June 20, 1999

Stuck in the Brokens with only 13 liters of wine

Six of us spent six days in the Broken Group, Barkley Sound, launching from Toquart Bay. We hoped to "beat the crowds" by making use of a little window of decent weather which slid in before most of the rest of the world was free for the summer. We succeeded -- but did not have enough wine -- perhaps a benefit to our livers, but not our dispositions!

We spent three nights at THE primo site on Clarke and a night each at nice spots on Hand and Gibraltor. Few others competed for our tent sites, running about 10 persons per night where we camped -- a small number of bodies -- although we heard of crowding on Willis and Gilbert. The only crowding we experienced was a horde of over 20 bald eagles feasting on a couple really ripe sea lion carcasses in a small cove on Wouwer. Never did figure out the pecking order, though there was plenty of vocalizing by the mature birds!

Generally, we had decent weather, with three days mostly sunny and two mostly rainy/misty. On our exit day, a stiff 10 - 15 knot westerly breeze greeted us on the Toquart-Stoppers crossing, a challenge for our less-experienced paddlers. Even so, the never-been-in-dicey-conditions grampa (63) made it in style, breaking the cherry on his Pygmy Queen Charlotte XL with aplomb and a way-laid-back stance in the cockpit. Our high-maintenance paddler had no trouble and no one wanted to lay paddle down to jabber on the radio.

The evening of our exit, the young pups (two Bellinghamsters and the queen of Astoria) managed to dump our ER doc on a boomer off the west end of Gibraltor. No harm was done, aside from a lost camera and a damaged male ego, thanks to excellent training in George Gronseth's kayak academy. Bow-to-bow rescue had him back in his boat within 2 minutes. Five minutes afterward, he was pumped out and paddling! Many thanks to George's fine instruction and rescuers Linda and Belinda.

Otherwise, we had an uneventful trip. At present (6/18), no warnings have been issued for PSP contamination of shellfish, so we enjoyed mussels galore to replace the flank steak that got left at home.

The scuttlebutt from the fare-taker was that Benson is slated for some degree of closure, maybe just for overnight use, perhaps related to possible archeological studies (?). We could not verify this. 'Twould be a shame, as the campsites on Benson were in exceptionally good shape, as was the spouting horn on its west shore.

Fishing was very mediocre, though I caught a couple sub-legal ling cod. A 65 cm minimum length for keepers makes for a lot of catch-and-release fishing. Recommended: barbless hooks for those seeking lings.

Great trip, greast place.
---
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR

Copyright 1999 by Dave Kruger.
May not be reproduced or redistributed without author's permission.
Originally posted on Paddlewise mailing list on 6/20/1999.
Republished here with permission.