San Juan Islands Aug 1994

Our first multi-day kayaking trip. August 3 – 8th 1994. We set off on an adventure that we really did not know what we were doing. Sure we paddled around the Semiahmoo Bay for the last year. Bean was a willing camper and Stew had plenty of camping experience when he was younger. Neither of us had done this type of thing before but we were willing to give it a go. We did some preliminary work but the big breakthrough was purchasing the San Juan Islands tourist map at the Anacortes Ferry terminal. That turned out to be the best road map. Water ways not sure much but at least we knew where we were.

Tides, What tides?? Current, there is one? That was the limit of our seafaring knowledge. A certain recipe for disaster or just plain frustration so that we would never do this again. I am just a little person. That is a big boat. I had purchased a Nimbus Solander the year before and then we got another Boat ( Nimbus Lootas) which quickly became my boat and left Stewart with the Solander. We had bought all the light camping gear we needed which left us with a lot of space in our boats. Who knew they could take so much stuff. Yes, Bigger drybags are better. NOT!!!! Try taking them out a few times and we learned quickly.

We left Anacortes by Car Ferry and landed on Orcas Island. Heading for a place called Deer Harbour to launch and paddle over to Jones Island for the first stop in our Kayaking adventure. This was going to be our first anniversary and if we can live through this we can make it the rest of the way. Fingers crossed as it might be the best way to end it all as well.

We launched successfully and started to paddle over to Jones Island. Not too far away. We should be there in no time at all. As we started to come out of the Bay we quickly noticed paddling to gain headway seemed a lot more difficult than normal. In fact we even seemed to be going sideways at he same time. Gosh, who thought this would happen. Wow, if we did not have to paddle hard or we would have missed the island and ended up at the top of President’s channel heading out into the straight. Stew seemed to be fairly well but boy did I have to push to keep up. My little bit of weightlifting in the past was coming back to help me.  While we started to head to the south side of the island we ended up in the boat cove at the north end of the island. Not a bad start. We arrived. Pulled up to the beach and unloaded our gear. We picked a spot up in the tree at one of the Sites. There was a few boaters around and were being a lot friendly with the deer. There were a lot of them and so calm. Did not flinch so much as a whisker and they would eat out of your hand if you had something nice for them.

Well we set up camp and made a little dinner. Not long did we notice we had some company around. Those pesky raccoons or at least they have become well known to us now. The first night for dessert Bean had packed popcorn in the tinfoil pan. We cooked it up over the fire. Of course burnt a little in the bottom. Not finishing, I thought to put it away form our camp site for now and would dispose of it tomorrow. Sitting quietly by the campfire the world beside us went nuts. There was screeching, hissing and all sorts of other noises like a huge cat fight going on. The raccoons were fighting over the burnt popcorn. It was crazy. So flashlight on, rescue the remaining bits of tinfoil and popcorn, we head over to the garbage containers and take care of it like we should have in the first place. who knew.

Time to settle in. Yes it was going well for a few minutes but those pesky raccoons came again. they surrounded the camp. We thought we had put everything away. They were screaming away again in the campsite and then I hear a pop and dripping. Oh crap they got the water bags. Making Stewart jump up and rush out of the tent to take on these little buggers and save the water. Luckily the duct tape was not too far away and we saved the water bag. Now we put everything away into the boats in the dark and strapped them all down. Nothing left but us and the tent outside. Going back to sleep was a little rough as our friends kept coming back for a visit to check things out. With the occasional yell or hitting of the side of the tent we managed to survive the night.

The next morning we packed our gear and what was left of our water and cleaning up the left over popcorn we launched our Kayaks to head down to Turn Island. We know it is that way according to the tourist Map and it has a little tent on the Map. As we rounded the top of Jones Island we paddled south and were making good time. Actually making real good time. We seem to be expert paddlers as we are moving so quick. then we come by this little islet (Yellow Islet)off Shaw Island and notice the ripple in the water. Oh, is it getting shallow and moving quickly over the rocks. There must be a current here and we are experiencing our first tidal rapid over this underwater reef. Thank goodness it was not more than a ripple in the water and we were going with it. Must have been good planning? It did not take us long and we were at Turn Island. Almost too quick as we did not feel that we paddled that far. Well we set up our tent on the beach as it looked really inviting. There was nobody on the island that we could see and it was a nice spot.

We went for a walk around Turn Island on a nice little trail. I remember looking at to the channel marker and seeing how fast the water was moving and the boil of the tidal rapids in this area. I was quite glad to be on land. We set to bed early that night as it was getting cloudy and looked like it might rain. Part way through the night the thunder began and the rain soon followed. Lucky for us the tent was new and we did stake it down. Stewart’s previous camping experience did come in handy. In the morning we stayed in a little late while waiting for the rain to stop. Upon getting out We realized how close the water had got to the tent over night. Tide, what tides??? Who new that we would be parking ourselves so close to the water’s edge. Close to disaster. Another lesson learned. We must pay attention to the tides when setting up the tent if we wanted to sleep by the water on a nice little beach.  Again we packed up after breakfast and decided to head to Blind Island at the north end of Shaw Island. Off we go across from Turn Island to the South Side of Shaw. Heading over to the island we quickly noticed that if we headed straight to the island we would completely miss the mark. We were heading south so quick we had to adjust. Be the time we figured this out we likely made a big long bend across the channel. We did make it after a few bumps along the way. Tide was not running too quick yet and the tide rapids had not yet appeared.

Heading up between Shaw Island and Lopez was quite easy but we seemed to be taking forever. Boy we were moving so fast yesterday and today we seem to be a pair of slugs on the water. Yes OK, we got it that we were paddling against the current. OK, another lesson learned get a current chart and see when the best time to go is. It took most of the day to get to the top and around Shaw Island and found little Blind Island. I think there was 2 spots to camp on the the island and only one spot to land. Over all it was a neat but tiny island. Not quite what we imagined. This was our first Anniversary and what a nice spot to call home for a night. Not much to do here as we could be across the island in about 30 seconds. Still we set up a nice camp and made out Anniversary Dinner. Happy First Anniversary. If we don’t burn the food in the little tin pots we purchased at Mountain Magic and eat off the tin plates that had the food cold in about 30 seconds. Lucky for Stew, he eats quick. We tried our warm Coors light for desert and headed to bed. Happy Anniversary.

The next morning we paddled back to Deer Harbour where we packed the car with all our gear and loaded the kayaks for a trip home. We checked out Orcas Island, Drove to Mount constitution and had a wonderful view of where we just had paddled. It was nice to see it all.  We stayed of another night as our Anniversary gift at the Rosario Resort. Just one night. That’s all we could afford. Such as great experience after our first trip. Now the gear is in the car heating up it did not take long for us to figure out the gear needed to be headed home and cleaned right away. This is the hardest part of the trip and over the years we have learned it does not get any easier. We did enjoy the trip so much that we did not take long to begin planning our next adventure.

Turn Island – Friday Harbour

Blind Island – North side of Shaw Island

Deer Harbour and Home