A night with the hot women of Trinny Cove

Eight years ago I participated in  beach clean-up in Trinny Cove with Barb, Graham and Peter.  I was immediately struck with the potential it had as a camping destination.

Last May Brian, Dean, Terry and I paddled in the area and camped there but couldn't get into the pond behind the cobble bar because we arrived at low tide.  There wasn't enough water to get the boats up in the ankle deep water.

Last week Hazen proposed a paddle in Chance Cove which is a 100 km drive.  I'm not fussy about long drives to paddle and said so to my wife.  She suggested I camp somewhere overnight and split the driving over two days.  That was the green light and I instantly decided on Trinny Cove.

 
After a wonderful paddle with sea stacks in the Chance Cove area I drove the short distance to Fairhaven.  There was no wind at Chance Cove but when I arrived at Fairhaven a bit of a breeze was blowing in the harbour.  I wasn't deterred so I loaded my kayak and ...

... set off out of the harbour.

There was just a little lop with the occasional one lopping over the spray skirt.  With the kayak fully loaded she rode the small wind waves like a trusty steed.  I was feeling pretty good and pleased with my plan, particularly so when I ...

... spotted a large rock on top of the hill in front of me an hour out of Fairhaven.  I recognized it as I had climbed there last year and knew I had made good progress in spite of the breeze.

The kicker to the whole plan were the tide tables.  This year, on this day, the tide cooperated to allow me access to the pond upon arrival and would not trap me in the morning.  I paddled into the pond and ...

... landed at the far south end where I had the most protection from anticipated SE winds overnight and into the morning.

I had camped once before by myself after a trip to Keels to paddle among a fleet of icebergs but then I camped in a provincial park with people occupying other campsites.  This time I was alone practically in the middle of nowhere.  I wanted to find out how that would feel without sticking my neck out too far.

I got out of my reeking drysuit and put on a dry set of clothes.  I was beside myself with the giddy feeling of being here and the beautiful weather.  A light breeze continued to blow over the bay but I pitched my tent on the flat area behind and under the protection of the heaped up cobble beach so I didn't feel it.

I did a bit of beachcombing and picked up this fish tub that served both as kitchen and bar.  There was no one else around but I still held out hope that the women of Trinny Cove might drop by for a social. *lol*

The only regret I had as I was setting up was that I had arrived a bit later than I wanted to.  It was after 3:00 when we finished at Chance Cove so I arrived at Fairhaven 4:00ish and a speedy stowing of gear had me on the water by 4:30.  An hour later I was here but I felt a little rushed to get supper etc.  I would have enjoyed a bit more time in camp before the evening set in.

Finished supper I surveyed my supply of wood for my planned campfire.  There was no need to collect wood.  I could start my fire anywhere along the beach and just feed the fire directly from the wood laying about.  There was enough for a month or more of nightly fires.

I had no trouble starting the fire using tufts of dry grass.

I had a beautiful sunset.  The moon came out.  I was happy with how things were going and how I felt.  No question, I am not an island.  I very much enjoy the company of my kayak camping friends but this I wanted to do solo so I hope my friends didn't take it as a snub.

Confession to make here.  I let the fire start to get a little out of hand with sparks setting some the the nearby dry grass on fire.  I stomped that out and prodded the burning logs further away.  Had it gotten completely out of hand the wind would have driven the fire down the length of the beach consuming the wood as it went.  I had to restrain myself to keep the fire contained.  Nevertheless, there was good heat from the flames as it got colder with the setting of the sun.

It got darker so I scaled back putting bigger logs on the fire.  I was getting tired and didn't want to stay up much longer to watch the fire burn out so I just fed it smaller wood.

With the fire burned out I toddled off to bed.  It was cool in the open air but comfortable inside the tent.  Snug as a bug in a rug as I lay in my sleeping bag I reflected on the day.  It was a good thing I had concocted.

As far as the women were concerned, I was almost 100 years too late staying here.  Trinny Cove was sporadically settled since 1836 with the maximum population of 29 souls reached in 1901 and no census data for 1935 and beyond.  But, it made for a catchy title for this posting.