WHO NEEDS SLEEP ANYWAY?
APRIL 19, 2026
We have successfully made it to the Great Bear Rainforest! It was a fairly smooth transition from unloading the ferry to sitting in our floating kayaks, even in our sleep deprived states. The attempt at a full nights sleep on the ferry boat was far from successful. In total, (between the both of us) there were three hours of sleep recieved. It was by no fault but our own that we were set up for a poor nights sleep, with no sleeping bags and one sleeping pad… that I have now discovered fails to hold air for longer than 30 minutes. I suppose that will matter less when I am sleeping on the forest floor?? The sea state along the inside passage was far from confidence inspiring, with waves that were rocking the ferry as far as it could go from side to side. These things seem worse when it is 3:00 in the morning and all you want is to be asleep.
Unloading our kayaks and baggage was made simple by the fact that we were launching from the beach below the ferry ramp. The BC Ferries workers made sure that we knew using the beach was at our own risk, which we were gladly willing to accept over the idea of hiking all of our belongings 2km to the next closest launching beach. Packing the kayaks is always trickiest on the first day with a full grocery stock up, but we managed to fit everything without our kayak decks looking like the back of a hermit crabs shell. The dropping tide proved to be humbling with the two of us fighting to lift two very heavy boats, in a way that surely we will not do again (if we like our backs, that is). We were on the water just after 7:30 this morning, with no plan as to where we would set camp for the night.
As we had anticipated, it was a fairly foggy and rainy morning. There was just enough visibility for us to cross from Swindle Island (where the ferry docks) over to Sarah Island, where we were planning to find a camp for the next few nights. There are very few signs of human life in this area, which I truly enjoy, however, paddling in front of the Boat Bluff lighthouse, with the faded red roof against the thick coastal forest, was a highlight of my day. There was a fair amount of sea life stuck to the walls along the shoreline of Sarah Island but we were far too motivated by the idea of being horizontal in our sleeping bags to lallygag our way to camp. I have a feeling that sea life won’t be a hard find in this area… considering we found THE largest Ochre sea star that either of us had ever seen. No exaggeration, this sea star had at least 3ft diameter. That will be a hard find to beat.
DAWSON’S FUN FACT OF THE DAY: A group of sea stars is called a ‘Galaxy’
We took a break at the beach which we originally had made an option for camping but due to the fact that we got there around 9:00 in the morning, we decided we had it in us to keep paddling. Camping along Sarah Island is deciding between either stopping sooner than you would like and having a guaranteed camp spot or rolling the dice and hoping that you will find somewhere that is big enough to pitch a tent. We chose the latter. This being our first paddling day drastically increased our willingness to travel further than our energy levels were charged to meet.
There must have been a sea lion haul out just around the corner of our lunch beach because we surprised (we were just as surprised) a rather large colony of sea lions that happened to be hanging out in the water. I have never seen so many sea lions jump and fully clear the water, clearly not pleased with our presence. Seeing an unhappy sea lion has to be one of my lest favourite sea kayaking encounters, as grateful as I am to see these creatures in their natural habitat. I was rather relieved when they decided they no longer needed to follow behind us.
The shoreline along Sarah Island is beautiful. I made an attempt at counting the waterfalls that we passed during our paddle today but I lost count somewhere around eight, which is a fair few within a 12km stretch. Everything feels so magical on the first day of an expedition. I was riding the high of knowing my life is going to consist of sitting in my kayak, with no other responsibility, for the next twelve days. The wind held off just long enough for us to get a little ways past our lunch beach but was far too strong for us to get to the next noted camp spot on the map. We stumbled across a small cove that seems to be suitable enough for pitching a tent and it even has a fresh water source. I think we were willing to camp anywhere will our exhaustion leading the decision making.
Our evening turned out to be warm and sunny, which is exactly what we needed after a rainy paddle day. The jobs we set aside for ourselves in the evening were; fill the water drom’s, make dinner (well, re-warm the dinner that my mom had made for us) and go to bed as soon as possible. This bay opens up to Laredo Channel, with Princess Royal Island sitting just across from us, covered in snow capped mountains. It is clear that we have chosen a time of year that will provide us with the solitude we were hoping for… fingers crossed the weather doesn’t add to that.