Barkley Sound
British Columbia
Lucky Creek: Luck's Got Nothing To Do With It
Friday, September 06, 2013TheCambrians
There’s not a lot written about Lucky Creek in the local cruising guides (Douglass only mentions it in passing); but if you happen to stumble across somebody who’s familiar with the area, the reaction is always the same: “it’s a must-see!” We can now officially add ourselves to that group. And for good reason.
We left Effingham Bay late yesterday morning and made our way back toward Vacouver Island, anchoring behind Refuge Island near the mouth of Pipestem Inlet. The anchorage itself is nothing special. It’s large with plenty of swing-room for several boats, but shallows quickly towards the head of the bay. The holding is good and there’s protection from the prevailing northwesterly winds. What is special about the anchorage is its location – just around the corner from Lucky Creek.
The entrance to the creek is narrow and, according to the chart, dries at low tide so it’s advisable to time your trip in and out close to high water. We entered an hour before high tide and had plenty of depth. In fact, we wished we would have gone in earlier to make the most of the mid-afternoon sun.
Lucky Creek
Lucky Creek Falls from the creek side
The dinghy trip was beautiful: The creek winds through a mature forest with overhanging cedar trees before ending abruptly in a rather disappointing sight – a large granite outcropping with water trickling down in places, not a magnificent waterfall straight out of Walt Disney’s imagination like we were promised. Surely this couldn’t be it? Maybe people were talking about the creek itself. It did sort of resemble the jungle cruise at Disney World. But we were at the end of the road, so we tied up the dinghy and climbed up the rocks for a look around and found exactly what we'd come for: Pool after pool of water being fed by an equal amount of cascading waterfalls. It was absolutely perfect.
We were fortunate and had the place all to ourselves. Most days you can find at least one fizz boat from nearby resorts and lodges full of tourists zipping in and out of the creek. But not yesterday, so we took the opportunity to bathe in the cold, glacial waters, drying ourselves off like lizards lying on the warm rocks. It was a slice of heaven on earth.
Lucky Creek Falls
It was foggy and overcast today, so we passed on our plans to travel up Pipestem Inlet and opted for a quiet day aboardCambria instead. After dinner, Sally and I were on our way to shore when I noticed a large black bear foraging around. I hadn’t planned on taking her to that section of the beach, but it’s all connected so I went back to the boat and had David come out on the deck to act as a lookout while I took Sally in. Every now and then I would call out to him and ask what the bear was doing, but he was on a mission and could care less about me and Sally. Maybe Refuge Island is a special anchorage after all.
A black bear foraging on the beach at low tide
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