Canoe with a View : : Canadian Open Canoe forum

As any could imagine, the local outdoors community out here leans heavily towards climbing and hiking, and on the west coast, canoers like myself are a rare breed.

Needless to say that when the tides are high, and I put out the invitation for a marsh paddle, my three canoes are never enough to accommodate all. Here then is Sunday night, and the second paddle to last till 2am in a row.

The first order of business is always to get into the marsh from the put-in, this involves passing by all the houseboats that lead you into the narrow Ladner harbour, then because of the high tide, a few overgrown grassy paths open up like passageway to Narnia and find yourself in complete isolation only 5km from where we put in.








The narrow passage way into the marsh.



Once in the marshes, you are quite alone despite your proximity to civilization, yet another reason I wonder why these marshes are so undiscovered as a local paddling secret.





The higher the tide, the tougher it is to get under this bridge...



Once through the bridge and down another small passage way, there is a wide pool that is always a favourite refreshment and snack stop for me.



A shot of me pilfering some raspberry cider from my bow paddler.



There is an old section of bridge here, just about ten feet long, probably from an old hiking trail before the marsh reclaimed this land. I used it to get out and observe everyone else horde the snacks with out me.





Claire, new to canoeing, thought she'd try out my 18' 6" Mackenzie solo, dont tell anyone but shortly after this shot was taken she rode up on a floating log and dumped the herself and my canoe. The first time anyone has ever dumped a canoe in the marsh in my 20 years of paddling there



After we got Claire into some dry clothes it was getting dark so it was time to head back to our spooky barn on the forbidden island where trespassers are forbidden.



When the moon came out along the way, it was low on the horizon and a bright orangy red, I had to crawl out of my canoe and into the bull rushes to take a shot though, I love this time of year!



The next worthwhile mention was this owl we came across standing atop a dead tree directly over our paddling path, I wish I could have taken a better picture of her but it was dark out.







Once we arrived at our spooky barn, we didn't hang around inside for long, this time the bats were home and just beginning to wake.



A last trip out to the wood shed, we found one more winged fellow checking us out in the dark, although this one was decidedly cuter.



Once again, we got off the water at 2:30am, but it was well worth the sleepy eyes the following morning.

Reason for edit: Fixed image size

Even better than part one Andrew some great pictures there I like the relaxed paddling style, must practise more of that myself.

Thanks again Andrew for sharing with us your trips into the Marshes, love the 18.5 Clipper (Want One) like the wild life shots, as Retro said a relaxed paddle Style, just up my street.
Thanks once again, in the meantime Happy Paddling, Best Regards Bill