| |
Sea Kayak Trips Bulletin Board
My Trip to the same area
Posted By: Jack Sanderson In Response To: Photos added to trip reports (Shawn Baker)
Date: Tuesday, 17 August 1999, at 4:55 p.m.
Shawn,
I just got back from 12 days vacation in the Seattle area and was in the San Juan's last week. While I only got to paddle one day but there were some interesting highlights that I think this BBS would enjoy.
I flew out from Boston with my wife, two kids(8 & 10), and some camping gear. We rented a mini-van and spent time in Downtown Seattle, Olymic National Park, and the San Juan Islands. We camped most of the time but stayed in a motel every 4 days or so to dry out and take a shower.
Highlights Of Interest
********Seattle**********
- Seattle Aquarium . Lots of fun particularly for the kids and focus on local wildlife. I was walking through the sea bird section and there staring me in the face was a real live Guillemot. Having spent 10 months building one (the kayak) without ever knowing what they (the bird) look like, I was quite pleased. I also saw a stuffed Guillemot in the Victoria Natural History museum.
- REI. I read some place that REI is one of the visited tourist destinations and I can now see why. It is huge with a 3 story climbing wall and just about any kind of gear imaginable
*********Port Townsend****************
Home of Pygmy Kayaks and the wooden boat capital of the world. You see Pygmy boats everywhere and even some of the outfitters were leading trips in S&G doubles. I also walked the docks of the marina ogling over the wooden boats. You can see every thing from 100ft 100 year old schooners to small day sailers. Some are so meticulously maintained they look like furniture others show the signs of hard working boats. I drove by one of the harbor front motels and though I saw two strip builts on a SUV. Anyone here in Port Townsend on Aug 7-8.
*********Olympic National Park*************
Had too much rain and fog but the Olympic peninsula is really an incredible place
- The Hoe Rainforest is in fact the rainest spot in North America (200+ inches/year) and ironically was the only sunny day we had on the peninsula. It sports enormous Sitka spruce trees (20 ft diameter and 150ft tall). I couldn’t help thinking the number of paddles that each of these trees would produce and alternately horrified at the thought of ever cutting one of them down for anything. I also saw large western red cedar every where on the peninsula.
- Wilderness Beaches This is of course an oxymoron on the East coast but there are miles of beaches accessible only by hiking. We camped right on the beach north of Mora campground. The beauty of the enormous driftwood logs, sea stacks and the sight of the pacific ocean gives it a feel of an outdoor sculpture garden for nature's art.
- Hurricane Ridge - Not much related to kayaks but it really is one of more spectacular views in the area.
*********The San Juan Islands*******************
Orcas Island - We camped for two days one of which we rented doubles and went out on 3 hr tour out of the ferry landing. Neither my wife nor my kids have much paddling experience so it was a good introduction to kayaks. We stayed close to shore seeing several harbor seals poking their heads up and seeing two bald eagles. The wind whipped after 1.5 hours and was blowing pretty good by the time we got back. We had a little bit of a scramble finding someone who would rent on short notice so you should make arrangements ahead of time. San Juan Island has many more outfitters. There is a 4k mountain with a stone tower on the top which is one of the most spectacular water views you will ever see.
San Juan Island - San Juan is more developed but still very lovely once you get out of Friday Harbor. We camped on some cliffs overlooking Haro strait and saw some spectacular sun sets. We also went on a whale watch that turned out to be an adventure. The killer whales decided to swim north the day we were to go out. Normally we would have resorted to a nature cruse but the young captain was goaded into trying to catch the whales with comments like "well if you boat is too slow to catch the whales then I guess you can't go....." With his manhood in jeperty the boat captain took off at max speed. It took two hours to catch up with the whales as they can swim 60mph. By that time we were north of Vancouver in the straits of Georga at the mouth of the Fraiser river. What a sight! 40 whales jumping, diving, and feeding off the salmon.
| |
Sea Kayak Trips Bulletin Board is maintained by Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks with WebBBS 5.12.
|
Kayak Trips |
|
|
|