Indian Arm: Kayaking Right From the City
Some highlights:
– Indian Arm is located just on the other side of the city. It’s quite amazing how close it is – One literally leaves from town and ends up in this somewhat wild (albeit inhabited location). Many of the locals are supposedly somewhat weird (reclusive?), and many of them have outrageously huge houses. On the way back we saw a float plane land at one of them.
– Kayaking right up to Silver Falls felt magical. Maybe it’s the fact that the falls are located within a niche, somewhat hidden, so that you don’t see them until you are close.
– We saw a few seals. One of them was just a few meters away from Maya and I, and repeatedly slapped the water with his tail. Maybe it’s a mating call?
– We stopped for lunch at a beach near a weird abandoned hut. The windows were broken and there was lots of junk inside and outside. It’s too bad, the hut could have been a nice public hangout.
– We kayaked all the way up the inlet to its end and then continued up the Indian River until it was too shallow for us to continue. Here we found a small fire that was recklessly left there by some nearby boaters, which were probably drunk when they passed us. We then kayaked back to the campground, which is located on a large grassy bench, right by Granite Falls.
– Kayaks can carry lots of heavy food items, so dinner tends to be a luxurious affair, at least compared to hiking and backcountry skiing.
– The traditional dessert and alcohol potluck – we were all sugared out by the end of it, but there was still some left for lunch the next day.
– There were many small see through jellyfish in the water. Shuval was determined to take a photo of one with his waterproof camera. He actually managed to get one up on his paddle, but by the time he got the camera out it had fallen off…
– We had two beautiful sunny days with blue skies and almost no wind, pretty much perfect for kayaking (and napping).
– We rented 9 double kayaks and Phillipe brought his own single.
– Last year we rode our bikes from Squamish along a logging road (Stawamus-Indian FSR) that went up over a pass and down to Indian Arm (and returned the next day). In a way, this trip connected with that trip, since this time we started from North Van and kayaked to the same place we had camped, at the end of the inlet.
– This was the third annual VOC kayaking trip to Indian Arm. After three consecutive years, I think this trip has earned its place in the bag of traditional VOC trips, and I hope the tradition continues.
