by
Keith and Heather Nicol
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| Paddling toward Tree Island |
Tree
Island is located off the northern tip of Denman Island and makes a perfect
half day paddle (or longer if you plan to explore the island or camp over night).
We do the trip on an annual basis and usually launch at the Union Bay Boat
launch. This makes it easy to launch
your kayak and there is a large car park for your vehicle (GPS coordinates
are: 10 U 0363691 E 5494107 N). Be sure
to drop your launch fee money in the box. From here you can’t quite see Tree
Island but as soon as you take a few paddle strokes out of the harbour it looms
4.4 km in the distance. Since it is an open water crossing you want to factor
in the weather and wave conditions and be competent at doing a self rescue if
you run into trouble.
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| The beach is a mix of shells and sand |
On
Sunday, August 9 the wind forecast was for light NE winds which made for a very
pleasant trip to Tree Island since the breeze was in our face keeping us cool.
Although temperatures were in the low 20’s C
the following wind made it quite warm on the return trip. Be sure to
bring water! We saw a fleeting glimpse of a dolphin along the way as well as a
sea lion that popped its head up just in front of our kayaks but other than
that we saw very little wildlife. There were several people camping on the
island including one person who had paddled from Union Bay on a paddle board
with all of his camping gear! The beach is full of shells and we even found
some sand dollars. We had an enjoyable lunch on a log and spent some time
walking some of the short trails and along the beach before we paddled back. We
recommend this trip because of the sandy beach and scenery but do keep an eye
to the weather. Allow about 1 hour each
way for paddling depending on wind and wave conditions.
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| Checking out the airbnb offerings on Tree Island |
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