Day 3 - Rum Island

It seemed too good to be true, but we were greeted by another glorious sunrise. I had slept well during the night despite the nagging worry of zombies (grin). We had a much more leisure morning routine as everything was dialed in from the previous day, and we where also waiting for the mid-morning flood to take us north to Rum Island.

During the WCSKS Jason had spoken with the officials of the Canadian Park system and they had suggested Rum Island (or Isle-de-Lis as requested by Mrs. R.M. Nelson who bequeathed the land to the province when she passed away in 1978) as worth a stop. It’s located just to the SE of Turn Point on Stuart Island. Jason explained to me that the island got its name during prohibition as a cache for Canadian bootleggers. Well, that’s all it took to convince me to pay it a visit.

We where a bit unclear on where the campsite was located on the island, but approaching from the south we really didn’t see any place that afforded a take out, so we doubled around to the north side. It turned out that the landing beach is indeed on the north side, with the campsites located back over on the opposite side of the island. Originally we weren’t to keen on hoofing all our gear back to the south side, but one look at the campsite convinced us it was worth the trouble. There are 3 raised pads situated around a small cove of basalt with plenty of privacy. Of course, we were the only ones at this time of year taking advantage of the beauty, but even during the peak season I imagine you’d still enjoy plenty of wonder here.

After securing camp we scouted the outer edge of the island and made our way to the east end of the island. The shipping channel edges right up next to the island and it was something to see the large freighters passing by so closely. I think it had to be the best night of the whole trip. We watched the ships disappear to the south of us headed to port unknown somewhere in the pacific, stars and evening lights showing up to the east of us back in the states, and a beautiful sunset to the west over the city of Sidney, and seals playing at our feet. Later we topped the evening off with Jason’s delicious Dutch oven lasagna.

The weather forecast called for patchy morning fog, which would have played havoc with our re-crossing of Haro Strait. Even with unlimited visibility it was going to require some ‘paddling with purpose’ as our view to the north was limited by Turn Point. However, the forecasted fog was absent when we awoke and, keeping we made the crossing back with no issues. Coming back into Roche Harbor, I think we were both reluctant to let the trip go and get back to the grind of day to day living, but we’ll be back; and soon.