Siska October 2026 Newsletter

October 1, 2026

Introduction
Convenient Links
SISKA Partners- Join Mailing Lists
Upcoming SISKA Events
Siska October 28th Monthly Meeting Agenda
Monthly Meeting Location
Saying Goodbye from Go Kayak
Siska Christmas Lunch
Thank You Siska for Your Partnership
Siska Library
Trip Reports
Hudson Point (Saltspring Island) Multi-day Camping Paddle
Paddling Desolation Sound
SISKA Broken Group Lodge Trip Report — September 13–18, 2026
Sea Kayak Baja México 26/27
Tips From The Trips
Camp Cookery
Safety Item - How To Safely Carry a Sea Kayak
BC Marine Trails News
SISKA's Kayak Lodge Partner Offerings
SISKA's Kayak Skills Course Partners

Introduction

Thanks to those members who contributed photos and materials. After enjoying a SISKA event or paddle, please consider sending a short (100-150 words) summary article; for more information, contact one of us, newsletter@siska.ca . If you would like to start a regular column, please let us know!

Jane Jacek (SISKA president) and Tony Playfair (editor)

Convenient Links

SISKA on Facebook

Siska's Youtube Channel

Siska's Newsletter Archive - Mailchimp or Siska Newsletters Website

List of all stewardship fees

Rocky Point Demolition Blasting Notices

SISKA Partners- Join Mailing Lists

by Jane Jacek

To receive regular emails and newsletters from our kayak partners, in which you will read about courses/clinics they are offering and possible club member discounts, please follow this link.

Upcoming SISKA Events

Siska October 28th Monthly Meeting Agenda

by Fred Pishalski

The Wolves of NOOTKA
by John Kimantas

October 28, 2026

John Kimantas is a journalist, editor, explorer and author of The Wolves of Nootka. His hobby of reading early explorers’ journals deepened his professional interest as he saw how the lives of these historical figures intersected and their stories overlapped. The Wolves of Nootka, represents more than a decade of research and writing to make sense of global events during the years 1774-1792, with Nootka Sound ultimately central to it all. John takes readers on an exhilarating journey through the Inside and Outside Passages of BC from north Vancouver Island to the Alaska border and beyond. At the meeting, John will share parts of The Wolves of Nootka series with us.

In the late 18th century, a web of remarkable people converged on Nootka Sound, brought by wind, current and the events that were quickly shaping the world. Four men emerged as key players who would direct the future course of history: George Vancouver, James Colnett, Juan Francisco Quadra and Nootka Tyee Maquinna. These were the Wolves of Nootka, who fought nature and one another to stake their place in history.

John has kayaked much of the BC coast, where he fell in love with the entire area. In looking for adequate handbooks, he struggled to find a comprehensive guide to help understand this part of BC. He felt more information was needed so wrote the acclaimed Wild Coast series of books and others plus created a series of maps. The guide books are written from first-hand research. This point-by-point guide, designed for kayakers but usable by anyone on the coast, describes the details, hazards, geography, ecology, history, hikes and attractions of each location. Colorful maps and color photography accompany the text. John is the owner/operator of Wild Coast Publishing and was recently recipient of BC Marine Trail's 2025 Ray Pillman Service Award.

Monthly Meeting Location

by Jane Jacek

The location is the Unitarian Universalist Community of Victoria, formerly known as First Unitarian Church of Victoria. Address: 5575 West Saanich Road Victoria, BC

Map

Saying Goodbye from Go Kayak

by Jane Jacek

After 16 incredible years, we have made the decision to close Go Kayak Sea Kayak Instruction. This journey has been filled with learning, adventures, and an amazing sense of community, and we’re truly grateful for every moment. Go Kayak has always been about people first, helping you gain confidence on the water, sharing the joy of paddling, and building a community based on respect and safety. It has been an honor to teach and coach alongside you. While this chapter ends, our love for kayaking and outdoor adventures continue. Thank you for being part of this journey and for making Go Kayak a place to grow, connect, and belong.

See you in Nature!

Yves Aquin & Patti Stevens

Siska Christmas Lunch

by Delcie McLellan

Saturday December 5th 2026

That time of year is fast approaching!

Once again the club will be hosting the very popular annual Christmas Party lunch at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club on Beach Drive.

Bookings will open in mid November and all club members will receive an invitation to register and pay. Mark the date in your calendar as seating sells quickly!

Come along and enjoy a wonderful buffet meal, have chances to win one of the many great door draw prizes donated by our local retailers, take on the challenge of the fun game of Heads or Tails, and most importantly socialize with friends as the Christmas season begins.

The delicious buffet lunch, with vegetarian options, will include tea, coffee and desserts. The chef will cater for gluten-free as well as other special diets. There will be a pay as you go bar.

The event will be from 11:45 am until 3:00pm.

More details including pricing will follow at a later time.

Thank You Siska for Your Partnership

by Ginny Flood

As many will already know, Crystal Pool has closed and while there will be access for swimming programs, unfortunately there is no room for accommodating kayaks. We received the following message from Crystal Pool thanking us for our partnership.

Hello Community Partners and Clubs,

This Friday will be the final day of operations at Crystal Pool & Fitness Centre, marking the end of 55 years of service and an important step toward construction of the new Crystal Pool and Wellness Centre.

We have been fortunate to work alongside organizations that are deeply committed to serving our community, and we are grateful for the role you have played in making Crystal Pool such an important part of the community for generations of patrons and staff.

As we prepare for the transition to the Victoria Recreation Centre at 851 Broughton St., we will continue to share updates on application timelines, pool scheduling and rental opportunities as those details are confirmed. The necessary repairs and improvements at the Victoria Recreation Centre continue, and our goal remains to have the facility open for early 2027. We appreciate your patience and will be in touch as information becomes available. We look forward to welcoming you into this refreshed space, which will serve as our home for the next several years.

If you have any questions regarding existing contracts or the transition process, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Thank you again for your partnership, patience and ongoing support. We look forward to continuing to work together in this next chapter.

Sincerely,

Lauren (on behalf of the Recreation Team)

Siska Library

by Heather Jones

If you have borrowed any books or DVDs from the library before summer, please return them at our next SISKA meeting.

Thanks
Heather

Trip Reports

Hudson Point (Saltspring Island) Multi-day Camping Paddle

by Pat Hill

Full Report

Paddling Desolation Sound

by Dan Dunaway

Full Report

SISKA Broken Group Lodge Trip Report — September 13–18, 2026

by Sarah Hood

Sunday

The trip began, as all SISKA trips must, with an epic eruption of IKEA bags across the Secret Beach ramp — how anyone keeps their gear straight remains a mystery. Those who camped at Secret Beach Saturday night emerged damp and dewy from an overnight soak, yet they still honoured the sacred SISKA Way: showing up an hour early and yet still packing boats at the last possible second. Three rebels broke ranks and launched 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, in a stunning reversal of tradition, the water taxi group was miraculously ready two hours before boarding and scored a ride on an earlier boat. Once at the lodge, spare time was filled by the new barrel sauna, the hot tub, and a yoga session for the ambitious. The evening paddle meeting included a leadership transition from Konrad to Liz, bringing in a sweeping institutional reform: beer, not whiskey would be the prize for leader of the most popular paddle. The next day’s three paddles were showcased and the usual sign-up frenzy ensued.

Monday

All three paddles were deemed equally awesome. The Wouwer Wall wowed, though apparently not as “wow-worthy” as on a sunny day. The "Toni Onley paddle" crept slowly into Jarvis/Jaques lagoon with lots of pokey poking, while the Nettle Noodlers enjoyed a zen outing highlighted by a porpoise sighting and an extensive search for faces on Reeks Island with many candidates, until THE face was finally confirmed with photo evidence. Lunch on Dempster survived a high tide attempting to steal the boats. On the outer island paddle A "minor incident” was reported with Paul feigning dizziness and fatigue convincingly enough to earn the inaugural Guinness Zero for acting, while Sarah's reaction upon discovering the ruse was unprintable in a family newsletter. In the evening after the announcement of the next day’s paddle plans, Edgar provided an informative overview of navigation aids which confirmed that many of us still don’t know port from starboard.

Tuesday

The Dodderers paddle got creatively lost, circumnavigating Willis instead of Dodd Island after turning around two or three times due to distracted navigation. As the first group out in the morning and last ones to return, it was possibly the slowest 12nm ever recorded. The Mullins paddle group pivoted plans entirely, rescued a duck from a cave on Gibraltar, and remained inconclusive as to whether the Reeks Island face was spotted. The Pinkertons paddle crew got charmingly lost among the islands before lunch on Hand Island and an afternoon bear sighting sent them home early. During the evening paddle meeting, Konrad diligently tried to offload the real-beer prizes, as the popular near-beer options were running dry.

Wednesday

The water-taxi group went back to Wouwer to see the wall in a better light and returned via Wiebe, the Elbow Group and Jarvis in a fairly straight line back to the Lodge. Whales were spotted. The Mid Island paddle's motto, "don't make a wake, and find any dead end" led to extensive poking through the Trebles and a snubbing by the outer islands group who refused to join them for lunch on Keith Island. The shortest paddle of the day (and best bear video) was along Alma Russel Island and Julia Passage. This group also saw whales without paying $115 for a water taxi. Ha! Following the evening paddle reports and sign-ups, Liz unleashed Broken Group Jeopardy upon an unsuspecting lodge. A fiercely contested, gloriously chaotic affair featuring blatant attempts at cheating, questionable alliances, and impressively confident wrong answers. Team Broccoli emerged victorious amid much grumbling from teams Potato and Pineapple.

Thursday

The water-taxi group visited Clarke and Benson Islands, had lunch on a spectacular island south of Turret and noodled along the outer coast all the way to the Pinkertons. The "Dempster Highway" group covered 7 nm via Nettle, Gibraltar, Dempster, Mullins and Keith Islands. There was some “passing between rocks” with minimal swell and helmeted paddlers, of course! This group achieved the earliest lunch award with an 11am lunch stop. The smallest group of four paddlers planned a short paddle in the Pinkertons but somehow managed an 11.9 nm “channel to channel” paddle that detoured toward bears and whales, almost circumnavigated Alma Russell (but didn’t) eventually made it to the Pinkertons and Hand Island, before finally returning to the Lodge as the last group in. At the evening paddle meeting Konrad got rid of the last of the prize beers, and Liz showed a slide show of our collective photos and videos from the week (enough with the bear video already!).

Closing Night

Thanks were given all around to Liz for doing a splendid job organizing the trip, to Konrad for three steady years at the helm, to the lodge staff for their excellent care, the great food and packed lunches, and to Heather and Ginny for daily yoga on the lido-deck. Next year's dates are already on the table, so stay tuned and plan to sign up early once announced.

Photo Gallery

Sea Kayak Baja México 26/27

by Jane Jacek

Information

Tips From The Trips

by Debbie Leach

SEA and BE SEEN. Using a headlamp when doing crossings helps boat traffic notice you, especially in low light conditions. We turned our lights around when boats were approaching from behind and they veered away.

Camp Cookery

by Lynn Baier

Gigabyte Tour - Jay’s On-Site Baking

Part 1

On this year’s Tim Frick ‘Gigabite’ tour on Pender, I had the distinct pleasure of trying Jay’s on-site baking. When I requested recipes etc., he graciously sent me this fulsome reply…….

The bread recipe is super simple, (water flour salt and yeast) but it is a little bit of a learning curve to get it to bake nicely on a camp stove. But I have made it with both alcohol burner stoves and gas stoves. The biggest challenge is figuring out how to gauge the internal temperature of you pot/stove set up. Ideally you would like to get the internal temperature to about 475 for 20 to 25 min. (it only take a flame on very low setting to get this with the right set up. The other deterrent is it is not instant. While the actually working time is about 10 min. You have you mix it the night before and bake the next day as it takes about 18 hours to rise( the rise time is flexible between 12hours up to 24 hours).

My 2 most successful setup are. 1.1 liter titanium pot with and 5”x2” internal aluminum pot. The titanium heats up and transfers heat very quickly and the aluminum pot holds and distributes heat nicely. The internal pot sits on a small bracket to allow air flow all around the pot including the top and bottom. It is helpful to have little hole in the lid to help vent the steam for a drier bake.

The other set up is called an apple oven and is an aluminum pot like a bunt pan suspended in a stainless-steel pot and the outer bottom pot has a hole in it to allow heat and internal air circulation.

With basic recipe you can add all kinds of different combinations of “ inclusions” for various types of breads, ie seeds, cheese, jalapenos. Things that will spoil can be added and folded in to the dough just before backing. Otherwise it can be added into the dry ingredients at the beginning of the process.

My favorite to add to the basic recipe is to add about a teaspoon of brown sugar, teaspoon of cinnamon, about 1/4cup of dried apples and ¼ cup of raisons.

Pro tip; putting parment paper on the bottom of the pot the dough goes into evens out the bake and reduces any chance of burning the bottom of the bread. Alternative baker mold release is shortening/butter dusted with left over flour. (I use ghee because it is shelf stabile). On trips I mix the dry ingredients together and vacuum seal it and then all I need to do is add water to make my dough.

P.S. I attached a few different pics of bread being made out camping, a pic of pear almond cake and cheese cake baked on a camp stove too! It’s fun to try to see what can be baked in a simple set up.

Basic No Knead Bread

Ingredients -

Bread Flour 1 cups
Table Salt 1/2 teaspoon
Instant or active dry yeast 1/8 teaspoon or less
Cool Water 1/2 cup
Extra Flour for dusting

Instructions -

Stir together flour, salt and yeast until wet sticky dough, about 30 seconds
Put in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, leave to rise until it about doubles in size 12-18 hours.
When fermentation is complete, dust a work surface with flour. Scrape dough on to cutting board in one piece.
Gently lift the edges into the center nudge and tuck the edges of the dough to make it round.
Place a cotton or linen towel on the work surface and generously dust with flour.
Use the scraper or your hands to gently lift the dough onto the cloth so the seam side is down.
Cover and leave in draft free to rise for 1 – 2 hours more until it roughly doubles in size
Preheat oven and pot to 475
Carefully invert dough, seam side up and place in hot pot and cook for ~50min, bake until Carmel colour.
Remove and put on a rack to cool and allow to “sing” while it finishes cooking.

Part 2

The Apple oven is no longer available as far as I could find, and its equivalent is many $$$$ so I improvised…….

I found a four inch angel food mini and put it on top of my jetboil pot rest. I don’t have an appropriate thermometer so I just got the pot hot and then put the pan in. My first attempt resulted in something that resembled a lump of coal, but with all subsequent bakes, I turned the flame down to as low as it could go, and they all worked. I found the setup very forgiving.

Here’s my bread:

I followed the recipe and then baked it for 35 minutes

Angel food cake:

This is an ‘add water’ mix that I divided into six servings. The bake was about 15 minutes on very low.

Chocolate Cake:

This is a ‘wacky’ cake recipe (no eggs or milk) that I divided into six, added a 1/2 tsp of vinegar and a tbsp of oil, with three tbsps of warm water. It took about 15 minutes to bake.

Cinnamon Buns:

After the initial dough rise, I broke it into 6 balls and rolled them in cinnamon sugar before putting them into the angel food pan to rise another hour in a warm spot. The bake was about 35 minutes. Next time I will mix a bit more cinnamon in with flour and use brown sugar and cinnamon to roll them in. That will have to wait until I lose the five pounds I gained with all this experimenting. :-(

Have fun in the camp kitchen!

Safety Item - How To Safely Carry a Sea Kayak

by Sybil Seitzinger

Be Kind to Your Kayak — and Your Back!

Safety is important both on and off the water. Getting your kayak to and from the water safely matters—for both you and your boat. A loaded sea kayak can be very heavy. Carrying it by the end toggles can put considerable stress on the handles and deck fittings—which aren’t designed for heavy loads. And lifting a heavy kayak awkwardly can put considerable stress on your back as well.

A few simple precautions:

Unload first. Don’t rush. Remove heavy items such as food, water, dry bags, and other gear before carrying your kayak whenever possible. A few minutes spent unloading can make a big difference.
Support the hull and share the load. When moving a heavy or loaded kayak, enlist two people—one at each end—to support the boat from underneath the hull and coordinate the lift. Don’t rely on the end toggles to carry a heavy boat.
Protect your back. Use good lifting technique: keep the load close to your body and avoid twisting or bending while lifting. Communicate so everyone lifts, carries, and lowers the kayak together.
Use a cart. If you need to move your kayak with gear still inside, a kayak cart may be a better option where conditions permit.
For very heavy boats, enlist four people. For a double kayak or a heavily loaded boat, use four people if available. It is not recommended to carry kayaks by holding onto the cockpit combing. This is especially the case for composite kayaks such as fiberglass or Kevlar: although the cockpit rim is rigid, excessive weight or uneven lifting can stress or crack the material around the cockpit. Instead use carry straps for carrying heavily loaded boats. – see next month’s post on how Gary and Lynn have made carry straps.
Remember: A heavily loaded kayak isn’t worth a damaged boat—or an injured back. Unload it, get help, or use a cart.

BC Marine Trails News

September Newsletter

SISKA's Kayak Lodge Partner Offerings

by Jane Jacek

Want to explore the West coast of Vancouver Island by kayak and stay in top notch accommodation?

The following lodges are offering discounts to SISKA members. Members can view full details of the current offerings by logging in to our website clicking on Members, then Documents. Then go to Resource Info and click on SISKA Kayak Lodge Partner Offerings.

Sea Otter Lodge

Sea Otter Lodge is a secluded private island retreat in Kyuquot on the Wild West Coast of Vancouver Island perfect for groups ranging in size from 2-12 people. Come & discover British Columbia's most untouched wild coastal region.

Kagoagh Resort and Fishing Lodge

Welcome to Kagoagh Resort and Fishing Lodge, a unique coastal retreat just a 20 minute boat ride from Coal Harbour on the rugged northwest coast of Vancouver Island. It features eight spacious guest rooms. Come and discover this remarkable and remote part of the coast.