Getting Back At It!

Belated Merry Christmas! Where did December go? The last thing we sort of remember it was the middle of November and we were just starting to ramp up things while volunteering with CFAX Santa's Anonymous. Although we didn't find the time to get on the water outdoors we did manage to cram in a few evening pool sessions to work on rescue skills. But it's not the same as being at sea :-)

After the Christmas celebrations were over we headed up to Living Forest R.V. Park in Nanaimo where we are spending the rest of 2014 in the comforts of our trailer. We have a couple of paddles planned while we are here so we thought that we should spend some time on the water today to limber up the dormant muscles.

In all the times we have paddled here we have never been able to complete the loop of the Nanaimo River estuary either because the tides weren't right or the there hasn't been enough water in the river. Today was perfect with a high tide and plenty of water flowing down the river. Just to make sure, we headed up the river and made our way into the smaller channel that runs through the middle of the estuary and simply let the flow carry us out towards open water.

Paddling out of the Nanaimo River with freighters out in the distance off Nanaimo

Sandstone petroglyph at the waterline 

Leaving the river we made our way over to Jack Point to take a look at the modern petroglyphs carved in the sandstone that can be seen from the water. You can actually see the effects of erosion from the sea water on one of them at high tide.

Nanaimo in the background as Robyn  paddles along Jack Point

Happy to be back on the water again ... Ya!!!

Crossing back over towards the campground we made our way through the log booms and into the Chase River Estuary. We have never been able to paddle into the Chase River system before due to low water levels but this time we managed to paddle right up to the pump house. (Note: a few hours after we go back to our campsite, low tide revealed nothing but mud from the log booms all the way to the put-in except for a narrow river leading the way out to the open sea. Our track photo below shows the mud plain that is visible at low tide)

Hummm .... it needs a bit of work but I think we'll pass on this one.

Entering the Chase River there was a bit of a current flowing under the train trestle that we had to paddle through but that would just make the return trip fun :-). Entering the estuary we found a number of vehicle relics that had been dumped here many decades ago. Robyn also commented that there was a Geocache nearby and sure enough when we got back to camp we found out that it was an Earthcache. Now all we had to do was answer the questions and submit a photo of ourselves .... which another geocacher managed to capture for us in her photo. Now that's a photobomb!

A unknowing Geocacher caught us in her picture while at the Earthcache. Nice!

The year isn't over for us in terms of paddling. We are hooking up with some of the Nanaimo Paddlers on Dec, 30th and Jan. 1st. It sure feels great to be back on the water!

2014 Paddle # 54 - Living Forest - Nanaimo River Estuary

Distance: 4.43 nm (8.20 km)

YTD: 288.39 nm (‪534.09 km)