Day 9 Nuchatlitz/Nootka Island Sea Kayak Trip

Saturday, May 26th, 2007
Day 9 Beano Creek Beach, Nootka Island

This beach is really cool. I like it a lot, but it's also making me envious, because I want to live like this too and I don't know how to make it happen.

It's just beautiful here. Exposed to the open Pacific. On the far right hand side is a wide creek. The beach is really steep and pebbly, but small pebbles, almost like sand.

The forest is big spruce mostly, with some space between them, and salal undergrowth, and a bank leading up to it. The bank is covered with long grass, and it looks a bit like the Charlottes. Pat, the guy who lives here, says the grey whales come here every year, & he watches so many pass right by, even coming close to shore & rubbing. I think that's what the little baby grey was doing at Catala. He says there's one sea otter mum that comes every year with its babies. He's here all winter, all year, right on the cliff at the other side of the beach, with a big deck going around & a greenhouse on it, and he can watch all the winter storms. He found six big green glass balls like the one Sarah has, just this year. And the Nootka Trail continues in both directions from here.

This closer side of the property is owned by a surf camp. They have these cool little treehouse cabins, so nice. All cedar shake, and little narrow steep stairs to get up. Bunk beds & glass balls & sea urchins & framed surfing photos inside. Surfboards stored under the treehouses. There's a low shack with a bunch of surfboards, too, & nobody's here right now. There's about five cabin/treehouses along the beach and a bigger house at each end. When Sarah & I heard there were going to be structures, we didn't like the sound of it, but it's really nice, & doesn't seem built up.

Yesterday we heard that slam & got freaked out & walked down the beach to the big house. We weren't expecting anyone, but an older, kind of deaf man came out. He was reticent, but eventually he told us he was a guest & his friends were inside. He invited us in, and we met Pat & Jan, Pat being the one who lives here year round. Jan's in her late fifties or so, and is building a cabin 200 yards from Pat's house. They seem to be together, kind of.

The place is beautiful. Jan told us that Pat bought the land in '91. Recently he cut trees down from the land, milled them himself, and built the house with it. It's so pretty. He inlaid cedar bark around the windows. Upstairs there's a bathtub right under a long window that looks out over the trees & ocean. Beautiful. And he filled a kind of counter that the tub fits into with pebbles from the beach, and shells and glass balls.

He runs it as a B&B that he also stays in. He says he comes with the house, because he has to run all the systems -- propane, etc. He's got wireless internet. He was making popcorn when we came in, & gave us a brown bag to go. Palomitas. On the way up the stairs, showing us around, Jan banged a drum softly on the wall, and said oh, the weather drum sounds like it'll be good weather tomorrow. The drum contracts & expands w/the humidity, so it's a kind of barometer. They weren't like eccentric island folk at all, just doing it all up in simple style.

So. Today. I woke up in a bad mood b/c it was wet out & I knew my gumboots were soaked & I hated the idea of cold wet feet all day or sacrificing another pair of socks. It was misting. I cooked 7 grain cereal & we had hot chocolate & apples & the cereal actually turned out really well. I was also in a bad mood b/c I hadn't slept well & I'd had bad dreams -- about Alice, about fighting w/Tess . . .

Sarah & I explored the cabins & walked past the B&B but then I turned around, came back to camp. Ate my leftover curry, eventually had beer & chocolate w/Sarah, tried to dry my gear.

The sun came out hot, and I went on my own down the beach to get water. I've been wanting more time to myself, but also feel bad exploring parts of the beach Sarah hasn't seen yet.

More cabins & they were cool, really pretty, and then I got to the river. It's shallow & pebbly, and it was so hot that I took off my clothes & went for it. Made myself dunk under, washed, washed my hair. It felt good. I lay on the rocks & the wind dried me but it wasn't cold. Filled the water bag & bottles & walked back to camp. Organized my gear, got a bunch of wood ready for a fire, w/the hatchet & knife & everything, & then relaxed. Sarah came back and she'd found another glass ball. It's so hard not to be jealous. She's found two like the one I found, the big green one, and now this cool small one w/a Japanese inscription stamp on the bottom. I'd like to find some, but I'll never find that many now. Oh well. Everything else has been so good, and I did find the trade bead.

Then I read for a bit, cooked dinner, & Jan & Pat & Glen came down the beach to say hi to us and Jan gave us some cookies she'd made. They invited us for coffee for tomorrow for if we don't make it off the beach, which we probably won't. The forecast sounds like strong winds tomorrow. And tonight, although it's not blowing yet. I want to stay another day, and go way down the beach. And then the day after tomorrow we need good weather so we can move closer to our takeout, or we'll have to do it all in one day, on the 29th, but I really hope that doesn't happen. Oh, I dried my gumboots out today! I never thought that would happen. Really lucky.