5 days in a kayak on the ocean, yup I was more than a little nervous and I am still sore! Keith had contacted Tim at San Juan Kayak Adventures. Keith informed him of our original plan which was paddling around San Juan Island. This we were informed was terrible idea due to currents and such, so we followed the itinerary he set up for us. The plan was this: start on June 6th on Jackson Beach on San Juan Island, just south of Friday Harbor, paddle over to Jones Island to camp for the night, the next day paddle to East Sound to stay at a B&B for the night, then paddle to Obstruction Bay for a night of camping, with the last night camping on Shaw Island, then back to where we started on June 10th. It sounds so easy!
Looking back, the first day was incredibly easy, which of course did not stop me from complaining from time to time. The water seemed so calm that is felt like we were on a massive lake instead of the ocean. There was that time that we almost got run over by a giant ferry-but we didn't! And that ended up not actually being really scary-scary was the next day! The constant sight of harbor seals eased the pain as they did their best impressions of rocks in the water. At times it seemed like they were everywhere. Their heads were always popping out of the water in front of the boat-it was really adorable! With their white faces and big black eyes peering at us from the water, they reminded me of the friendly tree spirits in the movie Princess Mononoke.
The second day, oh the second day! What was actually a pretty short distance paddle from Jones Island to East Sound turned out to be a little crazy. The wind picked up pretty early in the day and we were fighting against it and the current all morning. As the day went on, the bigger the waves got and the more I started to panic. And poor Keith, as I did not hide any of my crazy fears all day. We stopped in a Doughty Point for a lunch break and a brief break from the waves. Keith hiked around the point to try to get a good vantage point of what we were facing next and the report was not good: Two currents met at the point so the waves were going every which way and the waves were pretty big and the wind was not stopping. So we had to decide, do we take a break for a few hours and see if conditions get any better or do we just go. We just went. Damn it was scary. Keith thinks the waves were 3-6 feet, but sitting in a kayak they seemed more like 10 to 20 feet. While Keith had part of the Beatles song Revolution going through his head (Don't you know it's gonna be all right, all right, all right), I was talking to myself, repeating 'You are no panicking' aloud over and over and I did not panic! I just paddled at hard as I could. And we got through it! Keith had noticed a space very close to the point, where the waves weren't quite as big as they were a little further out, but kept us far enough away from the point that we would get smashed into the rocks. We threaded that needle and made it. While it was not the end of the rough seas, it was the worst of it and it was over. By the time we made into East Sound it was time to check in our B&B, The Kangaroo House. As I was both emotionally and physically drained, I took the best nap ever! I can not say how happy I am that we chose to stay in a B&B and not camp that night. Napping and hot tubing, I did not really need anything else (except maybe not to eat camp food)! I already thought that the Kangaroo House was a wonderful choice, but really fell in love when they gave us some very delicious warm, fresh cookies before we left.
As we were out on the third day (the never ending third day!) we got to see a lot of the wildlife that the San Juan's are known for. There are 50 bald eagle pairs in the islands and it feels like we saw about half of them! But this particular afternoon was pretty cool. We watched as a bald eagle dove down from amazing heights to catch a fish. It then dragged it through the water back to shore and started feasting. This was all pretty amazing to watch-but then the show really got started! Another bald eagle came out of nowhere to attack and steal the fish from the other eagle. Up to this point it had been kind of hard to get a good shot of the eagles because they always flew away when we got close or they were too high up in the trees. These two were not going anywhere!
The fourth day on the water was Keith's 31st birthday! That day a attempted to give him a day with very little whining-I think I did a decent job. We had a relatively light day of paddling and even stopped near the ferry terminal on Shaw Island for an afternoon chai. After a much needed warm up (it is always cold on Keith's birthday!) we made it to Indian Cove for our last night of camping at the only campground on Shaw Island.
The last day on the water was another cold day, but since we barely got rained on the whole time it really wasn't too bad! We met Tim back at the beach where we had started at noon and in no time we were back in the Friday Harbor waiting with an incredibly loud gaggle of middle schoolers to get on the ferry. The whole time we were kayaking, we wished it was all a little more remote, we could have done with less massive mansions and motorboats, but waiting for the ferry made me realize just how peaceful and quite the last few days had been.
Before we knew it, we were in Seattle gorging ourselves at Pike's Place market surrounded by more people then live in Wallowa County.
Now we're back home and the crested chickens started to crowing this morning. Since they are now officially roosters, we may be having very fresh chicken for dinner this evening-more about that to come!
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