Living on the most eastern of the San Juan archipelago islands, Fidalgo island, the variety of trip & training paddle routes from here are endless. While strong currents do exist in nearly every channel surrounding our island shores, learning how to use these currents to travel in the back eddies, the mid-channel-river-like 'green tongue', along with harnessing the strength of the winds (with kayak sails), is what paddling the San Juans is all about to us... Efficiency. Speed. Using what Nature offers to help us achieve our paddling (distance travelling & racing speed) goals. Which sometimes mandates a combination of styles & skills from river and sea kayaking mixed in with occasional surfing and sailing. Adreline rushes. Personal Speed Records. Risk-taking. Innovation. ~Paddle the Islands and let Nature Inspire.~

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Fall trip to Jones island

Steve, Jim & I couldn't resist the calling of the islands this weekend with the summer-like-weather on Sat., so we loaded our kayaks & set off for another weekened outing of paddling adventures in the San Juan islands... We launched Sat. morning into Guemes Channel and were spoiled with perfect glass-like conditions all day and dreamy fall temp's near 60F! Crossing the 3 shipping lanes in our usual leap-frog route, over Guemes to Bellingham Channel & then around the south end of Cypress island to Rosario Strait, *which was unusually busy this particular morning, with shipping lane traffic, causing us to stage at the SW end of Cypress island for about 20 min's as 4 BIG shipS passed by - including a tug & barge and then a closely following freighter while we were nearby...
Then on with the currents through Peavine Pass to take a peaceful lunch break on Blakely island...bellies full, back into boats we went to paddle across Eastsound, down Harney Channel along miles and miles of Orcas island shorelines across Westsound, through super narrow & shallow Poe Pass ending the day at just over twenty-something miles of paddling...
~ to finally set up camp at our favorite campsite ,
on the south end of Jones island We enjoyed a Spectacular star-studded night, bright half moon, warming campfire, visits from racoons, deer, eagles & seals....
Sunday we slept in, took our time packing up & set off, weaving through Yellow & Wasp islands, with more close-up nature sightings of hauled out seals, harlequin ducks & greebees....and then across San Juan Channel on over to pull out at the convenient kayak docks in Friday Harbor...
The Ultimate grande finale of our trip occured just before we entered Friday Harbor, when two HUGE steller sea lions appeared quite close to Steve & started having a feeding frenzy on big salmon....it was absolutely Amazing to observe....
Once back in dry clothes, we met up with our friend & fellow paddler David Halpern for lunch, sharing stories & laughs!
...then wheeled our boats onto the ferry and enjoyed a free ride back to Anacortes, just as the winds & rains were really picking up...
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