Blackberry Point September 2016

It sure felt as if summer departed quickly!  We had another great summer season of weather on the West Coast and I managed to squeeze in just the right number of adventures to feel like I made good progress exploring Vancouver Island. What I had not done by the end of August was make a trip to Valdes Island and the very special Blackberry Point. However the stars and weather all aligned in early September for quite a spontaneous trip to this magical place.

I saw that the weather was looking promising for the coming weekend and immediately thought this would be the only chance in 2016 to make the trip. I reached out to friends with kayaks to see who might be interested, knowing it was late notice, and even considering going it alone if need be. My friend Mat was enticed and we decided to make it happen.

We did this trip quite quickly, with an early Saturday afternoon departure we launched out of Cedar and traversed dead calm seas to Valdes.  As we arrived the wind came up and actually began to blow quite heavily from the northwest. This made for some beautiful cloud patterns for sunset and then a windy night. We shared the beach with just one other family who whipped over in a zodiac as the wind started up. Blackberry Point was beautiful as always and the trip was well worth it.  We grilled shish-kabobs on the beach for dinner and enjoyed the west facing view.

In the morning I managed some hammock time and did some reading before we made the paddle back.  The wind had ceased somewhat so we had a comfortable paddle back north west towards the island.  All in all,  a quick trip,  but an important one which fuels fond summer memories as the winter sets in.