Paddling the Pacific Coast | Nome, Alaska
Travel Photography Northern Seas
Gold Mining
 
 

Travel Photography > Pacific Northwest > Nome, Alaska



For one month, with 18 paddling days and 12 rain and storm days, Kil’iii traveled 315 miles from Port Hardy to Tofino.  The coast of Vancouver Island, like almost anywhere along Northwestern coasts, is wet and soggy, and similar to Alaska's coast. "A skin-on-frame boat is very different from from paddling a modern kayak. It's more forgiving in rough seas, dampening the impact of waves. But it always will have water leaking. You have to periodically pump water out, about every three hours."

Kil'iii traveled without a tarp shelter. For food, he carried with him only rice, butter, and gorp with the expectation of supplementing his diet with fish. Fishing was more than successful. He would catch herring for bait, and let out a line from his kayak. He ate fish nearly every meal, and to keep from dangerous weight loss, he supplemented the fish with fat.

"Clearly one of the best things I’ve ever done," he said. "It was mentally challenging more than physically challenging." The first day was disheartening. The kayak couldn't carry his gear, so he switched to another skin boat built by a friend of his. It was a prototype better suited to the open ocean, but it wasn't lined and started filling up with water as he made his first crossing.

"I was wearing a sea sock.  You sit inside it so the rest of the kayak has buoyancy…otherwise you and all your stuff goes right to the bottom.  But the boat was leaking not in the sea sock, but in the rest of the boat."

ArrowOn the Seward Peninsula, where everything must be transported by sea, yesterday's machines are left to rust. This gold dredge from the 1800's is one of many. Prospectors still actively seek gold on the Seward Peninsula. Several miners live on the beach near this old machine.
 

next

12345678910

Oregon Testament I: Owyhee Puzzle
Oregon Testament II: Alvord Desert
Oregon Testament III: Umpqua Dunes Genesis
Oregon Testament IV: Nehalem Valley
Oregon Testament V: River Civilization
Oregon Testament VI: Midnight Road to Beringia

Explore more in the Northern Seas:
Hood River Whale Hunter Nehalem
Nome, Alaska Pomerania, Poland Gdansk, Poland

Northern Seas Special Content
Maps
Seward Peninsula Map
Pomerania Map

Follow Notes from the Road

 

Nearctic Regions

Desert Southwest
Great Plains
Great Basin
Pacific Northwest
Desert Mexico
Sierra Range
Atlantic Seaboard

Palearctic Regions

The Dry World
Iberian Peninsula
Northern Seas
Gaul

Oceania

Neotropic Regions

Isthmus
Amazon Basin
Andean Slopes
West Indies

More

Online Travel Journal
Guana Cay Blog
About Erik Gauger
Contact Erik
Bird Life List

©2013 . All text, photographs, illustrations and web design created by the author