out. They watched us, we watched them, and finally we blinked, and headed back to the launch point.
The paddle back was about 7 km (about 4 miles) and took us roughly one hour and forty-five minutes. We kept looking for the other six paddlers--who, it turned out, made it back to the beach about ten minutes ahead of us--and although we had a clear view of the south end of James Island all the way back, we never saw the rest of the group. This, I think, was an important lesson about visibility on the water....

James Island Circumnavigation

Today, we headed out to Island View Beach. South of Sidney, it's a rocky launch point, especially at low tide. And that's what we were facing: an ebbing tide, with a strong breeze forecasted. On arriving, the wind was absent, and we decided on a long paddle.

This was our largest group yet. After a couple of weeks away, Alison came out of hiding to paddle, and Dennis, now recovered from his West Coast trek also came along, joining The Usual Suspects, Paula, Louise, Bernie and myself. Also along for the trip were Louise's friend Tracy and her friend Maureen. We decided on a circumnavigation of James Island.
Our large fleet heads out!



Tracy and Maureen took an early lead in their longer and faster boats...

...but the rest of us kept up (nearly)!


Bernie's back was a little sore so he and Dennis decided to go to the south tip of James Island and beach so Bernie could stretch it out. They planned to meet us on the other side of the island, but they ended up having quite an adventure of their own. (But whatever happens on Brokeback Island stays on Brokeback Island.)


The Obligatory Self-Portrait.


We continued on to the north. We were going against the tide, hoping that when we went around the island we'd catch a break with the currents coming back.


We finally reached the northern tip of the island and swung around. (That's a Washington State ferry in the background.)


The north side had some nice sandy beaches and shoreline. What it didn't have was a cooperative current. The tide turned around just as we did. Lucky us. So we spent the return trip also fighting against the current. And the wind came up, too. Yay.
It was turning into the longest paddle ever for some of us. A stretching stop was in order.


The yellow plant all over this cliff is called broom. It spreads like crazy and chokes up anything else that tries to grow. Broom was imported and is not native to this area. (When I was a kid, my mom used to say the same thing about broom not being native to my bedroom).


Now's here's something interesting... there's a wonderful but steep beach on the backside of James. You can see the flow patterns that the water running off the beach. These patterns are similar to patterns found on Mars and lead scientists to believe water once flowed over its surface.
Mars:

James Island:


Oh, look! More geology! Check out the layering in this cliff at the south end! (You just thought this was a plain old Kayaking blog, didn't you? You didn't think you'd actually be learning stuff!)


After a long four hours, the last hour a tough slog against wind and currents, we made it back to shore.


Bernie was especially pleased that I didn't take any pictures of him doing something goofy.


My pictures are here.