The crew will be getting together this evening in Olympia for a planning session… more discussion of the route and the specific itinerary, as well as different thoughts on the filming process – what to “focus on,” if you will. Every one of these meetings gets us closer to the day of departure and it’s hard not to feel some sense of excitement about the whole thing, and the anticipation really feels like part of the journey.

I’m looking forward to the coastline, to the many ins and outs, the places that are mostly hidden and so out-of-the-way that they receive very few visitors, if any. There are not many chances in the course of a normal day to get to places like these; if anything, the modern man and woman is crammed together too closely, one with another, packed into places that are anything but wild and untouched. In that respect, at least, we are sure to enjoy the experience.

Of all the unique places we will get to, I am most looking forward to the caves. Cape Flattery has several (dozens?), but there are others along the route as well. Nothing quite compares to paddling through a cave entrance, moving from a wide-open world of light into a place of darkness and close quarters. And it’s not just the light that changes… sound is different underground too. Echoes of waves meeting the end of the cave, somewhere off in the deep shadows, sound very unlike waves crashing on a beach. The cries of birds and sea lions, unseen but still evident, are all part of the cave paddling experience.

And when you paddle out once more, out from the confines of the dark and back into the open sea, it feels a little like being reborn. It never gets old.