Shelter Inlet to Cow Bay, July 15th 2009.

Two trips to the hot springs in the last few days was enough for me, so I slept in with everyone else. We planned a short day back to Cow Bay, did not have to hurry and were to launch at 11:00 AM. At 11:15 I launched alone and started out. I took my time, went behind every rock and into every crack. I kept looking over my shoulder but didn’t see anyone catching up. After two hours I stopped for lunch and still no-one caught up with me until I finished my snack and launched again. Then a group of three rock gardeners (Dave Harry, Doug Hamilton and Don Barch) came out from behind a rock. They had stopped for lunch one cove away from me.

Don (“no long crossings”) Fleming and the rest of the crew turned the day into a long crossing by going from point to point offshore. Those of us hugging the shore still caught up with them before the south end of Flores Island. This time I went through the slot instead of portaging across the narrows. We went northeast through a shallow rock garden and back to our old campsite at the end of Cow Bay. But we didn’t camp in the same spot in front of the piles of smelly kelp. We camped across the creek on a clean sandy beach.