The weekend that almost wasn't

There was every reason why this weekend should have been miserable or even non-existent. Having my bike get hit by a car on Friday was not a good way to start things off. The good news was that my panier was full of MEC gear and it absorbed a lot of the impact. The bad news is that there was a cannister of camping fuel (white gas) that took the brunt of the bumper force. The container was mangled but thankfully it didn't explode or leak. My bike won't roll (third time in 2 years) but a quick trip to the bike shop should fix that. I should really learn to true my own wheels; I'd save a fortune! I'm fine and although I pulled a few muscles and bruised my left side there doesn't appear to be any lasting effects. Could have been a lot worse.


The first day kayaking was great except that it poured on us and I got ill that night with some sort of weird stomach-headache combo that made me incapable of eating more than about 5 Kraft Dinner noodles and then collapsing.


I was still having fun, which says a lot about how much I enjoy being on a body of water with a paddle (or two) in my hand but day 2 was where things really picked up. I woke up feeling nearly 100% with my headache fading quickly to nothing. Likewise the weather provided us a wonderful day for puttering around Indian Arm to watch families of seals frolicking in the sun. Also I got to play around a bit and get a better sense of the way kayaks move differently than canoes.


Day 3 was the return voyage. Fighting a hail of black flies drove us away from our breakfasts and onto the water in record time (Note to self: BUG SPRAY!). After we got onto the glassy still inlet things dissolved into pure bliss. I cannot relay the pure joy of gliding smoothly and silently across a blue mirror as the sun rises over the mountains. There is simply no analog. For all misfortune and downsides a single moment of this was enough to make me forget everything else.


Big thanks are in line to Lindsay for organizing this trip down to the last detail.

p.s. on a sad note my little Canon SD800 camera bit the dust. When I opened it up later I discovered that the lens assembly had come apart and one of the circuit ribbons was torn. Here is the last picture it took: