Barkley Sound/Broken Group-sparkling islands on the edge of the Pacific (36.158)

Itinerary

• Day
  1

  Our tours aim to exceed guest expectations by drawing on our 26 years of professional sea kayak guiding experience. To this end we place safety as our first priority with guest comfort, delicious gourmet food, natural interpretation and making the experience unique and rewarding as our next priorities. Situated on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Barkley Sound is a magnificent setting for sea kayaking. Explore the meeting place of the vast Pacific Ocean and the dense British Columbia forest. Our six day trip centers around the wild and spectacular scenery of the Broken Islands Group in Pacific Rim National Park. After meeting in the town of Port Alberni Sunday morning at 9:30 am, we drive 1½ hours west to our put-in at Toquart Bay, at the head of Barkley Sound. There we unload our boats and gear, and after an orientation session and lunch we pack up and prepare to head off to the Broken Islands. No previous experience is required as our two person kayaks are extremely stable and can be safely handled by beginners. Orientation topics include safety, handling, paddling technique, packing, group travel, adjustments to maximize comfort and environmental considerations. Once we are all set we strike out for the archipelago with our campsite options numerous and our viewscapes stunning.
  
  

  Meals: Lunch, Dinner

  Accomodation: Camping
• Day
  2

  Prior to paddling for the day, we go over the charts with guests and offer a warm up stretch to ease the muscles into the activity ahead. To further increase group comfort our overall itinerary has extra days built into it to allow for maximum flexibility and as many two-night camps as possible. Depending upon the location of our first campsite our goal this day will be to head further into the island group to establish a multi-night camp in an area that will allow for further exploration of the outlying areas. All of our campsite selections are chosen on the basis of guest comfort, esthetic quality, safety, ease of access and the facilitation of the general route for the week. Dinner this night may be sun dried tomato pesto on linguini with fresh salad or our “top secret” Mexican soufflé followed by a scrumptious desert, a returning guest’s favorite.
  
  

  Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

  Accomodation: Camping
• Day
  3

  The day begins with a savory breakfast of smoked salmon, eggs benedict, tea and coffee, after which we head out to explore the picturesque landscapes surrounding us. With our two night camp established we can now blend the calm of a holiday with the reward of day adventuring in our sleek craft. Our day will consist of poking about in some marvelous tide pools, investigating sea caves and if the weather allows we’ll venture out into the open Pacific Ocean to look for sea lions. This Broken Group is unique in that it offers both the serenity of quiet inter-island paddling with the dramatic feel of the west coast just on the other side of the outer islands. The day’s route can move from the glassy view through the blue water into the intertidal zone to feeling the ground swell from the Pacific. Again, moves are weather and condition dependent with the pursuit of experiences firmly based in safety.
  
  

  Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

  Accomodation: Camping
• Day
  4

  Being a potential “moving day” we now get to put our boat packing practices into action. Our day takes shape with a breakfast start, camp pack-up, boat packing, a warming stretch, our morning paddle, lunch on route and campsite selection in the afternoon.
  With any luck we’ll see a grey whale pass by or witness a bald eagle plucking a fish from the water as we sit quietly in our boat surrounded by one of the area’s marine rich kelp forests. Camp this night will be amongst the towering fir and cedars and with luck a speckled star filled sky above.
  
  
  

  Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

  Accomodation: Camping
• Day
  5

  With the day at hand we will explore a new area of the island group. After a few hours of exploration, including leg stretch beach break, we stop for a hearty lunch which offers a varied daily selection from different ethnic backgrounds. With luck we may get to witness wolf pups playing in the sun on the beach of an outlying island. At this point in the tour you will feel like an old hand in a kayak and relish the ease with which they can be paddled and the accessibility you can obtain by being able to move through water only five inches deep.
  
  

  Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

  Accomodation: Camping
• Day
  6

  Friday morning after breakfast we pack up one last time and head back, taking a scenic route past islets where eagles often sit waiting for fish to surface. We lunch on yet another white-sand beach, finally returning to our vehicles at Toquart Bay by around 2 p.m. Those who drove themselves may enjoy continuing west to visit Long Beach and Tofino for the afternoon or the weekend. We usually arrive back in Port Alberni by 5 p.m. allowing folks to catch an evening ferry out of Nanaimo.
  
  

  Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

  Accomodation: Accommodation by Customer