Moody Inlet – June 25, 2020 – Dave W
We had five boats: Mike & Pam, Anya & Leigh, Shahram & Kathy, Christine & Serrat, & Dave. April could not come as she was doing her laundry.
The original plan was to meet at the Belcarra Picnic Area Parking Lot. But evidently, the rest of Vancouver had the same idea, and we had nowhere to park. Pam, stationed atop a hill, was able to flag down each of our wannabe paddlers and marshal them to the roadside. I checked out an alternative put-in, and we all met again at a pocket beach off 1st Ave and Ioco Rd.
A warm evening, just cloudy enough to blur the setting sun, the wind was just strong enough to blow our boats sideways if we missed a stroke. We paddled against a rising tide; although the current was not readily perceptible, the eddies helped all who believed in them.
We paddled past Admiralty Point, and stopped at a beach just inside Belcarra park. After looking for clam shells and finding them underfoot, we returned to our boats for the journey back.
Seals abounded, and I was impressed, for I have never abounded before. Shahram went solo for a while. I got a sore foot. Anya offered to lend me her crutch.
At the take out the tide had come up, corralling all the beachgoers onto a single ledge. They seemed to be in the beginning stages of a party. Crowded and festive as they were, they lifted our boats overhead the way a crowd floats a musician overhead at a rock concert. Our canoes were magically conveyed to the parking lot above.
We were very thankful for the help; Serrat thought, cleverly, that we should return again, the same place at the same time of night.
Before departing, we reminded each other that this pleasant evening had begun as a pickup trip on an email thread, and that anyone who wants to propose or organize an excellent adventure need only look to our club contact list or latch onto one of our many crisscrossed messages and threads.