Sunday, August 9, 2020
We were slated to be in Parksville in May for a family getaway. It is a trip that we have made the past few years in the spring and we were looking forward to it this year too. Until a little thing called coronavirus sparked a global pandemic and changed our plans amongst a few other things.
We debated still going on our trip with our rationale being that we would have minimal physically proximate interactions on our trip aside from purchasing groceries. In the end, we decided to postpone our trip as it was a sacrifice we could easily make and definitely was not essential travel, which at the time were the restrictions in place as per the public health officer’s guidelines. Fortunately, the host that we had booked with offered to give us a deal on their summer (i.e. high-season) rate. We took them up on the offer and it turned out that the summer there is better than the spring. Who would have guessed it?
We also decided to stay a bit longer. And being not able to extend our rental in Parksville we ended up booking a place near Qualicum Bay to start our vacation. The place was beautiful and a stone’s throw from the water. There was a large grassy area leading up to the beach. Both perfect for young children. The beach here is rocky so it is more of a rugged-explore-style for young kids but it was great. And it was the perfect compliment to a sandy shore beach when we changed locations to Parskville and frequented Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park.
Below is the view north from Qualicum towards Denman Island (leftmost), Hornby Island (centre-left), and Texada Island (background right).
But enough about the minutiae, let’s talk paddling.
Stoked to check out the water scene I was up early on Sunday morning. I had checked online the night before for some places to go but I figured the easiest thing was just to head up island, northwest, and see where I could get to. Denman? Hornby?
I was able to get an amazing start to my morning catching the sun rising over the top of Lasqueti Island.
It turns out I was a bit too ambitious in my prediction. The water was pretty calm to start but eventually, I was battling against some headwind and the tide.
I paddle out for just over an hour before turning around to head home for some breakfast and family time.
But with the water so near, essentially in my back yard, it was the perfect time for two-a-days. I played varsity basketball in university and that was the term we used for early season when we would do two practice sessions in a day: conditioning drills in the morning and skills/practice in the evening. So after the boys were down after a big day of beach play I was off for another sunset paddle.
This time I paddled down island heading southeast.
On my way back I was paddling off into the sunset.
In my haste to get out on the water a second time, I missed starting up my activity tracker so the recording below starts a third of the way across the cove.
I SUP Explore 