Always Onward Adventures

7/12/2023 We have been busy - the last couple of days in Prince Rupert have been a flurry of activity… We got groceries for the next 3-4 days (we don’t want to stock up too much before dealing with US customs), we did laundry, we refilled our propane, we refilled water, we got Oakley into the vet, we did a huge shopping run to the local marine store, and we completed some much needed repairs on the boat (eg re-mounting the toilet!). Turns out Oakely cracked one of her teeth - and the inside of the crack became infected. Her body fought off the infection (which is why the swelling went down) but it’s highly likely to become infected again so we need to get it removed. Fortunately, we were able to get her into surgery tomorrow and hopefully everything will go smoothly.

7/5/2023 We gave a sad goodbye to Ocean falls - the place had really grown on us over the last couple of days - and made our way toward Klemtu. Seas were calm and only a slight headwind, not great for sailing, so we motored back along Dean Channel and past Shearwater/Bella-Bella. The goal for today was to make it to just this side of Klemtu - but that was a tenacious goal of almost 45 miles. We found some slightly rough seas on Milbank Sound so we decided to take the inland Reid passage. This meant calmer seas, but we had to stop well short of our goal as we weren’t timed for the rapids at Perceval Narrows. We instead pulled in to Oliver Cove Marine Park - a small marine park on the north end of ivory island.

We got a late start from Shearwater - I think the last couple of days have caught up with us. We ended up leaving around 9a from Shearwater - making our way for 35 nm to Eucott Bay (where the hot springs are). It was going to be a long day - probably 6-7 hours. Sara spent a couple of hour reading to me, it was raining in the morning so she tucked herself on the top step of the companionway to stay dry but still keep me company. The first challenge of the day was Gunboat Pass - a narrow pass that takes you out of Shearwater and into Dean Channel. The pass is narrow and does get some current, but it doesn’t get turbulent. We choose to go with the flood tide and got a nice 1 knot push through the channel - which carried us well into Dean Channel. The current flipped around 1 pm and we ended up with a half a knot or so against us for the last couple of hours.

Monday was our rest day in Port McNeill - we considered leaving early (marina life is far less enjoyable than being on anchor somewhere beautiful), but we still needed groceries and the weather looked much better for rounding Cape Caution on Tuesday/Wednesday than it did Monday/Tuesday. Either way, we got some delicious coffee from Mugz, did some laundry, and then purchased ferry tickets over to Alert Bay - which was advertised as the place to learn about the native peoples (called “first nation” people in Canada). The ferry ride was uneventful (and thankfully the crew allowed us to keep Oakley with us - sounds like you are supposed to put them in a kennel while you are on the ferry, which seemed terrible to us). The museum in Alert bay was very interesting - we learned about the Potlach dance and all the history/meaning into the different dances. The dances are performed with Masks and some of them are quite elaborate - signifying different deities and animals. We also learned about the history of the residential schools and some of the atrocities that happened in the middle of the century. Unfortunately most of the rest of the town was closed up - we were guessing that things kinda close down when there aren’t any cruise ships in port. There are some cool looking trails through the uninhabited part of the island, but we were running out of time to catch our ferry so we will save those until next time.

Our final rest day in Garden Bay was 6/19 - the heater finally arrived at around 5p. We started the day with a provisioning stop at the local IGA - this was our first grocery shopping by dinghy, kinda fun thing to do. We went on a hike to the nearby park (Garden Bay Provential Park) and found a fun loop trail & beach hike. We also spent a few hours up in the Sunshine Room, doing watercoloring and playing games.

We are off! We left Elliott bay on Thursday (6/8) around 4p and made our way up to the Blue Ridge neighborhood to anchor for the night. Our friends, Derek and Diane, recently purchased a new home there and it was closing day so we came by to celebrate with them. Pizza and 30ish year old Yamazaki whiskey was the perfect way to celebrate a new chapter for both them in their new house and us heading off on our sailing trip!

The last couple of weeks have been very busy cleaning up our house and getting the boat ready to go. We are T-9 days from departure on our 4.5 month sailing trip up to Alaska which is both exciting and anxiety producing… I’m writing this post to capture in writing some of the work we have done to get the boat ready to go and what the family has been up getting ready for this trip.

Success at last! This was my third attempt at the Palouse to Cascades state park trail. The trail runs for ~300 miles from Cedar Falls (near north bend) all the way to the border with Idaho (near Tekoa). This trail is a beast - but after three attempts, I finally made it. Before I jump into this trip, a bit of history. There is a bridge that goes over I-90 as you are going east from Seattle. It’s a pedestrian bridge, but it seems like it’s in the middle of nowhere so it’s notable and it has a big sign on it that says “Palouse to Cascades”. About two years ago, this sparked my interest and I discovered that this was a trail that followed the old Milwaukee road rail line across the entire state of Washington. Having done the Seattle to Portland bike ride the year prior, I was intrigued and interested in doing this trail - which is only marginally longer than STP (~300 mi vs ~215 mi). I put together a plan which involved dragging Angela along with me and even included bringing Sara with me in the trailer the first day. You can read more about it in the post below, but the bottom line was that I grossly misjudged the trail - not realizing the ruggedness of the trail and how it would impact me and my bike.