2017: Post 2 – La Manche by Land and by Sea

La Manche by Land

Yesterday (Saturday), Derek sent me a text to see if I wanted to go for a hike at La Manche.  He picked me up and off we went.  We parked at the trail-head, put on our crampons, donned our packs, and made our way down to the suspension bridge.  

We decided we would cross over the bridge and head towards Bauline East since neither of us had done this section of the trail before.

When we arrived above Doctor's Cove we took a little detour down to have a look at the cove.   We've paddled past here before and it was interesting to get the perspective from the shore.

We carried on toward the community of Bauline East until the trail turned into a gravel road.  We walked a little way down the road and Derek decided to check the map.    We discovered the rest of the trail to Bauline East was on the road and neither of us held  enthusiasm about hiking along a road, and so we turned back.

We crossed back over the bridge and I snapped a shot of the river that flows into The Quarry (this is the name of the cove at La Manche).

We decided we would hike along the trail around the cove until we found a spot in the trees that was sheltered from the wind where we boiled up some water and had a cup of tea with our lunch.

Derek took this pic of me with the suspension bridge in the background...

La Manche by Sea

Shane had sent out an e-mail to see if anyone was interested in a paddle today (Sunday).  There were several places offered, but in the end Shane decided on Tors Cove.  I was car-less again today and I told him I could go if he could pick me up.  We met Tony, Cathy, and Gary in Bay Bulls this morning and then we drove down to Tors Cove.  

We paddled on the outside of Fox Island and then made our way over to Ship Island.  From there we crossed over to Great Island, paddling on the outside.  

We checked out the caves at Great Island...

When we rounded Great Island I was informed we would cross over and go to La Manche.  Good call, I thought to myself... I would have lunch in La Manche for the second day in a row.

When we arrived I paddled into the bottom of the cove to get a picture of the river to compliment the one I had taken from the bridge above on the previous day...

The tide was low so it was easy to take out on the little beach and we had our lunch...

When we got back on the water I snapped a pic of Shane under the suspension bridge.  Roughly twenty-four hours before I was walking over the bridge looking down on the cove where we now sat in our kayaks.

When everyone was back on the water we headed back to Tors Cove.  It was a chilly day on the water and we all went for a welcomed cup of coffee before heading back to town.

It was interesting to have hiked and paddled to La Manche this weekend, and to of had my lunch there both days... interesting in that it was not a planned event to do this weekend... it just happened that way.