Sea kayaking up the Courtenay River

By Keith and Heather Nicol

Launch ramp

    We recently did a sea kayak trip up the Courtenay River and were fortunate to see  2 merganser families enroute. We like sea kayaking in part because it is good exercise, gives us a water view of the landscape and also is a good way to see various types of wildlife from sea lions to bird life.  We launched from the Courtenay marina (20th Street and Riverside Lane) which has parking available nearby for 15 to 20 cars (the coordinates are 49 40.909 N and 124 59.068 W). If you are going to paddle up the river it makes sense to do it on a high tide since that will reduce to effort of paddling against the current.  On this day (Friday, July 26) we went in the afternoon and the tide was about 3.8 meters. 

Family of mergansers with a little one on mom's back

     The launch ramp is steepish and is one of the few local ramps that is mostly by just canoeists, sea kayakers or paddleboarders.  One main reason for this is that Comox Valley Kayaks and Canoes is located nearby and they use for their rental programme and guided trips.  After leaving the small marina we turned left and headed up river (you can also turn right and head downstream and out in to the Courtenay River estuary).  The Courtenay River starts where the Tsolum River meets the Puntledge River and it was our goal to see how far up the Tsolum we could get. You pass under 2 bridges and just before the 5^th street bridge we saw a family of mergansers with a small one perched on its mother’s back.  It was quite the sight and they cooperated long enough for us to get a quick picture.  

We managed to paddle about 200 meters or so up the Tsolum

 

    After Lewis Park the current begins to become stronger and we passed tubers floating downstream and swimmers cooling off.  The junction of the Puntledge and Tsolum is quite obvious and if you want to head up the Tsolum go right. We managed to paddle a couple hundred meters up the Tsolum until an area of shallow water prevented us from going further. Total distance one way according to my GPS was about 2.7 km and it took about 45 minutes. We saw another family of mergansers on the way downstream but these chicks were much larger for some reason.  Sometimes it is nice to do a paddle right in your backyard and this one fills the bill, especially if you can see some wildlife upclose.

Heading down river with the 5th street bridge is the distance

Here is a short video of kayaking up the Courtenay River