2013: Post 32 – Club Kayak Camping Trip

Four years ago I did my first kayak camping trip at Pinchgut.   It was a club event, led by Peter Armitage, and was called an “Introduction to Kayak Camping.”   (You can see Tony’s blog entry on that trip here). Hazen was on that particular trip as well and I do believe it was also his first time kayak camping trip as well, and I also believe it may have been the first time we had met.  But back then he wasn't known as Old Wobbly.

This introduction kayak camping trip has not been offered the last couple of years as a club event, but Hazen and I have been doing a lot of kayak camping together along with some of our other good paddling buddies who also enjoy combining kayaking and camping.   

Earlier this year Hazen and I decided to try to re-introduce the Pinchgut club camping trip and so we had it put on the calendar of events for this weekend (July 6-7) to see if there would be any interest.  Well, counting Hazen and I, we had fifteen participants; and there were three more people that unfortunately had to cancel before the weekend came.  A third of the group are relative new-comers to kayaking and kayak camping and the rest of the group were a good mix of varying levels of kayaking skill and experience. 

Planning the trip was easy enough; we would just follow the route as set by Peter when he used to do this trip… no sense messing with a good plan!!  So we met at 10 am Saturday morning and packed up the kayaks.  

Waivers were collected and maps were passed out, compliments of Hazen. But someone must have said “Neville, start your truck” because people were on the move before everyone was on the water…

Sue and Brian

Dale giving the thumbs up

Chris and Sharon

Allison, Boyd, and Cecilia

Sue Davis

Ron

Gary

Boyd, Chris, and Sharon

Cecilia and Alex

We hand-railed down the shore and entered Pinchgut Tickle.  We had not paddled far and were not in any particular hurry, so Hazen thought it might be an idea to pull up on a beach just inside the tickle to let people have a little stretch if they wanted to.  But this crowd weren’t having anything to do with it… they wanted to paddle.  A nice leisurely paddle and just a little over eight kilometres from the put-in and we were at the camp-site. 

People had a quick lunch and then got to work selecting locations and putting up their tents...  

Sue Duffet

Alex and Gary

Allison

Chris and Sharon

Old Wobbly (Hazen)

Before you knew it Pinchgut Tent City was back on the map and it was time to take it easy for a while...

Hazen decided to take Jenny for a little spin.  I think he liked her well enough but not enough to put in an order for one of his own...

A few of us decided to do just a little bit more paddling... 

... and then it was time for some supper...

Sue Davis and Boyd

We must have been enjoying ourselves and were not paying attention because before we knew it the tide was upon us...

Ron's stool was very nearly a casualty

Brian was moving out while the tide was moving in

So we moved further along the cove to our wood pile that we had collected earlier...

I think Alex may be telling one of his stories...

It wasn't yet dark but we had plenty of wood and we got the camp-fire going...

Boyd promptly took the position of Fire Marshall

Ron in a contemplative state of mind

Cecilia took her turn as Fire Marshall and got a fine blaze on the go

Roasting of the wieners 

Cecilia brought her mandolin and played for us by firelight

There's just something about campfires

As the night wore on we started losing people to their tents.  Then we lost a few more. Soon there was just Alex, Cecelia, Hazen and myself.  Then Alex and Cecilia said their good-night too.  Old Wobbly and I decided to have one more drink and we kept a slow burn going until about 1 am before we turned in ourselves...

Hazen is in the darkness there somewhere...
but perhaps I snapped this just after he fell over
in his chair and that is why he cannot be seen!!

Per my usual routine when camping I did not sleep well or long; I was awake at about 5 am and on the go shortly after. I was the first one up in the morning (at least I did not see any sign of anyone) and had the calmness of the morning all to myself...

I do so enjoy these quiet early mornings when camping

Before long Ron was up and shared the morning with me...

The others began to rise and breakfast ensued...

Then it was time to break camp and load up the kayaks again... 

We did a short open crossing (a first for some) from Pinchgut point to John's Pond and got out for a little look and a stretch...

... and then carried on up the shore with a bit of wind behind us and therefore a following sea...

When we reached Half Island we stopped for lunch...

...and then continued up the shore until we reached Rocky River where we paddled into the falls to see if there were any salmon jumping...

Gary

Sue Davis (Boyd behind)

Sharon and Chris

Julie

Allison and Sue Davis

There weren't any salmon to be seen and so after a while we paddled back down the river and across the bay to the the parked cars...

Fifteen left the beach on Saturday, fifteen made it back on Sunday.  I call that another good trip!

It was a tiring day for some (about 17 km) and I think some may have reached their paddling limits for the day.  I know I was tired from the lack of sleep and the warmth of the day.  It didn't take long before all the gear was loaded into and onto the cars.  There were 'good-byes' said and 'thanks for the trip' and people got on with the drive home. 

Well, it was a fun weekend.  It was good to see my regular paddling friends again, and it was especially good to meet some new kayakers for the first time.    

Thanks to all those who participated.  Oh yeah, Hazen put a buzz in my ear about the possibility of doing this trip again, perhaps in September.  We will see.  But we should definitely put it on the calender of events again next year... 

2013: Post 31e – New World Island - Day Five

See 'Post 31d' for Day Four..


I opened my eyes and stared up at the tent.  Brian had set the alarm on his phone for 4:30 am as planned, and it must have awakened me since his tent was not far from mine.  He called out to see if everyone was awake...

We all made quick work of breaking down the tents and loading up the kayaks.  There would be no breakfast for a couple hours so I ate a granola bar to hold me until then. We carried the the heavy kayaks down to he water and were leaving the beach by 5:30.  

The winds were low and the paddling was easy.  We  made our way across to Western Head, passing Morton's Harbour Head, Pomley Cove, and Pearce Harbour.

Brian and Hazen

We turned our bows south and headed down the coast until we came to Little Bridgeport Harbour.  This would be our breakfast location.  I was hungry and tired from the lack of breakfast and the early rise and my oatmeal and tea tasted especially good.

With breakfast finished we decide to take a run into the outer part of Bridgeport harbour...

Brian

Tony

There were fishing boats tied up at the wharf... I always seem to think of the song "Little Boats of Newfoundland" when I see images like this...

Brian

Brian getting the weather report for
the next day from this fisherman

Hazen

From Bridgeport Harbour we carried on down to Puzzle Bay, passing between Cottle's Island and Knowles Island and could see some of the houses of Cottlesville. This was a place I was keen on seeing.  About 12 year's ago we had Juniper wood flooring installed in our house and Cottlesville is from where the flooring came.

Cottlesville, well part of it anyway

We passed this lovely little stage... I think if I owned it I might spend a lot of time there, at least when I wasn't paddling...

We passed along the inside of Cottle's Island and then across Cottle's Bay and made our way to Intricate Harbour where we believed we could find somewhere to camp during our pre-planning before the trip.  We looked around and found a spot in a little cove that would be very good for camping, plenty of wood around and a nice sheltered area up in the trees.  We had paddled twenty-seven kilometres since leaving Roses Harbour early in the morning and it was only about 11 am... The wind/weather was supposed to be the same the next day and high tide was around 1 pmish.  We believed we could ride the falling tide under the causeway and out Dildo Run towards the park.  So the decision was made to continue the rest of the way to the park (about another 20 kilometres if paddling in straight lines) and camp there for the night and then drive home the next morning.  But not before having lunch...

With lunch finished up we got back in our kayaks and paddled out of Intricate Harbour, around Farmer Head, and into Summerford Arm.  Below is the last picture I would take until we reached the park.  It is of Tony somewhere around Farmers Head, I believe it is just as we are going into Summerford Arm and that Island behind him is Farmers Island.... 

We were handrailing up the northern side of Summerford Arm.  A couple of kilometers up the shore Tony and I crossed over toward Farmers Island but Brian, Neville, and Hazen decided to continue handrailing.  Eventually we all met up just before Curtis Causeway.  It was then we realized the tide was running against us and would not carry us under the causeway.  We all seemed to believe it ran the other way when it was falling.  

Anyway, long story made short, we all managed to get our kayaks on the other side of the causeway and carried on.  At this time we had surpassed the 40 kilometer mark for the day.  I had done a couple 37 kilometre paddles previously and had told Tony I wanted to do a 40 kilometre paddle this year.  So that goal had been reached, but we were still about eight or nine kilometers from the park!! 

By this time I was tired, my feet hurt from pushing on the foot pegs, I had an ache in my big toe, the muscle in my right shoulder was sore, and I had had enough of paddling into the wind for the day.  A non-paddling buddy of mine use to say when you are tired and fed up doing something to "just dig deep."  I always remember this when paddling (and doing other things) when I get tired.  I put the aches out of my mind and I dug in deeper. 

Eventually we rounded an island and the park was in site.  The wind was now behind us and we paddled in.  When we hit the beach the tide was low and we had to carry the heavy kayaks the extra distance up the beach.  This paddle was done and I was glad for it to be over.

This was the very last picture I had taken

The guys got the vehicles and we unpacked the kayaks and re-loaded the gear into the vehicles and the kayaks onto the roofs.  Hazen straightened up with a couple campsites and we pitched our tents, Brian decided he would just sleep in his car.

We all headed to the showers to clean up and then drove to a restaurant in Twillingate for supper.  The lady there said it was closing time but they still had some customers finishing up and she let us come on in... she said she doesn't turn any customers away.  As we were sitting down, waiting for our food, the realization of how tired I was came over me.  When we got back to the park we all just crawled into our tents, no campfire, no drinks... It was the best night's sleep I had during this trip!

The next morning we packed away our tents and headed for home.  We stopped in Gander for breakfast and at Clarenville for coffee...


Here's an overall map of New World and Twillingate Islands showing our direction of travel and campsite locations:

                                  X = started the trip at Dildo Provincial Park Sunday morning
                                 C1 = Cobbs Arm, campsite end of Day One, paddled ~ 25 km
                                 C2 = Sleepy Cove, campsite end of Day Two, paddled ~ 31.5 km
                                 C3 = Black Island Harbour, campsite end of Day Three, paddled ~ 20 km
                                 C4 = Roses Harbour, campsite end of Day Four, paddled ~ 23.5 km
                                 X = ended the trip at the start point Thursday evening, paddled ~ 50 km



It was another great trip.  Brian, Tony, Neville, and Hazen are an excellent bunch of guys to paddle and camp with.  Like each trip I do, I learned a few things along the way and I had a few good laughs. My tally for the distance we covered was just a couple hundred metres shy of 150 kilometers. I enjoyed the first four days immensely, even when it was chilly on days three and four.  The last day was enjoyable too, but those last few kilometres were demanding.  In hindsight I wish we had stayed in Intricate Harbour and finished up the paddle the next day.  But the long day on the water was a good test of paddling stamina, but I think it may have been at my upper limits for a day.

I wonder where the next big paddling trip will be?



(See Tony's blog entry for morning of Day 5 and afternoon of Day 5)