We had planned for a 3 night, 4 day unguided kayaking trip in the Broken Group Islands. The Broken Group Islands are part of the Pacific Rim National Park, just outside of Tofino/Ucluelet area in Vancouver Island.
We had been passively watching the forecast but didn’t truly realize until the night before that it was calling for 60mm of rain on one day alone, and that a storm would be bringing dangerous winds. Our partners teased us about a 6:30am “conference call” we had the morning we were meant to leave, where we talked through different options and backup plans. The storm was due to hit Sunday, and we’d be paddling out Monday. Based on the marine forecast, Monday would still be spicy, but we knew the Broken Group would be protected and not as intense as the marine forecast. Should we assume half of the marine forecast would apply to the Broken Group islands? Just how protected is it? We could not find this information anywhere! We ultimately decided to just go and would call the lodge and adjust our plan based on their advice. We were ready for the fact that we may need to drastically pivot and change our trip, or worst case, not paddle at all.
We left in the afternoon on Thursday, taking the ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo. Of course, we spent the ferry ride on the outside deck looking for whales. Just as we were driving off the ferry, the lodge returned our call, but the person on the phone didn’t have any knowledge of sea conditions. We decided to carry on and figured that once we got to the water taxi, we’d be able to sort it out.
We had a beautiful drive to Ucluelet, where we checked into a super cute Airbnb. We grabbed pizza for dinner and brought it to Long Beach where we basked in the sun before heading back to our Airbnb to organize and pack our gear for the trip ahead.
We each had a “role” in planning this trip with Katrina booking the lodge and water taxi, Ali taking on the meal plan, and me taking on the kayaking route/logistics. It was a good combo of skillsets and we were able to re-use our planning/packing spreadsheet from last year’s trip to Desolation Sound. A good spreadsheet and bougie meal plan makes a huge difference on these trips! We also practiced self rescues with my TRAK before the trip, just to ensure everyone had some recent practice in the event of a capsize.
Day 2 – the adventure begins
We left our Airbnb and drove to Secret Beach where we’d be catching our water taxi to the Broken Islands Lodge to pick up kayak rentals for Ali and Katrina. I brought my new TRAK kayak with me – this would be my first kayak camp trip with the kayak and I was excited to see how it would go!
We got to the beach early and as we were unloading our gear, realized we left the cooler with our critical camp meals in the fridge of the Airbnb!!! This was so classic of us as we did the same thing in Sunshine Coast. Ali and Katrina raced back to Ucluelet, Tokyo drifting to try and get back in time for the boat pick up. Thankfully they made it just as the second boat was arriving!
When the boat arrived I tried talking to one of the lodge staff about how to interpret the marine forecast for the area. Unfortunately, they didn’t know either. It was a beautiful day so we decided to just go to the lodge and talk to the staff who rented the kayaks as surely they could set us straight. We had a fun boat ride to the lodge and were greeted by a black bear on the beach when we arrived.
When we checked in for the sea kayak rentals we finally were able to get the low down on the forecasts for the area. The marine forecast didn’t really apply, we were told to use Windy instead and they gave us advice on our paddling route, where we’d be sheltered and where we could expect some chop, and shared some points of interest to explore. We rented a laminated map and larger paper map as the laminated maps they rent out didn’t have the campsites marked on them. While we’d have phone service the whole trip, we wanted this information handy especially knowing we may need to pivot along the way.
After getting the sea kayak rentals and assembling my TRAK kayak, we loaded up our kayaks with our gear for the next 3 nights and took off. We intended to camp at Clarke Island, with Turret Island as our back-up plan. We anticipated 3 to 4 hours of paddling to make it to Clarke and the conditions were in our favour when we set off. We planned to monitor the weather for Sunday and Monday, knowing we likely wouldn’t paddle Sunday. And knowing in a worst case scenario, we could get a water taxi from several of the islands if the conditions got really bad.
During our paddle to Clarke we had two porpoises pop up super close to our kayaks! We were off to a great start. We stopped at Walsh Island for lunch – chicken burritos we had prepped before we left. We crushed those pretty quickly and pumped ourselves up on Pringles and candy before we got back on our way.
After crossing from Willis to Turret, the wind and waves started to pick up. Because the tide was still low, we couldn’t cross through to where the campsite was on Turret, we’d have to hug the shoreline for a while and take the longer route. As we moved up the shoreline the waves got larger and larger with whitecaps ahead. Given the experience level of the group and the fact we had all our gear in the kayaks, we bowed out and made our way back to Willis to camp there instead.
Willis island was stunning! The camp area was well sheltered from the wind, which we knew was only going to get worse, and there was no one else there. We took the best campsite and set up shelter. We were very stoked about our tarp engineering skills – we knew we were going to get a ton of rain and had a good angle for the water not to pool.
After settling into camp we had a fire and the classic steak, salad, mushrooms combo for dinner. It was a super successful first day!
Day 3 – paddling around
After an epic breakfast we ventured out to explore Turret island. The tide was high so we could explore quite a bit by kayak. We were tempted to paddle out to Clarke but it was cloudy and raining and we didn’t want to get stuck out there if the conditions changed. We stopped for a hot tea break and munched on some sea asparagus. As the day went on, Ali started feeling sick, the worst place to have a cold is in the rain and pushing your body to kayak. My wrist was also really sore, my paddling form had been thrown out the window apparently! We were falling apart but maintained good spirits, still having an awesome time.
Our camp lunch couldn’t have been better – tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. After being wet all day, warm soup was amazing. We had some cheeky birthday suit swims on our private island and chilled by the fire before another excellent dinner – smoke salmon, zucchini noodle salad and rice.
Day 4 – the rain
The forecast had changed with the storm moving from Sunday to Monday, meaning there was absolutely no way we could paddle back on Monday. We could spend the day in our tent Sunday and take the boat back Monday, or could paddle back in the rain Sunday and end the trip early. While the forecast had changed from 60mm of rain to 30mm, it was still insane and absolutely pouring. The conditions were ok to paddle in wind-wise but we would have been pretty uncomfortable with that much rain. So when the lodge emailed us to say they were swinging by Clarke to grab some other kayakers and would we like them to pick us up, we said yes!
We had breakfast at camp, disassembled our home, loaded the kayaks and paddled to the boat pick up location. We were cold in the rain while we waited and were so happy when the boat arrived despite having to walk out waist deep in the water to load the boat with our gear and the kayaks.
We had to ride back to Secret Beach to drop off the other kayakers before heading to lodge where a hot tub was calling our name. The lodge was great about moving our reservation up a day, and it turned out we were the only people in the lodge for the evening! We spent an insane amount of hours in the hot tub and enjoyed a hot, home cooked meal at the lodge. We were really glad to have ended the trip this way, the lodge even had a drying room we could hang all our gear to dry out before we had to repack our things for the millionth time.
Day 5 – return home
The lodge served us up a great breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sausages and fruit. The conditions on the water taxi back to Secret Beach were wild!!!! There was no way we could paddle in those conditions, the staff said it was the second worst conditions they’ve seen in their three years there.
We weren’t disappointed about the rain or change in plans at all – we had an absolute blast and will just need to come back.. but in the summer. It really felt like we had three trips with our night in Ucluelet and visit to Long Beach, our kayaking adventure, and then our relaxing night at the lodge.
Shout out to Katrina and Ali who are the best people to travel with and do this type of adventure with – we are always killing ourselves laughing and eating great food! I love these girls so much!
So how did the TRAK hold up?
I was really excited to not have to rent a kayak and take my TRAK on the first kayak camp trip. Since it packs down into a bag, I didn’t have to pay the extra kayak transport fee for the water taxi which was great.
I had no issues setting it up on the dock, but did realize it definitely doesn’t have as much storage space as a fibreglass sea kayak. You can fit the basics but there’s no room for the luxury bonus items. I could have strapped more to the outside of the kayak, but Katrina and Ali had extra space in their kayaks.
It paddled really well even with the weight of my gear. Feeling the movement of water through the vinyl skin of the kayak is always a really cool feeling. I did have to fight a little more without having a rudder or skeg during some chop, but I was used to that style of paddling having an Oru kayak previously. It turns out that the TRAK seat is way more comfortable, at least compared to the rentals Katrina and Ali had – their butts were numb by day two of paddling.
I did struggle with the sea sock, I felt like I was constantly fighting to get it in place and have it not wrapped around my legs. I know you can affix it inside to prevent that but given that I was often taking the float bags out to access gear, and constantly dumping the sea sock from all the rain, it wasn’t worth the time. I did hit up TRAK head quarters in Nanaimo on our way home to upgrade to the aquatherm sea sock which I think will be a significant improvement for my next trip.
Packing the kayak definitely took longer compared to just being able to throw it in the hatches and go. The other consideration was where to store food – usually we keep our food in the kayak, but I was worried mice would chew through the float/gear bags so we kept all food items in the sea kayak rentals. I think I’d need to consider bringing my BearVault cannister if I was to go solo somewhere.
Overall, the kayak performed great. The trade offs are definitely worth it for a kayak I can store in my apartment and travel with. I’m super stoked to go on more adventures with it and will eventually nail down the best way to pack it.
