Aug 13 - Nuttal Bay to Mistaken Island Trip Report

 

Nuttal Bay to Mistaken Island Trip Report – Aug 13, 2024

A fine time was had as the paddling group explored the Beachcomber/Nuttal Bay area on this week’s paddle.  Staying local and viewing some of the Oceanside area from the water gives one a whole different perspective of the beauty and development of what once was a beach vacation area with small summer cottages and lots of empty forested spaces.  Now beautiful houses populate the completer shoreline and one can see the luxuriousness of our waterfront area!

 

North of Beachcomber is Mistaken Island and it remains private, unpopulated, with the only residents being the Walker family who have lived on it since the late nineties. 

 

Was it a MISTAKE to reside on a deserted island that get windswept and water crashed during the winter storms?  Not so says Mrs. Walker who took a few minutes to talk to one of our paddlers. 

 

Challenging, isolated and very quiet and serene most of the time…..but it is the lifestyle they chose for their family and they enjoy the peacefulness!    They raised three children who are now grown with their own families and visit their “vacation house” they built on the island regularly during the summer months.

Living at the north end of the island on a smaller rocky outcropping are families of harbour seals.  They are there year round as that is their home and by the size of some of big males there must be no shortage of available food. 

 

Lunch at Wall Beach

Wall Beach

Sea Lions, which migrate in the spring to southern waters of Oregon/California have not returned but will soon start to arrive.  One of their favorite wintering spots is the log booms at the head of Northwest Bay.  Mosaic operates a log dump and booms up the logs and keeps them in the water until they get sold. 

  

Beachcomber Regional Park

Lots to see on this paddling trip without having to leave our home area and the cooler cloudier weather was a welcome relief from the broiling sunshine of past weeks.

We paddled approximately 13 km on this trip.

 

Jim Powell – trip leader