Sea Kayaking to Tree Island makes for an ideal 1/2 day trip

  by Keith and Heather Nicol

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 want to linger). 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. But this year we decided to launch from Argyle Road which is closer to Courtenay and offers a shorter, more direct paddle to Tree Island. The downside of Argyle Road launch point is that you need a high tide and wheels to help get your kayak to the water to avoid a long carry. The access is quite rough so not as easy as the Union Bay launch point. Remember that 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. Also bring a compass so that you can navigate back to your car at the end of the trip..the shoreline looks all the same from Tree Island and so you can spend quite abit of time searching for the put in path if you don't navigate back to the right vicinity.

On Monday, Sept 15 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  around 19 C 

the following wind made it quite warm on the return trip. Be sure to bring water! We saw no seals on our paddle but did see many Western Grebes. The tide was about 4.4 meters (which was the high tide for the day) and our trip took about 1 hour going over and 45 min coming back with the light wind giving us a boost on the return paddle.  We recommend this trip because of the sandy, shell beach at Tree Island and scenery but do keep an eye to the weather.See you on the trail.