I ate 28 cals of chocolate for each mile paddled — A Trip Overview
Breaking down my Inside Passage trip into the individual legs to give an overview to the specific route I took. Also: some fun stats and my favorite or most memorable camp site during each leg.
Overview
Below is the route I took: red is kayaking, blue is way back via ferry, purple lines are borders of US/Canada. Happy to share GPX tracks — DM me.
Some essential stats on the paddle (skipping the ferry section here):
- overall distance paddled: 1,176 miles
- total days (Orcas Island → Skagway): 52
- paddling days: 44
- rest days: 8
- weather days: 0 ;-)
- shortest paddle: 12 miles
- longest paddle: 52 miles
I ate a fair amount of chocolate along this trip:
- overall chocolate consumption: ~6.6 kg
- total calories from chocolate: ~33,000 cals
- chocolate calories per mile paddled: 28 cals
Leg 2 — Powell River to Port Hardy
Distance: 164 miles
Duration: 6 days
Summary: Wonderfully remote as I am avoiding (southern part of ) Johnstone Strait as long as I can, narrows, whirlpools, rapids, yikes headwinds, first time almost flooded at night, pushing through to make it to Port Hardy before the bad weather does. Yay.
Details: here
Leg 3 — Port Hardy to Shearwater
Distance: 140 miles
Duration: 5 days
Summary: Quick push to cross Queen Charlotte Sound just right before the storm, beautiful afternoon sheltered at Skull Cove while the wind is howling outside, passing Cape Caution at pretty tame conditions, followed by complete fog-out for the rest of the day. Big push to make it to the outside of Calvert Island, Wolf Beach, spending a gorgeous (and maybe the best day of the whole trip) in dynamic waters navigating through a maze of little islands in the Hakai Preserve, stellar beach camping, wolf prints everywhere for 2 nights.
Details: here
Leg 4 — Shearwater to Prince Rupert
Distance: 232 miles
Duration: 10 days
Summary: Longest wilderness and away-from-everything-stretch once past Klemtu. Not seen a human face for 5 days in a row and only talked to the imaginary bears. The most amazing collection of beaches and camp spots, rougher water, tailwinds, downwind surf, some sketchy moments, dodging the bad weather, my first consecutive days of rain, lack of visibility and kinda running out of food towards the end of that stretch. Probably the most memorable and amazing section of the whole trip!
Leg 5 — Prince Rupert to Ketchikan
Distance: 114 miles
Duration: 4 days
Summary: 2 days of Caribbean flair in Alaska on sandy beaches, nightly bonfires, skinny dipping, sunburns after 8pm, sunsets at around 11pm; paddled/camped with Joan and Jacob. Episodes of no visibility, almost got run over by a speedy ferry. Big emotions when crossing the CA-US border!
Details: here
Leg 6 — Ketchikan to Wrangell
Distance: 102 miles
Duration: 3 days
Summary: Whoopsie what an intense storm — 18 fastest miles of the whole trip just before the storm broke loose, spending of the day sitting under 2 tarps with Jacob and burning through piles of firewood, reading books, drinking wine to wait out the storm; big and super fun downwind surf down Clarence Strait the next day, got flooded for the first time now for real at night, followed by a 52 mile mega day, only topped by an amazing camp site on the floating dock next to a plane.
Details: here
Leg 7 — Wrangell to Juneau
Distance: 197 miles
Duration: 8 days
Summary: Magical paddling in icy waters of Le Conte Glacier, hard work along Frederick Sound (headwinds, unfavorable currents, limited camp spots, spring tides), lovely days on Admiralty Island (finally 2 grizzly bear, but in bear observatory), first time orcas sighting, and an awesome portage, then fighting the headwind in Gastinau Channel on way into Juneau.
Details: here
Leg 8 — Juneau to Skagway
Distance: 97 miles
Duration: 4 days
Summary: Glamping in Lynn Canal, last days on the trip, eating salmon cooked on camp fire, already saying goodbye to a wonderful adventure. Dramatic landscape with high mountains, waterfalls and glaciers around, many orcas sightings.
Details: here
