August 27, 2004
Lucky Creek, Pipestem Inlet (N 49° 01' W 125° 16')
The weather improved a little yesterday. It's stopped raining for the most part and the sun is making an appearance once in awhile. One thing that didn't improve was the swell. Effingham Bay is quite close to a group of barrier islands. In the quiet of the evening when the wind dropped we could clearly hear the sound of the waves pounding these islands mercilessly. It reminded me of the freeway that I could hear from our berth in Redwood City. I thanked Linda several times for convincing me to make the jump from Tofino to Barkley Sound Tuesday instead of waiting. If we had waited we may have had better wind but we would have much higher seas.
We left Effingham Bay late yesterday afternoon after taking the short trail over the island to the site of an old Native village. In spite of warnings from other boaters about the very muddy trail, we found it to be "an easy hike" of about 1/2 a mile. The beginning was a little muddy, but not nearly enough to require rubber boots.
The trail was just as we remembered it. This section of the British Columbia coast has never been logged or developed. After clambering though dense underbrush near the shore the forest opened up and we found ourselves under the high canopy of cedar trees with the ground covered with moss, a few ferns here and there, and the biggest slugs we've ever seen. Truly a fairy tale landscape. After reaching the other shore we examined the midden and looked for the remains of the native long house (which we were not able to find unfortunately). We sat on the rocky shore and had lunch, watching kayakers slowly paddle by.
After the short trip from Effingham Bay to Pipestem Inlet we anchored in a small bay bounded by a peninsula and three small islands. When we first anchored we thought we would have plenty of room to swing, letting Nakia pivot around the anchor, as we usually do. However, it soon became apparent that a bad wind shift could easily push us onto one of the bounding islands so I ran a line to a cedar tree and tied Nakia's stern to the tree with the line. Amazingly, this is the first time we've had to do this in spite of the fact that boats in nearly all of the anchorages on the inside anchor this way. Of course they do it primarily because everyone else does it. We only do it when we need to.
The anchorage, however, is not the main attraction here. A short dinghy ride away there is a large creek which is deep enough to take a dinghy into at high tide. About a half mile in there are a series of water falls with large pools below each fall. The shores of the creek are too steep to walk on, so to get from one pool to the other you have to swim.
We took the dinghy in about an hour before high tide and had no trouble motoring all the way to the first fall. Then there was a short trail to the first pool above. Fully equipped with bathing suits and reef shoes we prepared to swim the pool to the next fall. That was until we stepped into the water and prepared to dive in. It was COLD (and there was no sun to warm ourselves in afterwards)! Linda was satisfied to have her picture taken sitting on a rock with the falls in the background. I, however, could not come so far without "getting my money's worth." So I dove in and dog paddled, screaming, to the opposite shore where I quickly climbed out and continued along the shore to the next pool. Once arriving at the second, much larger pool I decided that I had seen enough (especially with having to swim back through the first pool just to get back to the dinghy!). I dried off and we ate lunch sitting on a log watching the falls.
Tomorrow we have a short trip to a group of islands called the Pinkerton Islands. There is good salmon fishing close by and the freezer is getting pretty empty. Hopefully I'll get lucky and we'll have enough fish to take home with us.
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