Paradise Found

 

Our 2005 two week trip to Canada was incredible, on so many levels...

 

(above) My traveling companions...

John Mellor and Jeff Chamberlain...

We are joined later by our Canadian friend, Clark...

 

(above) We've just launched Jeff's custom 15' Whaler...

Ready for the adventure to begin...!!!...

 

(above) Here Clark and John are heading away from the fishing village at the end of the road,

down a fjord, towards the cabin where we stayed...

 

(above) We follow our host Tim to the dock on "The Island"...

 

(above) The cabin above the ramp from the dock was the first cabin built on The Island...

 

(above) Inside it's not changed much since when it was built in the early '70's...

Propane lights and stove, cold water only...

 

(above) From the dock to Tim's cabin was a few hundred yards...

To cross the tidelands, Tim built this little bridge...

A bit shaky, but it beats wading the marsh...

 

 

(above) This is Tim's cabin...

Our home for eight days, while weathering storm after storm after storm...

The place swayed when the winds reached storm force...

Fully off the grid, but not lacking any comfort of home...

Wood stove heat...Solar powered electricity...

Propane hot water, refrigerator and stove...

Fresh water from roof run-off stored in two thousand gallon cisterns...

 

(above) The view out to sea, from the deck...

 

(above) The side view from the deck...

The uninhabited land to the left is a small First Nation (Indian) island...

 

(above) Inside the cabin...

A combination living room, with futons to sleep on...

 

(above) The kitchen / dining room...Tim is the guy on the left...

 

(above) From left to right...

Dan - full time island resident...

Squatting is Clark ...

Standing is Brian - another full time island resident...

With his back to the camera is Tim...

Leaning  is Jeff...

 

Rough History:

 Dan and Tim as kids, grew up as next door neighbors in Malibu...

Dan surfed, Tim surfed too, but was more into skin diving...

In those days, the most popular way to dive was to have a dive board,

basically a big surfboard that was frog kicked out to where you'd go diving...

Tim thought a kayak was better suited for that, especially if you wanted to go out a bit further...

 

In the early '70's Dan and Tim went on a road trip north, into Canada...

They went as far as the paved roads would let them...

Then they followed the dirt road as far as that went...

Next they paddled their kayaks out through the fjords until they reached the ocean...

There they found a small island...

They camped and went diving...

When they returned to the village at the end of the road ,

they did a records search to see who owned the island...

They made an offer on it and were now it's owners...

Dan and Tim moved to their island...

Uninhabited and undeveloped...

Over the next thirty years they created, using resources mostly from the island,

 their homes, workshops, docks, and outbuildings...

Dan and his uncle, started an oyster farm,

which became their income source, and they do just fine with that...

 

Tim took the early kayak concept, and brought it forward to what was then, state of the art...

He built roto-molded sit on top boats...

His founded a company, Ocean Kayaks...

Tim's products were largely responsible for allowing the masses to experience the waters with greater ease and safety than sit inside kayaks allowed...

Tim is to kayaking, what Hobie Alter is to catamarans, or Tom Burton is to snowboards...

 

(above) A site milled and built shop...

 

(above) A boat built in that shop...

Next project for construction in the shop: an ultra-light airplane...

 

(above) Dan's place...

Pond in front, satellite dish for the internet...

Here again is a site milled, hand built home...

Off the grid, lacking nothing...

 

(above) The inside of Dan's place...

The floors were the most beautiful floor's I've seen, and I've seen a few...

Check out the B&W print of Malibu on the wall...

Gloves hanging and drying on the beam...

 

(above) Dan wanted some help milling an old growth Sitka Spruce log,

 to make some replacement beams for his dock ramp...

Here, Dan and I are using his Alaskan Mill to make the first cut into the log...

 

(above) This is something you are not likely to find on any "eco tours"...

But it's a reality for those who choose to live their own lives, on their own terms,

in an often harsh environment, where the environment sets the rules...

 

(above) Dan is squaring up an edge of the first beam...

It's size is 43' long...6" thick..16" wide...

We made two, and moved them several hundred feet down from where we milled the log,

 to the tidelands to be floated, then finally towed by boat to the old dock...

 

(above) Using peaveys, rollers and log skids we mover the beams, all during a heavy rainstorm...

These beams weighted maybe 800 pounds each, maybe more...

From this tree, Dan is going to send me enough wood for me to build a hollow board for myself...With that I intend to come back next year and ride it off of these waters...

 

(above) We got out and went boating

 the protected inside waters to an old gold mining village...

 

(above) The mines have closed down, and fishing and logging have taken it's place...

 

(above) The harbor was full of commercial vessels...

 

(above) You gotta love a boat with attitude...

 

(above) On the way back to the cabin, a full speed run through a fjord...

 

(above) After nosing around some very ugly water in the open ocean,

 these moments of smoothness were pure bliss...

 

(above) The storms eventually ended,

and we were finally able to get out and do some surf exploring...

We found a sheltered bay where we set up camp...

Here you can see a wolf walking by our cooking area...

We set up our sleeping area about a thousand yards away,

up on a small bluff overlooking the bay...

 

(above) In the tree above our cook area was a Bald Eagle nest...

In the picture, there is one in the nest and one at the top...

In this area are more eagles than seagulls...

 

(above) During a hike one day, we came across this shelter, just off the beach...

 

(above) Further on down the beach, this waterfall dropped directly into the ocean at high tide...

 

(above) A lot of the coast is too steep and deep for good surf,

but there are areas of flat shelf reefs, some very long...

This particular is a bay, about a half mile wide,

with flat reefs on both sides, creating both rights and lefts...

High quality waves, on almost any swell...

Very pointbreak like...

 

(above) The line up at the top of the point, a small river empties out ...

It's a windy afternoon...

The surf during our trip, was mostly big, ugly and out of control,

or small, just hinting at it's true potential...

 

(above) On the way home...

We circumnavigated an island off of Canada...

The beauty of the region is off the scale...

Steep, densely forested mountains dropping into the fjords...

The water is in places 600 feet deep only a few hundred yards from shore...

Breathtaking...

This day was warm...The air temperature was in the 80's...

Paradise realized...

 

(above) Looking back on the way home...

 

 

Our two week trip was almost like a vacation from our planned vacation...

 

We didn't get the surf we hoped for,

but I for one, came away with a much richer experience

than a any surf only vacation could have given me...

 

To be able to experience life away from the grid for a couple of weeks,

and get to know those who've lived that way,

happily, for decades, is inspiring...

 

This trip also turned out to be a chance to look at the things in my life, which is very, very good...

 

In the end, what I came away with was that in my life there are some things I take for granted,

that I probably shouldn't...

 

I looked at what physical things I have and why I have them...

 

I looked at the values I hold and the reasons behind those...

 

I looked at the relationships I have and what they mean...

 

I'm sure this trip will continue to subtly impact my life for the better, long into the future...

 

 

I hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride...

 

 

Paul