The whole reason Haidee and I were in the Hamanaka area this early in the season was because we were picking up a new (to us) whitewater open-deck canoe. Ashida-san from Land’s Edge was selling a few old Royalex canoes, and we snapped one up.
Kenbokki Island had been on my to-do list for a while, so despite the still-chilly late March weather, we loaded up the sea kayaks for the four-day round trip from Sapporo.
It was nice to finally meet Ashida-san and see his HQ there right on top of the Pacific Ocean coast cliffs. He’d built a simple deck, literally on the land’s edge, which made for an incredible outlook east towards Nemuro.
After picking up the canoe, we drove to Kiritappu Cape, to see if we could spot any of the famous sea otters that live around the area.
Sure enough, as we braced ourselves against the wind, we saw a few of the cute little critters.
Afterwards, we drove to a parking area with a heated 24hr toilet block, not far from the sea kayaking put in, and bunked down for the night.
The new day broke calm and cold. Just as the forecast had predicted. Which was good, because the previous day had been very windy, with whitecaps blowing even within Biwase Bay.
The cool morning meant we wasted no time getting into our drysuits – we were suited up before we even left the parking area.
We knew we had a good calm weather window until just after noon, so we were at the put in just as the sun was peeking over the horizon. This was our first paddle for 2023, and it was a cold start!
By the time we were ready to push off, a handful of local kelp harvesters had arrived at the beach. They were milling around, waiting for their whole group to arrive.
“You’re going out in those?” one jovial chap asked.
“How much does one of those cost?” asked another.
We pushed off and only made it 100m before we returned to the beach.
“I’m overheating way too much,” said Haidee.
I was too. In our haste to get off the beach, we’d not heeded the adage be bold, start cold. We had one-too-many layers on under out drysuits, and with the sun now shining on us, we were overheating, despite the cold air.
Back on the water, we made our way across to the island, skirting the eastern side of the gravel spit.
Small vestiges of the winter snow and ice remained in view on the cold northern side of the island.
A couple of seals popped their heads up to investigate us.
It didn’t take long to paddle the northern shoreline of Kenbokki Island, even as we slowed down to investigate the slowly receding winter ice waterfalls.
It was an easy decision to keep paddling on towards Kojima Island, just 500m away to the east. Big Pacific swells surged through the gap between Kenbokki Island and Kojima Island, giving us glimpses of what the exposed coast out there might be like.
The scenery was all together windswept and beautifully bleak. A land that had patiently sat out the harsh winter months, and was now awaiting spring to arrive.
Once we arrived at Azechi Cape, we stopped for a break, and added some layers. The sun had gone behind a cloud for a moment, robbing us of the warmth that had forced us to jettison layers at the start of the paddle. On went the pogies, and we were toasty once again.
Paddling back westward from Azechi Cape was very picturesque. From our vantage point on the water, we could just see cliffs all the way along to our left. The sun was behind us, lighting the scene nicely. Waves broke against Kojima Islands western side.
Feeling more confident in our paddling now, we approached the more exposed eastern tip of Kenbokki Island. We startled a small seal colony, apparently not accustomed to seeing kayaks in the area. For the next 20 minutes, we were surveilled by the curious critters. They would follow along behind us, diving with a splash whenever we stopped to turn around, and they they’d surface, heads bobbing on the surface.
The remainder of the paddle back to the put-in was uneventful. Some birds here and there.
Some kelp harvesters hard at work on the now-exposed gravel bar.
Back at the van, we decided to have a nap. We rinsed our gear and left it hanging in the late-winter sun.
Later in the afternoon, we went for another wander around the Kiritappu Cape area. Today there was much less wind. Otters were sleeping. Seals were feeding. Foxes were prowling.
This was a beautiful way to start our 2023 paddling season – next time we’ll be back to Kenbokki Island in deep winter to see the ice falls in all their winter glory.
