Other Boats and Waterfalls

If there are two things that the Broughtons have a lot of, it's other boats and waterfalls.

For no good reason, we imagined the Broughtons to be a lot like the west coast of Vancouver Island - remote, rugged, beautiful and more or less empty. We anticipated going days without seeing another person and maybe seeing another boat every other day. Instead, the place is as crowded as the Gulf Islands. Every tiny nook is full of boats each night, the "destination marinas" aren't hurting for business and there are times when the inlets are so busy that a traffic separation scheme might be useful.

It was a bit of a culture shock the first few days, but now that we know what to expect we have been enjoying the beautiful scenery up here. There are tons of waterfalls, and we happen to be suckers for those. We spent a couple of nights at Kwatsi Bay, where there was a torrential downpour when we anchored. While this made for a sloppy time anchoring, it made the seven (yes, SEVEN) waterfalls we could see from the cockpit all the more powerful. In fact, the next morning the number had been reduced to only three waterfalls. How spoiled can you be?

We dinghied over to the marina there, and chatted with its proprietor who told us about a short trail through the forest to one of the falls. We were so eager to take the trail that we didn't bother to go back to Scream for the camera, which was too bad. The falls were spectacular and you can walk right out on the rocks to get the spray in your face. If you're in the neighbourhood, the trail head is on the north shore, just to the left of the marina, and it's marked by an orange fender hung from a tree at about head level. It's definitely worth the ten minute walk up, even if the ground can be a bit muddy and soft after a rain.

On the way to and from Kwatsi Bay, we passed by Lacy Falls, a gorgeous waterfall that has the advantage and disadvantage of coming down a sheer cliff face - you can't anchor there, but you can get your boat up real close. We took some photos from Scream on our way to Kwatsi Bay, and deployed Gone Fission to get the obligatory "boat with waterfall" photo of Scream.

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