Navigating the Inside Passage’s Relentless Rain and Cold

By Tom McGuire

Bob’s experience today was the type of weather that could challenge even the most experienced paddlers: Susan Conrad, Dennis Dwyer, and Robert Miller. It was a typical summer day with a gentle, steady drizzle that was most welcome in other places but unwelcome in these waters. By noon, it was a downpour, with temperatures hovering at 55 degrees and no wind to dry the soggy, cold air. This is the stuff of adventure on the Inside Passage.

In spite of the conditions, Bob pushed on from 9:30 in the morning until about 4 in the afternoon, Bob was out on the water, taking it on the chin and completing 9 miles of paddling. Drenched to the bone, cold water seeping through his raingear by the time he was finished paddling.

Bob turned off his Garmin and after a quick change of gear, he headed off to dinner readying himself to continue to fight the Inside Passage another day.

Bob Rein a group of people standing next to a boat on a river bank with kayaks on the shoreBob in a kayak on a lake and a rock outcroppingBob Rein group of people in a canoe on a lake near a forest area with rocks and trees in the backgroundBob Rein a man and a woman in a canoe on a lake with trees in the backgroundBob Rein in a red jacket is in a boat on a lake with trees and a forest in the backgroundBob Rein in a red jacket standing in front of a forest with treesBob Rein people standing on top of a hill near a lake and forest in the background with a cloudy skyBob Rein tree stump by the water edge with mountains in the background and fog in the skyBob Rein standing in the woods together smiling for a picture with a cabin in the backgroundGroup of canoes on a rocky shore near a body of water with trees in the background and a cloudy sky