Sunshine Coast Trip Part 2: Egmont to Princess Louisa and Back

We pulled into Egmont, on the north end of the Sechelt Peninsula, to pick up Chris. He joined us on the ride up Princess Louisa Inlet and Chatterbox Falls - scoping it out for a possible sailing trip.

Unfortunately the smoke from the fires hazed up the sky and made it hard to see the mountains on either side of the inlet. It had cleared out some on our return trip, so I've put some of those pictures here to help show the beauty of this area: glacier capped mountains plunging right down into the sound and a valley ringed by waterfalls from the alpine uplands.

 

Going through the Malibu Rapids outside the Malibu Young Life Camp - no problem in the Whaler - but big boats need to wait for slack.

Waterfalls coming down off steep granite slopes - Yosemite for boats.

There is a dock and four campsites near Chatterbox Falls. We set up camp and went in on land for a closer look at the falls.

The next morning we took a "strenuous" (hands required) hike up to the Trapper Cabin and another beautiful waterfall. The kids did an amazing job. The woods were intense, definitely rain forest territory.

At one point we had to use a rope to climb up this section of the trail. This was Charlotte's favorite part of the whole vacation!

Reed found a cute, fuzzy caterpillar and named it Caty - he took care of it for nearly an hour.

Heading out on Wednesday morning for more exploring. We went all the way up the far end of the inlet. We were told there are lots of bears there in late August for the salmon runs. We didn't see any this time, though. But it was beautiful!

This is the head of the inlet - so green and so still.

We even went up the river a bit. Really cool wildlife scouting, but no wildlife!

We then went back south down the inlet and were hoping to find a camp spot near the Harmony Islets and Freil Falls. Unfortunately the camp sites had been swallowed up by the forest and we had to keep looking. We dropped Chris off at Egmont first, resupplied the Whaler with food and fuel, and headed out west with our fingers crossed.

Sunshine Coast Trip Part 1: Sechelt to Skookumchuck Narrows

Our big summer adventure this year was on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast (the south west coast of mainland Canada). We trailered the boat over the Horseshoe Bay Ferry to Sechelt (the big star on the bottom right of the map). We launched into Porpoise Bay and headed north, making a grand loop of the Sechelt Peninsula and a reach up to Princess Louisa Inlet, camping at the other marked stars along the way, before pulling the boat out on the ocean side of Sechelt and returning home.

The camera was on a funky filter mode and I didn't realize it at first. The pictures are pretty cool though! These first couple are from the sundeck of the large ferry we took.

 

Checking out the boat ramp in Sechelt - we had to share it with seaplanes.

 

Heading up the narrow Porpoise Bay. We then headed east into Salmon Inlet to hunt for waterfalls and a sandy beach.

  
Found Misery Creek Falls.

The beach wasn't quite available yet when we were there - we would have had to wait for low water.

Lots of seals (and a small camp spot) on the Kunechin Island group.

Now heading east into Narrows Inlet. I can only imagine how beautiful it would be if the clouds weren't blocking the mountains of the fjord.

We set up camp at Tzoonie Narrows - can you spot our tent under the mountain?

The next morning we woke up early and headed through the Skookumchuck Narrows at slack tide. All the tidal flow from the bay has to head in and out of this small opening, making for turbulent waters when the tide flows through. The standing wave here is so big that whitewater kayakers come out in droves to surf on it.

Even at a nearly slack tide, the waters were still swirly.