Pacific NW

Expeditions

Happy Birthday Reeb!!! And a happy day it was aboard the good ship “Silent Partner”. It had, perhaps, all of the elements of the perfect day. By 0817 hrs, we had already navigated through a rapids, viewed mountain goats, and discovered a cave. And that was only the beginning, which set the tone for the rest of the day. But I’m getting ahead of myself…..We awoke to yet another crisp, clear morning in the spectacular confines of Culpepper Lagoon, weighed anchor and proceeded to the narrows. Conditions were such that there was a 3 or 4 foot drop into Kynoch Inlet, but the flow was fairly smooth in the center. I determined it was safe to shoot the rapids, which we did with great success. Much less stressful than doing it in the dark! Once we were in the inlet a spell of wind kicked up and we rolled out the jib. The sun broke over the 5,000 foot tall granite half-domes and warmed us as we sailed out of the inlet. We spotted a cave near the waterline and decided to investigate it. “Modulus” was promptly launched from the mothership, with Christoph as the first shore party to investigate. Upon his return, he reported the cave as quite extensive. Christoph manned the ship as Lee and I rowed out next to explore with flashlights. The cave had a waterfall off to one side and turned out to be enormous, with extensive tunnels leading off in all directions. “Silent Partner” herself could have fit inside the main chamber with no problem, mast and all. Lee and I explored several tunnels and inner chambers, some of which led back down into salt water and others that led up to staggering heights. From what we could tell, we were somewhere underneath the waterfall at that point. We were sorry that Christoph wasn’t there with us, but he later reported that he was proud to have served the important mission of manning the mothership as we explored the inner chamber. True teamwork. We dubbed the cave “The Module” in honor of faithful Modulus, whom allowed us to discover the cave in the first place. All exploratory spelunking teams safely aboard and on our way again, we celebrated by polishing off the remainder of the giant cookie with big glasses of milk. We also admired the three mountain goats that were staring back at us from the 100 feet directly above, on the face of one of Kynoch Inlet’s magestic cliffs.