PREPARATIONS

The only reasonably priced mode of transportation to north part of the island was the Greyhound buses, and this placed certain restrictions. For example, I had to choose Port McNeill as a departure/return point over a more convenient Telegraph Cove, since this was the only Greyhound stop in the area that I wanted to explore. A flip side of that was that I got a chance to see Malcolm Island, something I would have missed if starting from Telegraph Cove. 

I had an opportunity to talk to John Kimantas, the author of popular Wild Coast guidebooks and atlases -- must haves for exploring the ocean side of British Columbia. He had strongly recommended including Malcolm Island in my itinerary, as a place rarely visited by kayakers. Since one of my main goals was the photography, I had also included Johnstone Strait and surrounding areas for whales and other marine life feeding on salmon. I had scheduled my trip for the second half of summer, when the salmon run peaks and killer whales congregate in Johnstone Strait. Finally, I wanted to experience the ocean kayaking and decided to spend a few days among the small islands facing Queens Charlotte Strait -- a large volume of open water with winds and waves, but also with plenty of wildlife including birds and hopefully seals and sea lions. 

The old rule of thumb, that it takes at least as much time to prepare for the trip as the trip itself, held true. It took me a few weeks to get everything ready for the trip, with the last days getting progressively hectic as the time was running out. Finally, on the last day before the trip, I had assembled dry bags and tried to fit them into the inflated kayak. There were some leftovers, but the situation was not desperate -- it seemed that I could get almost all my stuff inside the kayak, while the remaining items would find their temporary home on deck, to be moved inside once the food consumption freed some space. Everything was packed and ready by the early hours of the morning.