PGOSA Paddlers: Ladysmith Paddle Report

Ladysmith Harbour Paddle - the 30^th of June 2020

In attendance were 19 Slo-Mo Paddlers with 17 boats of which 15 were kayaks and 2 were canoes.


Practicing Safe Distancing at the Pre-Launch Meeting

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Getting Ready to Launch

The weather forecast called for possible showers and relative high wind gusts, but it did not materialize and became nice with clouds in the morning and sunny breaks in the afternoon with moderate to light winds. The wind at the beginning of the paddle was Northwesterly. We started paddling Northwest into the inlet along the southern coastline of Ladysmith Harbour past a couple of sawmills and Ladysmith Marina. On top of one of the sawmill’s “conveyer belt tower” was an osprey nest with young birds.

49th Parallel Marker

Further into the inlet we turned to the northern coastline of Ladysmith Harbour in a Southeasterly direction past Page Point Marina and later past several log booms, at this point the wind had turned in a Southeasterly direction. We then paddled between the Woods Islands and at this point we paddled past the 49^th Parallel marker. The area is very active with “logging activity” and we had to watch for logs being sorted into log booms. We then crossed the inlet at the Southeasterly point of Woods Islands to Transfer Beach Park where we had lunch. We had at this point only seen a few seals.

Sunshine and no winds

A relaxing day on the water

After lunch the paddling group split into two groups. The first group of 6 kayaks and 1 canoe went back to the launch site. The second group paddled towards the Dunsmuir Islands in a moderate headwind. Due to the high tide we were able to pass between the islands to the sheltered side which was calm and quite lovely. A mink was seen looking at us from the beach. After a little rest we paddled to the Northeast point of the islands and from there crossed the inlet back to the launch site.