By Marie Savage - Special to Wild Isle Magazine Summer 2004

I was just back from a week-long white-water rafting/camping trip on the Snake River in Idaho when a friend called in a panic. Her husband was sick and she wanted to know if I would take her place three days later on a week-long sea kayaking trip off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.

I hesitated, thinking of my sand-laden sleeping bag and dirty clothes not to mention my sore muscles.

"It's lodge-based, and they have hot showers," she said.

Three loads of laundry later, I was on my way to Port Hardy to meet the outfitter, Terry Prichard, of Sea Kayak Adventures. I found him and the rest of the group on the public dock.

We were a mixed bag of ages from 14 to 64 and some people had never kayaked before but as we loaded the kayaks aboard the "Hurst Isle" for the hour-long trip out to God's Pocket Provincial Marine Park, Terry explained we'd be paddling in double kayaks with lots of opportunities to stop and look at things. Our planned four to five hours on water each day included gawking time.

Bill Weeks, our captain, and co-owner of God's Pocket Resort on Hurst Island, filled the trip across with stories of previous guests. More than one film crew had used his services while exploring the world-famous delights of cold-water diving in and around Queen Charlotte Strait. During the spring and fall, when the visibility is the best, God's Pocket runs custom diving trips for groups of up to ten people. Bill's stories were so amusing I forgot to be seasick.

Safely delivered to the dock at God's Pocket Resort on the north side of Goletas Channel, we were invited to drop our gear in our rooms before having lunch in the communal dining room. The lodge didn't look all that big, just a couple of small buildings hugging the rocky shore, so I wasn't expecting much more than a camp bed in my room. I couldn't have been more wrong. Every room had hardwood floors, closet and shelf space, two beds, and a private bathroom complete with the promised showers.

Lunch was the beginning of a love affair with Bill's wife and partner, Annie Ceschi. Pleasant, funny, and determined to make our stay memorable, Annie made everything from scratch with obvious enjoyment. The camaraderie around the table each night thereafter was almost as much fun as the kayaking. Our trip covered both July 1st and 4th so our group celebrated both in style. Americans tried to trip up the Canadians with trivia questions and the Canadians reciprocated in kind.

"Where did Wayne Gretsky grow up?"
"Brampton!"
"Bramelea!"
"Brentwood!"
"He's a hockey player. Did he grow up?"

Terry and his crew joined right in and our group felt like a team very quickly. Every morning Terry gathered us together and discussed the day's plan. Typically, we'd paddle out to some small cove, an interesting island, or the local lighthouse. Safety was Terry's first concern and we had a thorough introductory lesson before heading our the first day. Even for the newbies, it was a completely comfortable experience.

Lunch was always punctuated by a short talk on plant and animal life or the geologic formations we were sitting on. Evenings in the lodge's clubhouse gave us more time to explore questions we had about things we'd seen.

Terry made sure his resource library was available to us and we knew where to find the videos too.

The day we visited Browning Wall completely blew our minds. White anemones danced down the wall deep beneath the kayaks. But everyday offered some kind of surprise. Eagles soared over our heads, we spotted a deep eagle nest (aerie) in the crook of a tree, seals lounged on a rocky island, oyster catchers and harlequin ducks startled us with their colour.

The lodge-based trip was a great introduction to kayaking for the newbies among us. In fact, it was brilliant the way the more experienced paddlers brought along their less experienced family members. One 20-something paddler has his mom along, in another kayak was a 45-year-old dad and his 14-year-old son doing some serious bonding.

With so much packed into our five days on the water, the list of highlights is lengthy: Orcas swam by; we climbed up a native midden, the result of hundreds of years of use by local peoples, we enjoyed wine on the porch every night before dinner, and once, deep into the dark of a hot summer night, we paddled a short way form the lodge to watch phosphorescent marine creatures dance wherever we disturbed the water.

And hey, you know what? I came home without any laundry. Bill does a communal load at the end of every day so your stinky socks and sweaty shirts are lemon fresh even after a week of top-flight sea kayaking.

Yeah, I'm going back.