56 PADDLING MAGAZINE


concentration needed to navigate the harrowing tentacles of the Artlish River valley’s forestry roads. More than seven hours and nearly 500 kilometers out of Tofino, we pull to the roadside to take stock of my 20-year- old Tacoma. Loaded with four people, a canopy full to the brim with food and gear, and four kayaks and surfboards strapped to a homemade wooden rack, it’s difficult to tell from where the ominous sound originated. Fortunately, the aged truck’s protests are merely a bluff and we continue our laborious descent to the coast. Logging trucks piled high with old growth cedars speed past, trailing choking clouds of dust. Where the once towering trees have been felled and hauled from the rolling slopes of these coastal mountains, alder thickets crowd the narrow trail of washboard gravel that leads to the innermost reaches of Kyuquot Sound.


A


loud crack breaks the


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