We got up and got moving, since the tide was already flooding (going in our direction) and would be till around 11:00-ish. It still took us a couple of hours to get everything packed while making some breakfast, and then get it down to the water's edge. Here is a perfect example of optimism and confidence in your ability to get something done. The tide is rising up the beach and you can see where the high tide line was yesterday. Dividing the space left by the last high tide the hours remaining until the next high tide gives you some idea of increments. Then figure the amount of time you think it's going to take to load the boat and be ready to go, and place your selected logs on which to place your boat near the appropriate increment. Place boat on logs and start carrying the bags of stuff that somehow still don't fit easily into the holds and place next to the boat. Start loading boat. Realize that you've been overly optimistic about how quickly this process was going to go. Move boat up the beach. Move stuff in the bags that are being licked by the water making it's way up the beach. Repeat at least two more times with increasing bewilderment of how much you could be off.
We finally got off the beach into water so smooth you could count the needles on the trees reflected from the steep hillsides. Well, maybe not the needles, but the limbs for sure. Peter took time to take some pictures and cuss at his Insta360. I couldn't hear him, but I'm pretty confident he was cussing at it.
There were several campsites we could see tucked into the trees, as we paddle by them hugging the shoreline. The shoreline is where the interesting stuff can be easily seen. What is disturbing is how few creatures we are seeing on the bottom. The water is crystal clear up to about 10-15 feet, and there isn't as much of a variety as you would expected in these tidal areas. I did see thousands upon thousands of jelly fish. Little ones, mostly. A big one would be the size of man's watch who is lacking somewhere else in his life. The small ones were so increadible small, and, yet, their "bodies?" were such amazing detailed beings.
Paddling at a good clip with the current moving us along, we were set to stop around noonish for a pee and some lunch. I spied a bit of beach on the far side of this bight (not big enough for a bay) and figured that would probably be a good place. On the near side of said bight, I saw some sort of structure peeking out of the woods. This seems as good a place as any for lunch.
It was, in fact, a glamping sort of camp that had been abandoned for at least a few years. It was nice enough that we made the decision to stay the night. It was pretty awesome, and I'm sure it was a high-end thing when it was operating. I has several large platforms big enough for a good-sized wall tent and a personal patio each. It has a two-stall shower system that brought water in from up higher on the creek to provide water pressure, and it looks like it had the hardware for a filtering system and propane powered instantaneous hotwater heater. The propane tank is still there with half a tank left. The composting toilet was at least $5k when new, probably twice that, and I can attest that it still works great. Where we decided to set up camp was in the dinning room, repleat with some solid tables, wicker lounge area furnature with table, a very nice sink with expensive faucet, and a giant Jenga set. All covered by a substantial translucent tarp cloth with fabric woven into it.
Lunch was a couple of creative instant potato dishes washed down with some filtered water from the creek. The water that we had been carrying since Cluxewe was tainted heavily with nasty iron with other unknown heavy metal tastes. It all got dumped out and replaced with some of this sweet creek water.
Tomorrow, we plan a 10.5 mile paddle past Robson Bight, which is where the Orcas go to rub their bellies. They don't know why they do that, but the area is restricted to give them space to do their thing. Supposedly, we are supposed to stay a mile offshore. There will be a sign. There are signs at each end of the shoreline which mark an area where you are supposed to stay at least 0.5miles off shore.
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