Into the Light… Jedediah Island

Thankful for the Shelter and Beauty of Jedediah Island!

The closer we got to Jedediah Island the calmer the waters and our nerves became. As we sliced through the channel, with the powerful push of following seas behind us, we traveled between Jedediah and Bull Islands (both islands are protected by two larger islands, Texada and Lasqueti), making our way to the leeward side of all the turbulence in the straits. Almost magically the wave activity became a non-issue. We immediately found a pint-sized, well-protected, cove suitable to drop anchor, a boat was just leaving so we hovered out a bit until they were off and the anchorage was clear. It took some time but we finally got the boat secure, still fighting residual wind (but in calm water), Jim was able to tie the port and starboard stern off to either side of the narrow cove by using the dinghy to take the line ashore, one to port and another off the starboard side. It felt good to be secured to land, the sign up on the cliff said we were in Sunset Cove – well out of the storm still brewing out in the Strait of Georgia. We waited a bit for our nerves to calm down and to make sure Kismet was firmly settled at anchor before we decided to get off the boat to explore.

After we landed our dinghy we proceeded to wander around, following some well-worn trails. It felt good, to be off the boat stretching our legs. As we continued our walk it seemed odd to us that with access only by boats anchored around Jeddah that the trails were so many and well-worn.

We found out that Jedediah Island is a popular Marine Park boasting about 640 acres of diverse landscape perfect for wilderness camping. The island offers plenty of opportunities for boaters to anchor, with five secluded bays to choose from, creating a safe harborage for visiting cruisers. There are approximately 3.5 km of walking trails crossing the island often leading to one bay or another. The main trail meanders through an old-growth forest, featuring stands of Douglas fir and arbutus. There are many meadows, rocky coves, high cliffs, and sandy beaches to explore; we were delighted by the wildlife we encountered during our walk. All in all, as the day turned from turmoil to light, we couldn’t help but feel we’d stumbled upon something magical… and sacred.

Our first discovery was a decorative display of dried animal bones hanging from a tree, and then we noticed a shell of an abandoned building. The island was originally homesteaded in the late 1800s then bought by Mary Palmer and her first husband Ed in 1949, they visited mostly in the summers, with a few winters spent raising their young sons on the island. Much later Mary, and her second husband Al, sold their business and home in Seattle and moved full-time to the island to farm the land, staying into their seventies (1992). She chronicled her “island time” in her book Jedediah Days sharing intimate accounts of the sights and sounds of the island and how they lived by clocking life by the tides. The island was eventually sold to the provincial government of Canada and dedicated as a Class A marine park in 1995.

After a short walk through the woods lining the cove of our anchorage we came upon an open meadow and immediately noticed what we thought were deer or rabbit droppings, literally covering the open field. You could hardly take a step without touching more scat; luckily it was dry, well baked by the sun. Shortly after that, we spotted four sheep grazing in an open field, once they saw us they ran off. Had they produced all that scat?

The memory of the large waves was finally starting to ease into the back of our minds with our growing excitement over this newly found diversion and the possibility of discovering something even more curious on this mysterious island. Continuing our hike deeper into the woods, we next came across a burial site for Will, a horse who had been left to live out his years on the island, he passed away in 2003. As you can see (below) there have been a lot of offerings to his gravesite over the years, to celebrate his life.

We left Will’s shrine behind and worked our way back toward another bay, but first towards a ridge with a high, shear, rock bluff. Coming up to the crest of the ridge we stumbled upon a dozen or more mountain goats. We all stopped dead in our tracks, we stared at them, and they inquisitively stared back at us. Not wanting to make any quick moves and hoping the curly-horned alpha male goat wouldn’t be aggressive toward us, we stood still and waited for them to make the first move. Lucky for us the goats did what they do best; they all headed for the rock bluff and scaled it quickly to the top. Once they had secured the dominant position they stopped to gaze back at us, intruders to their habitat. It dawned on us at this point that it seemed likely that the mysterious dropping, as the well-worn trails, may have come from this herd of goats. Apparently, the sheep and goats are the descendants of animals left behind when explorers first set foot on Jedediah Island.

We’re not sure what this little formation of branches and tree limbs signified, maybe someone took shelter here, or perhaps it’s another marking of some sort. What do you think?

After completing our hike around the island, we returned to Sunset Cove, where Kismet sat anchored, but before returning to her we walked up around the high cliffs of the cove as a beautiful sunset presented itself warming the wet, moss-covered rocks and illuminated the whole bay with a golden light lingering on Kismet’s bright red hull. The day certainly turned out to be a magical light at the end of a tunnel for us, an event that, if not begun with a display of Mother Nature’s temperamental wrath that day, would have not ended with a visit to this very magical place.

We didn’t see it until we were editing the photos but can you make out the rainbow in the photo (above)?

And now we know why this anchorage is called “Sunset Cove.”