9th Juan de Fuca Venturers

 Loading the canoes at Fair Harbour, August 30, 2009

 Melissa looking fantastic as always! Of course it's only Day 1...

 Everybody finally on the water by 9:30am (only 1 1/2 hours later than planned).

 Lunch break in a little bay on Copp Island.

 Views from hill on Copp Island

 Travis, Frankie

 Beach treasures

 Arrived Rugged Point on Wednesday, Sept. 2. Beautiful place with huge sandy beaches and great places to set up camp. Even discovered a kitchen shelter and an outhouse! Lots of huckleberries and salal berries to snack on.

 A short trail from the campsite takes you across the point to more beaches on the other side. It is much more exposed to the ocean here.

 Ina on the boardwalk trail across Rugged Point.

 Kate swimming in an icy river. Nice to get in fresh water and rinse the salt off.

 Travis in the river.

 Travis and Jay found some abandonned lawn chairs to relax on while the girls had a swim in the ocean.

 New dance Frankie?

 Kate jumping for joy.

 Surf on the far beach.

 We hiked for a couple hours along the beach.

 Driftwood shelter

 Melissa saving Frankie from the Kelp monsters. Probably they wanted to steal her and make her their Queen!

 Sand dollars everywhere.

 Posing for our picture with one of our shiny red Hellman Prospector canoes.

 Wolf tracks were everywhere. We saw one place down the beach from our campsite where wolves had chased a deer and fawn. Don't know how that ended as the tracks disappeared off into the forest.

 These ones were bear tracks, and having walked the same bit of beach just 1/2 hour before, we know they were very fresh.  We saw 3 bears on our trip, one from the canoes and 2 more from the car on the way home. Signs of them were everywhere though, and we took precautions with our food. We also carried bear bangers and bear spray, but luckily didn't have to use them.

 Tidepools at Rugged Point, outer beach.

 Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009. Very stormy on the outer beach today. Our campsite was much more sheltered.

 Big wind!

 Kate, Frankie and Mel bonding. Or maybe Travis velcroed their heads together or something...

 Jay, fearless leader.

 Leaving Rugged Point mid-afternoon Friday, Sept. 4.

To see the photos in a larger size go to the Adventrek folder on the Photos page.

Check out our Challenge page on The Big Wild:

http://www.thebigwild.org/challenge/adventrek-2009