Indian Arm

Friday evening: looking north up the Arm to the Twin Islands

Less than 20 km from Vancouver’s Coal Harbour is a little fjord called Indian Arm. It is a part of Burrard Inlet, has salt water, is affected by the tides, and is populated with all the ocean creatures you’re familiar with: sailboats and power boats included. But really, the environment is like many of BC’s lakes.

Michael picked me up Friday evening after work and we made good our escape to Deep Cove through the traffic. We paddled to the Twin Islands the first night – about 5 km. Our plan the next day was to go all the way up to the camp at Granite Falls, but in the end we decided to camp at Bishop Creek instead.

It turned out to be the best thing we could have done. Granite Falls camp was as busy as a Skytrain station with all the power boats moored there for the day. We would never have got any sleep.

As it was, because Bishop Creek was quieter we saw several seals, eagles, and I saw a deer swim across the Arm and come out on shore not far from our camp.

To take advantage of the ebbing tide we struck camp and hit the water at 6:30 yesterday morning and by 10 am we were having breakfast at the smallest Tim Horton’s in the world. I kid you not. It’s got a drive through and store front but is barely bigger than a couple of garden sheds.