East Coast Exploration

For some reason, we have never paddled the southern east coast of Vancouver Island between 10 Mile Point and Island View Beach before. We don't know why but yesterday we found out that it really is a great place for a day paddle.

We met up with Gary Jacek at Telegraph Cove with the plan to be OTW by 10:00 in the amazing spring like conditions that we are getting spoiled with around Victoria.

Our neon color plastic kayaks were perfect for playing in some of the rock gardens

The water was stunningly clear in the sunshine.

Gary was our tour guide for the day and he pointed out some of the rock garden features, wildlife and a few small caves in the cliffs along the way. This area also has some of the biggest houses we have ever seen on the south coast.

Heading north towards Glencoe Cove

There were several families of river otters that we came across in the area as well. In fact this is the most otters that we have seen on a single paddle with each family consisting of at least 6 members.

A family of river otters take to the water when they spotted us.

Just north of Arbutus Cove we came across a couple of caves in the cliff face that Gary and I explored. I was surprised how rugged seascape was on this paddle.

And there were also some great beaches along the way to stop and have lunch. In our case we stopped in Margaret Bay and noticed a family looking for something in the driftwood, Sure enough they were Geocaching and in fact it was their first ever "find" and we were the first geocachers they had ever come across. They were really surprised that we arrived by kayak so that will be a great story for them to share. :-)

Lunch at Margaret Bay

There were lots of birds to be seen including bald eagles, blue herons, mergansers, buffleheads.

This immature bald eagle kept a close eye on us as we paddled by.

2014 Paddle #3 Telegraph Cove 

Distance: 6.15 nm (11.39 km)

YTD: 16.32 nm (30.23 km)