Category Archives: Travel

White Squirrels, Red Birds and the Man in Black

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Team Galapagos has been enjoying a few days in Martin, Tennessee, my ancestral home. We came to celebrate my mother’s birthday, see family and to visit my old stomping grounds.

As you probably already know, Martin is home to the Tennessee Soybean Festival. I don’t have to tell you how important the soybean is to West Tennessee.

soybean-logo-wide1Here’s a fun soybean fact: One acre of soybeans can produce 82,368 crayons. There are probably some other interesting things about soybeans.

On the drive from Nashville to Martin, we stopped at a rest area just east of Bucksnort.  I mention this because the rest area had this photo above the water fountain.

The Man in Black

The Man in Black

I’ve been a Johnny Cash fan since I was a small child. This seems odd to me now and I think it worried my parents a bit but even then, I knew this was the music of my people. I don’t care for country music but I love me some Johnny Cash. Apparently, the folks that take care of the rest area are big fans as well.

I found another soybean fact: Elevators in the Statue of Liberty use a soybean-based hydraulic fluid.  That’s two interesting things about soybeans now.

Living in the Pacific Northwest,  we are surrounded by so much natural beauty that it is hard not to be a little stuck up about it.  Still, West Tennessee is not without its charm.  Even in winter, we are enjoying the crisp, sunny weather and the wide open fields. This is bottom country, with creeks and rivers cutting across the land and running towards the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers. The fields are bare for now, but this spring you can bet there will be soybeans as far as the eye can see!

Melissa and I have enjoyed seeing wildlife that we never see in Washington State.  As soon as we got to my mother’s house we spotted two beautiful cardinals

DSCN1522We have mockingbirds here as well but they seem to be laying low this time of year.

As we drove to Dyer for my mother’s birthday party, we got to see the fabled white squirrels of Kenton. For some reason, there is a fairly large population of albino squirrels in this community.  As we drove through, we were able to photograph a few.

The noble white squirrel

The noble white squirrel

It is an odd adaptation but I suppose the population thrives because their cuteness slightly outweighs the fact that they are incredibly easy prey for owls and hawks. Or perhaps they are the predators.  I took the photo below, barely escaping with my life after this guy charged me.

Lunging Squirrel with little sharp fangs!

Lunging Squirrel with little sharp fangs!

We will head to Nashville soon and spend some time with my sister there.  Then it is back to the rainy Pacific Northwest, where the birds are bald and the squirrels are gray.

Bumbling Bear Cove, Bedwell Sound

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If you sail up the fjords of Clayoquot you will be surrounded by incredible beauty. Mountains rise on either side; mists hang, shrouding tops of trees.  In the summer, the sky is blue and the weather can be fine. If you get the chance, it’s well worth the trip to travel up those fingers of water. It’s enchanting and we spent a bit of time just pinching ourselves because it felt a little surreal, all that magnificence. We know we got incredibly lucky on the weather. There is never a guarantee that you’ll have sun, much less that it will be so warm.

Sailing up Tofino inlet

Sailing up Tofino inlet on a hot, sunny day. It was one of the finest sails we’ve ever had.

The thing about sailing up those inlets that is worth knowing in advance, however,  is that there are precious few areas that are protected from the considerable winds that whoosh up from the ocean, and good luck finding a protected anchorage. By the time the wind gets to the top of the inlet, it has built up a nice head of steam and can be rather gnarly.  This is what happened each time we sailed up into the fjords in Clayoquot Sound. We’d have a lovely sail up the sound thinking we were going to anchor at the head where we could explore the river flats as they empty out into the salt water.

Another pretty view of Tofino Inlet.

Then we’d get there and two things would happen. First the wind would be blowing 25 knots, enough to make getting the sails down very exciting. Then we’d discover that we would have to anchor in at least 60 feet of water to have enough room between us and the land. Does that sound like fun to you? I know we are prone to ‘anchoring outside the box’ but no thanks. No rest for the weary and nothing to prove, we’d turn and motor into the wind back down the inlet, all in a good day’s exploration.  It is times like these I am grateful for Galapagos’ girth. She glides like a river queen; confident and strong.

Going up Bedwell Sound.

In Bedwell sound we knew that there would be a resort that took over the river flats at the head. They also took over literally the only decent place to anchor a boat. There was one spot on the opposite side that we thought would work as the depth was pretty good, but we tried twice and couldn’t get the anchor to set. There was an old wreck of a boat on the shore right there, so, perhaps that didn’t bode well for the holding power of an anchor at that spot. Frankly, it felt like solid rock to us. Still, we did try.

We were a little disappointed we wouldn’t be able to kayak around the flats, but on the other hand I’ll bet there are plenty of mosquitoes there and I had already been bitten enough to look like a toddler who’d crawled through brambles. I tend to scratch. Maybe giving that a miss wasn’t such a bad idea. Who knows what we could discover somewhere else?

The river flats at the head of Bedwell Sound.


This area, which is to port when you get to the head of the inlet, is where there would be a pretty good anchorage. Except now you’d have to anchor right by their dock. That seems a little unfriendly to us. We moved on.

Knowing we wanted to spend the night in Bedwell sound, we had been on the lookout for possible spots on the way up to the river flats. One had a smallish sand beach next to an eagle’s nest high in a dead tree. We headed for that but it was a no-go. Too deep, too close to crunchy rocks, too exposed even for us. No sleep would be had there.

Eagle in craggy tree.

I headed across the inlet to a group of islets we had seen on the way up, knowing that was as good as it was going to get if we wanted to anchor in the sound. Nosing our way behind a group of large rocks, we found the perfect place. About 45 feet of water, enough swing room for Galapagos to be comfortable and keep her butt off the rocks, and a magnificent view, plus it looked like decent kayaking. Pleased with ourselves, we dropped the hook.

Best. Anchorage. Ever.

As I was preparing for a little cockpit siesta and Kindle time, this happened:

Loved this so much!

And it just kept happening. Mom and baby nosed along the shoreline and, after checking out Galapagos per the photo above, didn’t give us another look. We were absolutely delighted. We had bear watching time for about 30 minutes, followed by more bear watching later that day and the next as two male bears made their appearances along the same route. The entire trip was worth it just for this place.

I’ve got a million of them.


Adorable!

This is an unnamed cove on our GPS so we’ve named this Bumbling Bear Cove. I don’t know if this counts, but we’re staking our claim here. And there is a very small cove next to it where a shallow draft small boat could anchor nicely. We think that one should be Cub Cove.

Shoreline of Cub Cove. You would, of course, avoid that rock.


Male that visited the following day.

Taking the kayak out onto the sound, I kept thinking to myself, ‘Here I am. In my kayak paddling on a fjord, watching bears from my seat on our sailboat. Wow. That’s amazing.’.  And I felt very lucky, indeed.

Looking up Bedwell Sound from the kayak.

 

Benson Island – Best of the Broken Group

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Better sit down so you can deal with the shock of what I’m going to tell you. Be calm. Don’t get up and walk out, stomp off, or slam doors about this. Just hear me out. I know it’s almost a sacrilege to say that the Broken Group, as a rule, just doesn’t do it for you as a cruising destination. But with the exception of Benson Island, this group of islands leaves me feeling a little ‘meh’. Whew. Glad that’s off my chest.

Tide pool at Benson Island. The colors are astounding, and unmolested by software. This is really how they look.

Compared to the Gulf Islands in the Salish Sea, these islands look like they just emerged from the depths last week. There is nothing gentle or time-worn about these lands. There are precious few landing beaches, but plenty of big hull crunching rocks. True, the water is practically sedate there it’s so protected. So, in terms of a quiet anchorage where you can lay around and read, they are very hard to beat up there on the west coast. But there isn’t a whole lot of variety among them. To me, they kind of all look alike. I can only do so much kayaking among giant cedar trees before I’m ready for something different.  Yeah, sacre’ bleu, etc.  I like the Deer Group so much better.

Except for Benson Island. There is nothing sedate about Benson Island. This is one wild and cool place where all your senses will be engaged. Put that Kindle down, baby, because we’re going ashore!

For your comparison. Jarvis Lagoon between Jarvis and Jacques Islands in the Broken Group. No place to go ashore here. Not even a little bit unless you want to clamber around on slippery rocks.

Another tide pool on Benson Island. I never get tired of them.

So happy to see purple sea stars living here!

This was our second visit to Benson Island. We visited in 2010 with our last boat, Moonrise, a Cal 34. The anchorage at Benson is small, with room for only a handful of boats and it’s not particularly well protected. There are many sharp and pointy rocks with big teeth, land sharks.  On the east side of the island is a cove with a sand and pebble beach complete with rocky tidal pools and the big driftwood people up here know and love.

View from Galapagos at anchor off Benson Island. Yes, fog coming in from the Pacific.

View from Galapagos at anchor off Benson Island. Yes, fog coming in from the Pacific. High tide. Ocean is around the corner to the right.

With wind generally coming in from the sea, you are protected from the worst of the wind and swells, but be sure of your anchor holding before you go ashore. We anchored in about 30 feet, give or take 5,  with good holding and with plenty of swing room. We were the only boat there. Although our holding was good, it’s exposed enough at that anchorage that we always felt better keeping an eye on Galapagos and were pretty relieved to find her where we left her. Anxiety is a bitch. (Just FYI for other cruisers, we never leave her unattended until we are certain she is staying put. Unless the wind changes. Unless the current changes. You know the drill.)

Galapagos in her natural habitat.

Once on shore you are in old growth forest and can take a path toward the beach between Benson and Clarke Islands. From there, if you are in the mood, you can walk and climb along this beach to the woolier side of the island where the rolling Pacific meets the shore. This path takes you through a clearing with sedges and grasses to the site of the Tseshaht village that used to stand here. The Tseshaht people consider Benson Island to be the place where their people originated, so this is a holy island to them and it feels every bit of it. Some of the cathedrals in Scotland brought similar feelings up for me.

Up and into the wild woods.

Since our last visit in 2010, the tribe has installed a lovely carving representing the First Man. As a tribute, or perhaps as an invocation, people have left gifts from the natural world at his feet. We thought this was lovely and wanted to participate, asking the First Man for his permission to explore the island and for his protection while we did so.  We found an empty paper wasp nest and placed this at his feet with thanks for allowing us to visit this beautiful place. When an island is full of spirit, it’s best to acknowledge that with a humble heart.

The First Man carving. He is really a handsome statue.

Offerings to the First Man. I hope his spirit appreciates the wasp nest we found.

When we were there five years ago, there was a sort-of trail that crossed the island, although I remember pushing through some rather dense and tall salal at one point. At that time, camping had been prohibited for only a year.  Five years later we couldn’t find any kind of trail that crossed the island. Now that camping is not allowed, perhaps they are letting the trail go. You can push through brush to trudge across the island if you want to, but we didn’t want to leave Galapagos for that long.  And we are 5 years older. Maybe that had something to do with it.

During our hike on our visit in 2010 I remembered that we had seen a lovely buck standing in the sunlight, filtered through the trees. He had been standing looking down at us as we walked along the ridge that crosses the island. I decided to climb up to the ridge, using shrubs and ferns as handholds, and see if I could find a trail in that area. Instead I saw his grandson. Or maybe his son.

He was completely undisturbed by my presence.

We are never overly concerned about predators in the wild, but we ran across this scat and wondered what could have left it. This is a small island and has an obvious deer presence. We wondered if something was keeping their population in check. Do you know what this is?

The larger piece of scat was maybe 4-5 inches long.

Something else precious about this island is that there are remains of petroglyphs on a rock outcropping near the anchorage. The outcropping is under the roots of a large tree.  In 2010 I discovered them as I was examining the rock and was completely taken aback when they kind of jumped into my view. I found them again easily.  They are a fascinating reminder that ancient people lived here. Archaeologists have determined that native people lived on this island as long as 5000 years ago.

Look closely toward the middle of the photo, a bit to the right.

Here’s a closer view. On the left/center you will see a salmon skeleton. On the right is a figure of a person.  Above and to the left of the salmon there is a sun. These are extremely faint and in person much easier to discern.

After checking into Ucluelet, a visit to Benson Island is a great way to start your tour of the Broken Group. But if you think the rest of the islands will be like this one, you’ll be disappointed. They are too protected, too new, and are not washed and scoured like Benson’s shores. Benson Island represents the best of the wild Pacific islands in this area, along with the Deer Group on the Bamfield side of Barkley Sound. Be ready for all your senses to tingle, and if the wind and weather is right, you’ll have a decent night’s sleep in this anchorage. Be sure to pay your respects to the First Man and give thanks that you, too, have the good fortune to visit this beautiful place.