Day 6

Woke to zero visibility at 5:30 am this morning; talk about thick damp fog! I snuck away without waking Al and headed off for a walk along the sloped pea gravel beach. 20 minutes later I turned back towards camp and came face to face with a cute adult doe deer; I had seen a fawn the day before in almost the same spot. Al was up when I returned, and based on the weather report, suggested we hang tight until the fog was to lift around noon. We took off on an hour hike after breakfast, and upon our return decided to enter some waypoints into my GPS and go. We paddled off into gentle swells, 1/4-mile visibility, and navigated towards Ferrer Point. We crossed Esperanza Inlet, Nuchatlitz Inlet, and Rosa Island, but did not see anything but fog until we were within a 1/4 mile of Ferrer Point. Quite the tedious paddle as most of Nootka Islands coast was inundated with crashing surf, due to shallow reefed areas. We passed Third Beach and 4 miles later surfed up to the sandy beach of Calvin Creek. The beach and 30 foot high Crawfish Falls was a splendid stop as we swam, washed clothes, snapped a couple pictures, and I practiced my Eskimo roll. We continued down Nootka Island's coast, rounded Bajo Point and continued 3 more miles to Beano Creek where we camped.

This was an amazing site - to be able to surf in from the ocean and land right under a waterfall was exhilarating!

The beach here was quite populated with hikers, and there were several cabins strewn along the forests edge. Al took off for a hike after dinner while I made a fire and read, glancing up occasionally to search the sea for Gray Whales. When he returned he surprised me with a cold Canadian Lebatt's beer that he had purchased from some campers; very tasty and satisfying after the days precarious 24-mile blind paddle. Al adjourned to his tent around 9:30 pm while I added driftwood to the fire and continued reading. Just as the light of day was fading, I spotted a black bear heading down the beach in our direction. I sounded the bear alert and Al sprang from his tent! We watched as the bear turned and headed the other direction, and then took precautions to protect our food. Al cached his food between two tall trees, while I took a tinkle on my neoprene hatch covers and stowed my dry bagged food in my kayak. I heard of this odiferous technique from the couple on Kutt's Island, who had witnessed the swimming elk, and was somewhat confident that it would be an effective deterrent