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Why?Since the publication of the Wild Coast Series by John Kimantas and Boat CampingHaida Gwaii by Neil Frazer, kayakers have been able to paddle almost all of thewest coast of British Columbia more safely and enjoyably. A gap in the Wild Coastseries, quite understandable given the size of the project, is a lack of information formost of the west coast of the outer islands from Larsen Harbour on Banks Island toCape Calvert on Calvert Island. The information provided here aims to fill part ofthat gap. Areas already covered by the Wild Coast series are not included.

Who?Four members of the Nanaimo Paddlers (it’s what it sounds like) decided to surveythe western shores of Banks and Aristazabal Islands in the summer of 2011 andmake the collected information available to those who can use it. The collectiveexperience of those involved in the survey and preparation of this field guideincludes paddling all but about 60 nautical miles of the western shores of BritishColumbia South of Prince Rupert and Cape Knox to Tofino. An injury resulted in thetrip being diverted homeward after the completion of the west coast of Banks Island,leaving Aristazabal for another day.

Overview of the surveyed areaFrom Deadman Point on the northern tip of Banks to the area around the southerntip is between 45-50 nautical miles going more or less directly. Subjectively, asidefrom headlands like Cape Scott, Cape Cook and Estevan Point, we found the areacomparable to the west coast of Vancouver Island north of Tofino in terms ofchallenges for the touring paddler.The area is very isolated and paddlers should plan to look after themselves,expecting help from outside to come, but perhaps not in a very timely way. In 2011,there were no people living along the west coast of Banks, and we encountered onlyone sail boat and no sports or commercial fish boats near to shore. The shore showsvery few signs of post contact historical development. In short, it is an isolatedwilderness experience. Leave your ego and schedule at home, bring an extra VHF,and enjoy.

West Coast Banks Islands - a field guide for paddlers

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WeatherThe best time to find warmer temperatures, reasonably long periods of daylight andfewer low pressure systems is between the later part of July until about the end ofAugust. Our experience is that it takes about two weeks longer to warm up in thecentral and north coast area than it does on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Thisvaries from year to year, and if you have flexibility, keeping an eye on the watertemperature of the many weather buoys in the area can help you decide how fast it iswarming as the summer season approaches and develops. Expect air temperatures tobe heavily influenced by sea water temperatures at both ends of the daily cycle.We have found that when paddling for periods longer than a week, it is likely on ourcoast that the trip will be punctuated by a variety of weather conditions. The goal isnot to avoid being in the area when sea states are likely to be beyond one’s comfortzone, but to avoid being on the water during those conditions. In many respects, dueto the weather reporting areas, availability of timely weather information from thewest and local topography, the survey area is one of the easier places on the exposedcoast to achieve this goal.

For purposes of the marine forecast, Hecate Strait is divided into its north and southsections. This makes the area covered by the forecast among the smallest of thedistricts on the west coast. Given the variability that can occur within a reportingdistrict, this makes it a little easier to interpret when the events described in theforecast will likely affect the spot where you are located.

Most weather comes generally from the west. The survey area has three lines ofocean buoys to the west over which that weather must pass before it arrives. Inshoreare a line of buoys from Central Dixon in the north to West Sea Otter in the south.Further west there is a line of buoys from West Dixon in the north to South Moresbyin the south. Further off shore North, Central and South Nomads are useful foradvanced warning. Also to the west are the land based weather stations at Rose Spit,Sandspit Airport, Cumshewa Inlet and Cape St. James. Bonilla Island can be usefulfor keeping aware of rising north westerlies. These reporting stations are updatedregularly and often are not far removed from real time. Paddlers are encouraged toknow the location of all of these stations, not only generally but in relation to wherethey are at as they move through the area.

Banks Island is relatively low in elevation along its western shore and there are nowind creating inlets. This means that unless one is in line with potential outflow orinflow winds from Douglas Channel, local topographic effects on the wind will berelatively minor. The lack of significant inlets also means that generally tidal streamsflow parallel with the shore and the phenomena of difficult sea state associated withtides ebbing out of inlets meeting income swell is not a large issue. A notableexception is the west entrance to Otter Pass. We found these factors make it easierthan most places on the exposed coast for those who want to predict accurately thetiming of the changing weather and sea state to avoid unfavourable conditions.

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Currents, Tides and BoomersIn most places on the North Coast tides and associated currents are a significantfactor for paddlers and Banks Island is a fine example. Daily water level changes onthe west coast will often be between 15 and 20 feet. Our experience was that tidalcurrents along the coast are often quite strong, occasionally in the 1 -2 knot range.Also the large variation in water levels makes it difficult to find beaches that aresuitable throughout the tide range. There are not a lot of choices for camping onBanks Island and during Spring tides, the areas at the top of the beach tend todisappear and the areas at the bottom tend to be mud or rock. A suggestion is to planyour trip (if you are going from North to South) so that tides are tending towardneaps and high water is in the morning when you will be launching. This will notonly make launching (and landing later in the day) easier but also minimize latenight moves to higher ground. Another advantage of this timing is that you will bepaddling with ebb currents, a factor that can potentially double your speed comparedto paddling against the current.During our time paddling along the shore of Banks, we generally had relatively calmsea states, and to do our survey we stayed near to the shore and among the manyislands. The area nearer to shore tends to be shallow and the potential for scrapingon rocks greater than we have experienced any other place on the coast. In roughersea states the potential for settling on an unfriendly rock with poor outcome needs tobe given appropriate consideration.

AccessRoad access to the survey area does not exist. The closest road accesses are PrinceRupert, about 60 km from the north end of Banks Island, Kitimat, around 100kilometres from south end of Banks Island, and from Bella Coola, too far tocontemplate.From Port Hardy, B.C. ferries provide summer service every other day to PrinceRupert and from time to time to Klemtu. The North Co-op provides regular andreasonably priced water taxi service from Prince Rupert to Kitkatla, about 10nmfrom the north end of Banks Island, and Hartley Bay, about 26nm from the southend of Banks Island.

ChartsThe Canadian Hydrographic Service is in the process of updating the charts for thearea to the 1-40K scale with considerable new survey data. As of early 2011 theyhad new issues south as far as the southern end of Banks Island except for themiddle portion of the west coast. Google Earth provides poor to reasonably clearsatellite images for much of the survey area which we found useful for those areasthat had poorer scale (and older survey information) charts.

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Communication and AssistanceNo effort was made to use a cell phone but it is near to inconceivable that one wouldwork in the survey area. VHF radio communication for receiving weather reports andcontacting Prince Rupert Coast guard radio is spotty. Most of the time we werereceiving weather reports from the repeater at Cumshewa inlet on the Moresby Island.Frequently we needed to paddle to an exposed place in order to get reception and eventhen patience was required to hear the entire report.Given the remoteness of the area, paddlers should expect that in good weatheremergency assistance might be slow in coming and in poor conditions, slower. Wethink that paddlers should always be able to get themselves ashore and secure withoutassistance. Relying on help from others to get ashore runs a very high risk of having apoor outcome. We did not test whether Prince Rupert radio could hear us on channel 16but it would frequently be the case that we would not hear their response and even ifthey could hear us it would likely take many hours, at least, before help could arrive inthe event of emergency.

Terrestrial wildlifeAs is typical of our coast, mice, crows or ravens are likely to cause the most unrest withyour gear and food. There are also bears, cougars and wolves. Our experience is thatwolves seem to be the dominant large animal, bears are rare on the outer coast andcougars even rarer (we saw no tracks of either bears or cougars). A wolf who venturedquite near to us seemed perplexed as to what we were and what we were doing in hisspace.

Leave no traceThe area is among the less used areas on our coast and when you arrive at a site thereare likely to be few if any signs of recent usage. There are signs of earlier first nationsuse such as canoe runs, fish weirs and house sites. Sites should be left the way theywere found. Given the size of the area and the light usage, human waste disposal is notmuch of an issue but unburned wood from campfires that have not been allowed toconsume all of the fuel can be unsightly.

FishingWe relied on fish for a large part of our protein and like other remote, exposed areas ofthe coast, rockfish, ling cod, snapper and often salmon are easy to catch if you havedeveloped some technique. Shellfish are generally closed in areas of the coast wherethere is no testing (most of the west coast) so check before you leave home with DFOand be cautious should you choose to ignore their warnings. (Note: the only test stationthat I have come across on the coast for shellfish was in Larsen Harbour. Why DFOpicked that place is a mystery.)

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First NationsThere are no Indian reservation lands on the west coast of Banks Island. This isprobably more of a reflection of provincial government policy many years ago than anindication that the area was not occupied and used for a very long time by First Nationspeople (see discussion of conservation areas below). If you find evidence of this earlyoccupation, leave it undisturbed where it was found. The only other boaters that weencountered were a couple who research ancient canoe launches and weir areas basedon rock ‘arrangements’, a number of which they had evidently found along Banks’shores.

Conservation AreasThere are two provincially designated conservation areas in the area: the Banks NiiLuutiksm Conservancy covering over 19000 ha on the northwest portion of BanksIsland, and the Lax Kul Nii Luutiksm/Bonilla Conservancy that covers Bonilla Islandoff the west coast of Banks. Both were designated in 2006 to preserve the biodiversityof the area and to protect representative coastal flora, fauna and species at risk. As thenames suggest, the conservancies also have a long history of First Nations use. Moreinformation about these and other conservancies on the North Coast can be found onBC Parks website.

The SurveyWe had access to little information about the west coast of Banks Island except that thearea had a reputation for not having places to camp. Google photos for most of Banksvary between poor quality and so-so quality. Prior to leaving, from the charts andGoogle photographs we identified 73 potential beaches/camp sites along the shore andamong the many islands and bays. Our goal was to do a fairly complete survey of theentire coast with the exception of some of the deeper inlets.With a couple of exceptions, the places we identified turned out to be of no value forcamping but the process of checking them out led us to places that were quiteacceptable. As described below, we found suitable camp sites appropriately spacedalong the entire shore. While we found suitable places to camp, it is useful to point outthat the vast majority of the shoreline is rocky, inhospitable to kayaks and devoid ofeasy camping opportunities.

A note about GPS pointsOur group was not fully co-ordinated in setting our GPS devices before leaving and theinformation given might be either NAD83, NAD27 or just an estimate from the chartwhich might be either NAD27 or NAD83. This potential variation will not have a hugeeffect but if you find yourself arriving at a site after marching 50 meters inland, youwill know that you should have switched to NAD27. Most of the variation will be fromeast to west with very small differences north to south.

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Banks Island: Northern Tip

As noted in Wild Coast II, there are several fine sand west coast style beachesalong the north shore.An issue with these flat beaches is that with the large range of tide levels, it can beseveral hundred meters from camp to water if you hit it at low tide.

53° 37.900'N/130° 31.240'WFor those who cringe at the thought of finesand in their sleeping bag there is a steepergravel beach 1.2 nm west of Deadman Inletat 53º 37.90 N , 130º 31.24W. It appears tobe clear to the lowest of tides and has amore substantial creek.

Another possible campsite is located on abeach spit in an inlet entered about 1.7 nmwest of Deadman Inlet; an abandoned hulladorns the sandflat behind the spit

53° 37.149'N/130° 33.316'W

53° 37.671'N/130° 28.385'WDeadman InletThe long shallow beach near the westentrance to Deadman Inlet has 2 smallfresh water creeks that drain the uplandbog behind the beach.

Beach at west side of Deadman Inlet(mid to high tide)

The first 2 sites marked moving west from Deadman Inlet are flat sandy beaches

Gravel beach west of Deadman Inlet

Beach spit 1.7 nm west of Deadman Inslet

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Larsen IslandWe got through the channel between LarsenIsland and Banks Island with a foot or so tospare when the tide was about four metersat Griffith Harbour.A boulder type beach is located on theoutside of Larsen Island; a limited sandstrip provides access to the upland beach,with potentially a few campsites.Outer islands and reefs provide protectionfrom NW winds and waves.

53° 36.735'N/130° 33.979'W

Beach on outside of Larsen Island,limited access through boulders – mid tide

We did not investigate the heads of Norway Inlet and Griffith Harbour.

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Solander PointA tombola on the south side of an inlet andjust north of Solander Point provides a verypretty stop and a potential campsite for afew tents.There may be freshwater sources further upthe inlet.

53° 33.671'N/130° 32.741'W

Tombola north of Solander Pt

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East of the largest of the Sneath Islands is anice sandy beach, without water but whichappears to be campable at all but the highesttides.

53° 32.610'N/130° 30.520'W

Sneath IslandsFrom Solander Point, staying in the lee ofthe Sneath Islands, to a south facing bay 1nm east of Laverock Pt. there are 3-4 sandycampable beaches which appear capable ofsurviving all but the highest tides.The Sneaths provide exceptional protectionto these beaches. We were in this area whentide levels at Griffith Harbour were near to5 meters and commonly in the area in thelee of the Sneath Islands we could see asandy bottom below us. What the beachconditions are in this area with low tidesremains to be discovered by others.

53° 32.600'N/130° 30.600'W

Small protected beacheseast of Sneath Islands

Sandy beach east of the largest Sneath Islands

A southwest facing inlet entered along 53º32N has a strong creek at its head and couldbe used for camping, but the bottom isshallow and at lower tides it might be manyhundreds of meters from tent to water.There is a good and fairly well protectedbeach along the north shore of the inlet

53° 32.130'N/130° 29.510'W

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Kingkown Inlet/Kirkendale IslandThis large inlet deserves to be explored,regrettably, except for the western islands itwas not for us to do.The best place we found was on the south-west side of Kirkendale Island. The beach ismainly gravel with mud toward the bottombut with firm footing along one side at lowertides. There is room for 3 to 4 tents on thebeach and considerable potential on whatmay be a midden in the upland. We survivedcamping on the beach with a 20.3 ft tide (atGriffiths Harbour) with a low pressure and asouth wind. The site is well protected fromSE weather.

Kirkendale Island campsite,looking out at low tide

53° 29.410'N/130° 25.730'W

There are good creeks on the Banks Island shore to the north of Kirkendale; one is at the top ofa pretty bay and lagoon.Tidal currents around these islands can be quite strong and should be taken into considerationwhen visiting the area.

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Waiting for the tide, camp south of Kingkown Inlet

Going south from Kingkown Inlet there is asouth facing bay that is the last place ofrefuge before Kelp Point. This good sizedbay is spanned part way in by what may bea man-enhanced wall of rocks which createa large inner bay. We stayed here due todeteriorating sea state and the central of thethree beachs survived a 21' tide at GriffithHarbour. The beach is sand/grit, a relativelyshort area of sand/boulders further downand then a very long sand/mud lower beach.If the goal of the rock wall was to create alarge clam bed, it worked.The site is accessible only with tides greaterthan 11.5' at Griffith Harbour. There is alarge creek to the south of the camp site andan interesting tidal flat to the north.

53° 27.288'N/130° 23.584'W

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Beach and campsite (with some log moving)1.7 nm southeast of Kelp Point

From the previous site it is about 4.7 nm to Kelp Point without opportunity for shelter.This is the longest fully exposed section of Banks Island. With current against us, it took usabout 2 ½ hours of steady paddling. A good opportunity to pick up a coho.

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Kelp PointApproximately 1.7 nm eastsoutheast of KelpPoint is a south facing bay entered along 130º16'. Toward the head of this bay on the eastshore is a sand/grit/gravel relatively steepbeach which is accessible down to about 4.5feet (Griffith Harbour). The upper beach isstrewn with drift wood and logs some ofwhich will need to be moved a bit to makecamping areas.We had no difficulty clearing spots for fourtents. Once into the drift wood, the beacheasily survived 21' at Griffith Harbour. Thereis freshwater a short paddle away.This is by far the best site in this area that wefound with the next good site being around12nm south.

53º 22.960'N 130º 15.940'W

We could find no suitable site in the vicinity of Survey Bay.

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Wreck IslandsWe spent quite a long day checking out thearea proximate to the Wreck Islands, WallerBay and south as far as the larger bay enteredalong approximately 53º 14.5'N with limitedsuccess in finding good stops and campsites.There is a very small beach patch of gravelabove most tides which would be suitable for2 or 3 tents (cosily spaced) at the end of anarrow west facing cove proximate to53º20.79'N and 130º 10.2'W (NAD 27). Thetop third of the beach is gravel, the middlethird rock/gravel and bottom third extremelysoft mud.This is the sort of place that one wouldseldom choose as a goal but which couldprove to be much appreciated, in an area withfew places to land or camp, in a situationwhere sea conditions were deteriorating.Bring your mosquito net and don’t expect tospend much time enjoying the view.

53° 20.790'N/130° 10.200'W (NAD27)

Going south there is a sand beach which is suitable for taking a break at tides below 4.5 meters(at Griffith Harbour) at 53º 17'N 130º 5.7'W. Above 4.5 meters is rock and we found no place tocamp. There is a creek a little to the east.

A refuge from deteriorating sea conditions

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Grief PointApproximately midway between Grief andSpearer Points is a well protected bayentered along approximately 53º14.5'N.This bay is generally southwesterly facingand there are some islands which divide itinto westerly and easterly parts.North of the easterly part is a south facinginlet which at its head has a small river thatdrains several lakes shown on the chart.The chart indicates a sand bottom, whichseems unlikely and it shows that the inletdries which might happen but for the flowof water from the small river.

53º 15.130'N 130º 01.400'W

Creek at head of inlet

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Near the head of this inlet along the northshore you will find a small beach which isnotable for the presence of an apple tree.There are remnants of a boat launchingchannel with some cross beams for sliding aboat, and near the high tide mark there arefurther beams and other remnants of usagewithin the last 100 years or so. At high tidesthe beach disappears but in the upland thereis room for several tents on a flat area thatpossibly has a much longer history than themore obvious recent use. At higher tides it ispossible to paddle up the river into the lakebut show caution as at lower tides the routebecomes a water fall. We left at a fairly lowtide and launching into the river on sea weedwas relatively easy.We were very lucky to find this place whichwas shown to us by the only people we meton the outside of Banks.A couple from Washington who have spentthe last thirteen summers in their sailboatchecking this area out happened to have aninterest in archaeology and an intimatefamiliarity with the shoreline of this bay.We never would have found this placewithout being taken there personally and wefound no other good site between the WreckIslands and Terror Point.The place is a little easier to spot now sincewe cleared a few branches to facilitate accessto the upland and make some room for boats.At times of neap tides there would be roomto camp on the beach which has patches ofgravel. There is a substantial creek with goodwater at the top of the inlet.

There is a west facing bay entered along 53º 11'N which has a sand beach along its south shore.This is one of the few places that looks like a beach on Google, the problem being that it is onlyserviceable at medium to low tides and we found no place that would survive a higher tide.

Camp at head of inlet

Remnants of boat launch

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Terror PointTerror Point is on an island marked ‘61' onchart 3984. Immediately NE of ‘61' is asmall narrow island approximately 1/2nm inlength which is unnumbered. North of thenorthwesterly corner of this island, onBanks Island, is a small sand/shell beachwhich is quite visible on Google.We landed at a lower tide in the channelbehind the longer, narrow island enteredfrom the east, and it was a couple of hun-dred meters to the beach over gravel/rocks/mud which provide quite good footing. Thetide marks on the rocks suggest that parts ofthe beach would survive most tides althoughbe aware that the beach is backed by rockand there would be no place of retreatshould the tide keep coming in. A difficultplace to access except at higher tides but apossible choice, if one were going fromsouth to north and sea conditions pastTerror Point were unsuitable.This beach would be exposed to wind fromthe SW but it is protected from swell by theouter islands.

53º 10.071'N 129º 57.245'W

The terror of Terror Point

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Calamity BayWe found places in Calamity Bay wherecamping is possible along the west andnorth shores but they are marginal andwould require some clearing and flattening.However, on one of the small islands in thenorth east part of the Bay is the best site wefound since leaving the north end of BanksIsland.At approximately 129º 51'W between 53º10.5' & 10.8' N there is a group of foursmall islands. At lower tides the islands arebest accessed along the shore of BanksIsland approaching from the south. Theeast and north shores of the most northerlyand smallest of these islands has goodbeaches for landing. The north end of thissmall island has excellent beach campingon gravel under some trees, which shouldsurvive most tides. This is a very prettyspot.Approximately 1/3 nm north of this smallisland a creek enters from the NE whichhas a strong flow. Near where the creekenters the bay, there is a beaver dam whichcreates a small lake — an excellent chancefor a fresh water swim.

53º 10.770'N 129º 49.975'W

We did not check out the bays on the southeast corner of Banks west of the campsite so theremay be some opportunity to camp along the north shore of Otter Passage.

Camp on small island in Calamity Bay

Comments and Addenda

Those wanting to download one or more of the guides in pdf format can find them at http://www.coastandkayak.com/PDFs/West_Coast_Banks_Island.pdf where they are available for that purpose. Paddlers who have new information, who wish to report a change of site conditions or who just want to ask a question about the covered areas contact us a wcfieldguides@gmail.com. Be patient, this is not a busi-ness. Ferry information in the guides is dated so check schedules. Also BC ferries says they will have a place to launch kayaks at the Klemtu terminal some time in 2015 (it wasn’t there in July 2015).

In the summer of 2015 Jon Dawkins, Greg Polkinghorn, and Dave Resler, all of the Seattle area, paddled the outside route starting toward the south end of Athlone Island and finishing in Prince Rupert.

They camped at the site SE of Kelp Point and noted that once into the trees above the beach the forest be-came more open and the potential for creating some upland sites by clearing salal was good. Their stay at this site was during strong winds from the south and they noted that the site provided little protection from hard weather.

They also noted that directly across the channel from the Terror Point site there is a gravel beach that is accessible below about 3.5-4 metres of tide. Above that level it is boulders which make access to the top of the beach difficult. In the upland there is room for a couple of two person tents and some potential for expansion. If the main beach is going to disappear due to a spring tide, this might be an option if you need to stay in this area.

Also in the summer of 2015 Ted Oldham of Nanaimo led a group down the outside of Banks starting in Prince Rupert and finishing in Bella Bella. Ted reports that they stopped for a break at the Larsen Island site at low tide and the bottom of that beach was boulders and landing difficult. Further information on what level of tide is required to give access to the upper gravel portion of that beach would be useful.

Ted also reports that the ‘Grief Point’ site is at 130 01.5W rather than at 130 01.4W as indicated in the guide. When they were at this site there was evidence of use by other campers and he describes the sites in the upland as “nice dry sites”. Ted describes the water in the small creek at the site as “excellent”.

Ted also noted that the sand and gravel at the Calamity Bay site had shifted. This is likely to be an annual effect due to winter storms. The site remains probably the best option in Calamity Bay although this year at low tides the beach was very steep.

This guide and the information it contains was researched and preparedby Reale Emond, Glenn Lewis, Geoff Mumford & Harriet Rueggeberg.

Our aim is to facilitate responsible access by paddlers experienced inWest Coast conditions.

Our wish is to bring awareness to an area which is coming under threatof oil tanker traffic and make it better known as a national recreational treasure.

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