Zack Metcalfe paddles the 100 Wild Islands, Chronicle Herald article

Zack Metcalfe, writer of the Endangered Perspective, recently wrote for the Chronicle Herald,

In the morning of Oct. 1, our sun shining with the crisp clarity of autumn, I left the mainland in pursuit of the 100 Wild Islands, an archipelago off our eastern shore which represents the best of province has to offer. I’ve dedicated a lot of time to these islands in the past year, hearing of their exceptionalism both locally and internationally from people in the process of protecting them. […]

These faces and crests of rock were impressively smooth, the cracks and lichens adorning them like hieroglyphics. The rockweed exposed at low tide that had turned orange with the season and the forests of seaweed below moved with a liveliness I found mesmerizing.[…]

I’ve only kayaked for a few short months, but my favourite moments are those spent idle over perfectly clear water, the aforementioned sunlight penetrating effortlessly to the bottom and giving this immobile paddler the feeling of levitation. I was lounging several metres above ground, I mused, leaning back in my craft, parked alongside Hog Island while the others caught up.

But Wilson disagreed with me, saying the best experience a kayaker can achieve is a close encounter with coastal rocks. She routinely wove her craft through narrow passages or paddled within reach of rock walls. She encouraged strong paddlers to join her — I was among them by virtue of my canoeing experience — and I pledged to follow her “to the gates of hell.”

View the complete article at thechronicleherald.ca