Trip #4 - The Gorge
| Planned on going back towards downtown Victoria's inner harbour area, but turning left at the inner harbour and heading west
toward Victoria Harbour/West Bay to check out the condition of
the seas as our kayaks are designed for flatwater, not sea kayaking or
whitewater... Well - we forgot to check the tide tables... and that "nonsense"
about the tide making it difficult to get through the narrow bit under the Tillicum Road bridge
turned out to be deadly serious stuff. |
Tillicum Road Bridge
~ a tidal nightmare ~
|
Of course we tried anyway (in a not
too smart way - well duh) with (naturally) about 300 people on the banks
watching a high-profile & historic swim event. We might have done better
trying a portage on the right side, but a lame "tow & drag" on the
left side in the reversing rapids of the Gorge narrows was just plain stupid thinking. As relatively inexperienced
kayakers, just wanting to get past hundreds of unexpected people and on with our
trip was foremost in our minds, and what should have been foremost was safety
and planning.
| So you know this is just one of those
days that we're sure will be very funny to think back on... some day.
(Okay we're not that sure, but we hope.) Not
to worry, Mark says he's been hurt worse before and I did get to dry off when I
got home, so we'll live to paddle another day.
NOTE: If
you want to view the interactive map
on the mapquest.com site, just click this one.
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