Is a Desolation Sound Camping Tour For You?
Some important things to consider before you book your camping tour with Powell River Sea Kayak.
While we attempt to provide an accurate representation of our various camping tours on their specific pages on this website, we wanted to reiterate some of the unique factors of these tours to ensure that our guest expectations always best match the reality of the experience. If you are unsure whether a camping tour is for you, please read the following information carefully.
Furthermore, if you are the designated organizer of a group of friends, please ensure that all members of your party have been sent the link to this page before they confirm their participation.
Wilderness Camping in Beautiful & Remote Locations
Depending on the type of camping tour you are on (vacation or expedition) and the time of year (shoulder season or peak season) the campsites we use on our camping tours can range from provincial park sites with tent platforms and outhouses, to private tenures with basic improvements, to undeveloped sites with no bathroom facilities and small clearings in the forest just large enough for a number of two person tents.
Generally, our vacation-style tours will use more ‘comfortable’ camps than the expedition-style tours – which travel into much more remote locations – but all our guests should be prepared for typical wilderness camping conditions, which may include setting up tents on slightly uneven ground and staying in areas without outhouses (see next tab).
To help matters our camping equipment is of a very high quality, with MSR tents and Thermarest sleeping pads ensuring that even first time campers will be as comfortable as possible in the great outdoors.
We must also note that as our camping tours are completely self-supported, it is important that all members of the tour lend a helping hand to make sure that certain operations run smoothly. Our guides are extremely hard working and professional – and will take care of all the cooking and lead the way with camp set-up – but in order for them to do their job efficiently some minor help is asked of guests along the way. Moving gear from the boats to the kitchen, a hand now and then with the dishes, and setting up and taking down of tents is a group effort!
Once everyone is settled in however and the first course is on the stove, you can relax and soak in the atmosphere of this beautiful part of the world.
Not All Campsites Are As Developed As Others
Just like the campsites we use, toilet facilities can range from private outhouses on our commercial tenures, to digging a cat hole in the woods far away from common areas and tents.
We understand that this can be a confronting necessity for some of our guests!
While there are a number of sites in Desolation Sound that do have pit toilets, these sites are naturally some of the most popular campsites in the region. In an effort to ‘avoid the crowds’ – especially in the peak season – it is necessary for our tours to seek out some more remote parts of the Sound. These sites are just as beautiful, usually free of other campers, but naturally with less developed facilities.
Again, our guides are incredibly professional and understanding of the situation – and we have systems in place that have been developed to minimize the impact of bathroom activity on the environment and make the process as simple as possible.
However, if you do feel that a lack of a bathroom is a dealbreaker for you joining on of our wilderness camping tours – but you don’t want to miss out on experiencing a kayak tour in Desolation Sound – we encourage you to check out one of our guided Cabana Desolation Eco Resort packages.
Waste Not, Want Not
While there are numerous freshwater sources in Desolation Sound, the are many times that accessing these sources is not practical or convenient for tour groups when they are camping in Desolation Sound. There are also large parts of the Sound (often with some of the most picturesque and untouched campsites) that are not close to a freshwater source at all.
As a result, all our tours intend to take as much freshwater as possible with us from the beginning in 10 litre dromedaries. For our longer expedition tours, there are plenty of places along the route that we can refill these droms along the way. For the shorter tours, we can usually bring enough water (about one dromedary per person) to last the entire duration of the tour.
The downside to this is – unless the route of the tour takes us to a freshwater lake in the area – we are generally unable to provide freshwater for anything other than drinking water, tea and coffee service, and cooking.
If the idea of not showering for 5 days is enough to make you think twice about booking one of these camping tours, we highly recommend you take a look at our Cabana Desolation Eco Resort packages – where on-demand hot water showers are waiting for all guests after each day of activity and adventure.
Beautiful in All Kinds of Weather
This is the west coast of British Columbia.
While our summers are often relatively warm and dry – with beautiful long days and pleasant temperatures – please be aware and expect that the weather can change quickly and without warning, and systems that bring rain, wind and much cooler conditions can hit the coast for up to a week at a time, even in the middle of August.
While it is no doubt extremely nice to have tours run without any precipitation, Desolation Sound is beautiful in all kinds of weather, and the mood of the forest and the mountains changes with different amounts of levels and cloud.
Furthermore, we use high quality equipment – MSR tents and tarps, Kokatat paddling jackets – and our guides are professionally trained to help all our guests remain warm, comfortable and engaged no matter what the weather is doing.
If you are worried about your comfort in the event of periods of rain, wind or cooler weather, it may be best to consider a Cabana Desolation Eco Resort package instead. These guided tours are run out of our eco resort on Kinghorn Island and have greater protection against the element, as well as the option to relax on land one day if the weather isn’t to your liking!
Stripping Away All Unnecessary Distractions
As mentioned earlier, these camping tours are self-sufficient vacation and expedition style trips. This means that everything that the group needs for the duration of the trip – from tents and sleeping pads to food and water to the kitchen set-up itself – needs to be able to be packed into the hatches of the kayaks.
We do not have supporting motor vessels that power ahead to set up camp for us for our arrival. Not only would that make the cost of the tour prohibitive for many people, but it contradicts our ethics of sustainability and limiting overconsumption. The allure of a kayak trip for many is to strip away the unnecessary items in our lives and live deeply in the moment, and a self-sufficient kayak tour is a great way to experience this feeling.
This is not to say that we remove all comforts. It’s amazing what you can fit in a sea kayak! There is plenty of storage space in the kayaks for us to live a luxurious life in the wilderness for up to a week at a time. The food our guides create is exceptional – far beyond what most people believe possible on a wilderness camping tour. Our equipment is of the highest quality, ensuring comfortable evenings no matter what the weather.
We also have a detailed packing list of items we suggest all our guests bring along on the tour to be completely comfortable no matter what the circumstances. This list has been honed to perfection over the years to ensure you bring everything you need, and nothing more!
Many Ways to Explore Desolation
All our tours are unique, and depending on the group dynamic, weather and other factors, our very experienced guides will choose routes and campsites that they feel will best serve the greater interests of the group.
While there are many factors that impact a day’s paddle, typically our vacation-style tours will kayak for 3-4 hours a day (4-10 nautical miles) with a lunch break to break up the hours, while our expedition-style tours will paddle for 5-6 hours total per day (8-15 nautical miles).
Sometimes our vacation-style tours will choose to make a couple of separate ‘base camps’ over the 3 or 4 nights of the tour, and sometimes the guides will decide that moving camp every morning is the best way to explore Desolation Sound. This will depend on the weather for the duration of the tour, and also the group dynamic. Both decisions have their unique advantages!
Expedition-style tour guests can generally expect to move camp each morning as they paddle into more remote environments.
Finally, we highly suggest that guests don’t come into these tours with a ‘bucket list’ of places and experiences they feel they must achieve or visit for the trip to be considered a success. Desolation Sound is a large area with many wonderful features. No two tours are alike, and if you believe you absolutely must recreate a past tour or visit somewhere you read about online, you are only setting yourself up for disappointment. Please relax and ‘go with the flow’ – you’ll find you are much more immersed in the environment and come back to reality much more refreshed that way!
