Kayaking at Link Lake

February 24th (Monday) 

When we got up in the morning and looked outside, it was a beautiful, clear, still morning. We decided that today looked like it would be a perfect day for going kayaking on Link Lake. The forecast for the day had been for cloud and showers, but the day looked like it would be nice. We packed a picnic lunch, and headed out.  

Our kayaks had been deflated and packed up since December when we first came to Ocean Falls, so they were all ready to go, and we carried them up in their packs. 

Up at Link Lake we inflated them and headed out. It was a beautiful morning, even though a line of cloud had already begun to appear.  

Once out on the main lake we paddled northward in the sunshine. 

About one nautical mile along we met the wind line, and although it was not particularly strong, it had enough fetch to create a chop, and the wind sure made it colder, especially on our fingers. 

It was still beautiful, however, and we paddled on. 

Every change in angle as we paddled gave us a new view of the many majestic, snow-covered mountains. It was a beautiful paddle. 

We went ashore at the area of Saiuk Creek, on a patch of rocky gravel in among the driftwood. As we sipped our tea and explored the shore, Jason started looking for pieces of cedar that might, even at this time of the year, be dry inside. He found a nice one, and started using a combination of leverage and force to break it into pieces, and inside he found dry wood. Yay. He kept working on breaking up a couple of other pieces that he had found, and we moved our picnic site over a hundred yards or so to a beautiful little gravel beach area that was in the sunshine and protected from the nippy wind. It was a lovely spot.  

We got a fire going and everything was perfect. It was so nice to have a fire and a real picnic again, and to be out exploring some place cool.

A little before 14:00, after enjoying the heat from the sun and our fire, and having had our lovely picnic, we headed out again. 

We slowly made our way back along the opposite shoreline. We stopped at an area with a few old cabins up in the woods and went to explore them.  

One of them was completely collapsed, a second one was in the process of collapsing and was leaning quite dramatically, but the third one was still fully standing, and we carefully explored it. 

It had a beautiful, old wood stove inside that had been made is Sackville, New Brunswick. 

View from inside the cabin.

View from the porch of the cabin.

Old sink in the woods.

Further along the shore, on our way home, we came across a beautiful creek, and a large gravel and sand bar. 

The water around the bar was quite shallow for a long ways out, and we could clearly see that it was all sand. It would be a spectacular spot in the summer.  We stopped on the bar, and hiked up into the woods along the creek. 

It was a very beautiful creek, crystal clear and pouring over the rocks in a spectacular fashion.  

The first area of falls that we came to was not far up from the lake, and it was a whole wall of three separate waterfalls. 

At the base of the wall was a massive boulder sitting alone in a pool. We continued up the creek, and came across multiple sets of unique waterfalls. 

The rocks were a beautiful mixture of shades of red, black, brown, and orange, and with the surrounding green of the moss and trees it was a very picturesque place. Although we would have loved to have kept on exploring up the stream, we eventually decided that we should head back.  

Back on the gravel and sand bar we headed out once again, and made our way back to the boat launch area. 

We packed up our kayaks and hiked our way back home. Although the clouds had built up throughout the day, we had continued to have mostly sunshine until around 13:00. After that it was a thin cloud cover that continued to thicken until about ten minutes after we had gotten home, when it began to shower. 

It was a fantastic day!

Blair had given us a ripe avocado and a cucumber the other day, so we made California rolls and miso soup for dinner. It was delicious!