The Broken Group (and it's not GnR)

A number of years back, we went to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. A vast stretch of unspoiled nature, to be sure, but from the perspective of a canoe-borne traveller, well summed up in a few words: Trees, Bugs, Mud, Rocks, and Water.

Enter Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island. Here again we find ourselves paddling around unspoiled nature; but here, the operating words are reduced to Trees, Rocks, and Water. Except for you Minnesotan mud and bug enthusiasts out there (Erdmann? Bergen?), I think most would agree that the Boundary Waters has nothing on Barkley Sound.

Specifically, in Barkley Sound there is a set of numerous small islands called the Broken Group, which is a part of the Pacific Rim National Park (that is, National to Canada). These are forested with the thickest old-growth rainforest you could imagine. Ben, you will be glad to hear that it is SO thick that bushwhacking is not even an option. (As proven by our achorage neighbours who set out to "wing" their way to a freshwater lake on Effingham Island After litteraly crawling around the underbrush for 4-5 hours they abandoned all hope of finding the lake or their way back and flagged down a fishing boat for a ride back to their boat). The outer islands are pounded by Pacific Ocean waves, creating cool things like Sea Caves, and also protecting the inner islands from the swell. Among the inner islands, the water is flat and tranquil, and the forest reaches its branches right down into the water. Beaches are stacked with driftwood accumulated over the centuries, which M likes to imagine belonged at one time to Indian Longhouses. (Indians did in fact inhabit these islands.)

The actual stories of us paddling our dinghy about are less interesting than the photos we took. Without further ado, here they are. See if you can spot Merz Cove, Merz Arch, (hey, I didn't see any names on the charts) and an eagle.

(This cave was straight out of a fantasy storybook, one of those stories with a Unicorn King; all glowing and purple, with strange but not unfriendly creatures about. "Unicorn King in the Land of the Starfishies.")

Today, we are in the town of Ucluelet, a small town at the northwest edge of Barkley Sound. We had our first real whale-sighting on our way here earlier today. We didn't have time for photos, but the whale(s?) performed a few stunts close enough to wake up Karl at the helm. The splash was big enough to make him think one of the small powerboats that buzz around here endlessly, had flipped around, and he was dissappointed to learn that it was a whale instead. But we hope for some photos later now that we know how to spot them. Basically seek out the closest congregation of at least 20 small powerboats and you should be able to find the whales in the middle.

Next we plan to go to Hot Springs Cove (Hot Springs! Woo-Ha!) for a couple days. That'll be the farthest North we get. Probably no Internet there, so we'll post again on our way back down.