For his very first sea kayaking trip, Paul Manning-Hunter wanted more than just a personal adventure. He wanted his trip to mattter. Nine days after entering British Columbia’s sprawling Great Bear Rainforest, he returned with the makings of a film that shared his concern and wonder for this threatened wilderness.
My kayak was full of water. We were over a mile from shore when I made this unsettling observation. Already overloaded with two hundred pounds of food, gear and camera equipment, I hadn’t noticed my shrinking freeboard until now. Through my dry suit, I felt something float into my thigh. With the waves continuously crashing over my deck, I called to Spencer and Daniel to raft up next to me. Pumping furiously, we bailed the frigid North Pacific only slightly faster than it poured in.
Reaching one of Douglas Channel’s scarce beaches, I carefully pulled my boat up on the slippery rocks to drain the flooded front hatch and cockpit, noticing the foam bulkhead between the two was not properly sealed. Still, I was thankful the worst was over. Then the bag containing our satellite phone and tide charts washed out, full of seawater.
With our primary means of communication destroyed (we carried an emergency transmitter for back-up) and our charts ruined, we had a difficult decision to make: return to the small Haisla community of Kitamaat Village where we had begun our trip just hours before, or continue as planned eight days into the remote coastal wilderness of the Great Bear Rainforest….
Check out the Summer/Fall 2013 edition of Adventure Kayak to continue reading their inspiring story. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here for free.
Click HERE to watch the film, Kayaking the Great Bear: A Search for Wilderness
