Malpeque Sandhills via Bird Island

On a day where the weather was looking a bit unpredictable (rain), I decided to make a kayak trip to Bird Island and maybe to the back of Lennox Island. It turned out to be an excellent paddling outing with incredible scenery, nature observations, interesting weather contrast photos, and no rain!  My usual launch point for the northwest area of Malpeque Bay is Gillis Point.  You go to Port Hill, and then take the Low Point Road to the end.  From there, you follow a track around Gillis Point through a farmer’s field.

Gillis Point to Malpeque sandhill

GE map view (track 14.2 km)

I planned to paddle across to Bird Island and re-evaluate the weather before heading any further. After a walk on the western side of Bird Island and capturing a few nature observations, I decided to keep going towards the Malpeque sandhills (Billy Hook Island). At this point, there was no sign of any severe weather – although it was starting to look overcast towards the southwest. 

Beautiful day heading to Bird Island

The tide wasn’t the highest, but I did manage to get to the sandhill at SHA75 (about 3 km to the SE of Hardy’s channel). There’s a steep sandy path over the sandhill at SHA75 – a bit of a challenge to climb over. I had my lunch at the top with a sea view that would be hard to beat in PEI. I did start to get a bit worried, the overcast sky was approaching from the west, and there was a good chance that I was paddling back in the rain.

Sandhill, looking east

Sandhill, looking west

Merganser kayak on Malpeque sandhill

After lunch, it was more nature observation photography on the sandhill shoreline.  By chance, the on-line HOBO sandhill weather station was just west of SHA75. The return paddle (6 km) was a direct route to Gillis Point while expecting to get rain (or worse) at any time. It was my lucky day! Even though the sky got dark and threatening, the rain and wind never materialize, and I got back without any weather issues.

One hour later approaching Gillis Point

I hope to make this trip again next year over a full day (minus the dark skies)!

For all iNaturalist observations recorded on this trip, click here.