Keats Island: From Kits to Keats

It was time to try camping with Kai. The forecast looked good, we had just purchased a four person tent and we had a destination. We decided to head to Keats Island, a place we had wanted to explore for a while. After a bit of research we decided there was really no point in bringing our bikes and that decision made our life easier. We packed two backpacks, put Kai in the carrier and off we went by bus. Our timing wasn’t perfect – we left Kits a bit too late and we arrived with just a few minutes to spare before the ferry to Langdale.  We had to load with the rest of the late passengers via the car deck but at least they let us on.

In Langdale we transferred easily to a very small passenger-only ferry. Even though we weren’t that far away from Vancouver, it felt like a different universe. Beautiful islands all around and calmness and quietness you can’t get in the city. The boat made a few stops, until finally stopping at Keats Landing, where we unloaded. Everything was good except Kai was behaving a bit differently. We soon realized he was not feeling well. He spent most of the day sleeping or crying, and wanted to be hugged or held all the time.

The way to the campground at Pumper Cove is short – about 2.5 km, mostly a hiking path, but we still somehow managed to get lost. A critical junction was missing a sign and we took the wrong turn, which led to houses by the water and not to the campground. Not having a good map didn’t help. When we finally realized that we had made a mistake, we had to backtrack almost all the way to the beginning of the trail. Since Kai was so needy I had to carry him, in addition to my backpack. Gili had to walk with Neil who was getting tired from all the going back and forth and it took them quite a while to reach the campground. When we arrived, we found a nice hand-drawn trail map of the island pinned to the notice board.

We set up our tent, which looked like a villa to us. We are used to our three person tent and this new four person tent felt like at least six of us could fit in it. Kai was very sleepy so I just held him for a couple of hours and Gili and Neil went to explore the beach where a few children were playing. When I came to meet them at the beach I saw a familiar face. It was one of my former instructors from Kids on Wheels from last summer. She came on a sailing boat with her family. The boat is actually a part of a sailboat co-op which we hadn’t heard of but we liked the idea. Funny, to meet someone I know on such a tiny island.

During the night I had to basically hold and hug Kai all the time. It wasn’t too bad because at least he was sleeping. In the morning we discovered that some sort of critters got a hold of our food and it was scattered all over our site. We were seriously debating whether to head home a day early, with Kai not feeling well and our shrunken food supplies. But Kai seemed to be doing much better and was mostly back to his usual self, happy and smiley. We figured we had enough food to stay although I was upset I hadn’t just finished my chocolate portion the day before, which was now gone. 

After a lazy morning we hiked to the highest peak of the island, Lookout Peak. It was a nice hike, a good distance for Neil and the rest of us who haven’t hiked in a long time. We had lunch at the ‘summit’ and I also managed to get a quick nap. Then we made our way quickly back to camp so Neil could play more at the beach.

Even though Kai was fine during the day, the night was very tough. This time he was just crying a lot and couldn’t be comforted easily. The good thing though was that it barely affected Neil and he just slept through the night. The other good thing was that together with the tent we also bought a new double mattress which Kai and I shared. Camping just reached a higher level.

Our hike back to Keats Landing was dominated by a search for slugs. It was a great way to get Neil to hike quickly since we had to catch the 11:15am ferry back to Langdale. There were many slugs of various sizes and Neil had lots of fun trying to find them along the trail. On the ferry dock we went to explore the many purple star fish we saw when we arrived.

We had to wait in Langdale but it is something that we are used to already. It was nice to arrive back home, to Kits, still early, but all of my attempts to take Kai to the doctor on the same day failed. Eventually I had to take him to Children’s Hospital the next day. It turned out he had Bronchiolitis, and there wasn’t much to be done about it except to wait. He was back to normal after a few days but we had a few rough nights…