May 16-19, 2007
Rob and I launched from North Beach on Orcas Island, WA for the 9 mile paddle to Clark Island State Park. We planned on a four day trip spending Friday and Saturday on Clark then jumping on the flood Sunday morning for the trip to Succia Island. We followed the shoreline on Orcas taking full advantage of the back eddy that runs close to the shoreline during the flood. This is a full moon weekend so the currents were nice and strong. We arrived at Clark in early afternoon and set up our camp, as you can see by the attached picture some of the local residents turned their backs on us. The weather is absolutely beautiful with blue skies and 75 degrees. My formerly white skin is a now a nice reddish color as I forgot to apply sunscreen before jumping on the water. Due to the late spring and very cool weather the wild roses are not in bloom yet ( darn) but there as still a lot of hummingbirds buzzing around. If you do this paddle when the wild roses are in bloom you will see hundreds and hundreds of hummingbirds on this small island. We spent two days here in the sun, visiting with boaters and fellow kayakers who were enjoying our areas first taste of summer. I did bring my fishing gear along and managed to catch ( and release) several beautiful rock fish.
Sunday we jumped on the flood at 12:30 for the 10.5 mile paddle arriving on Succia Island at 3:00ish. Along the way we were twice surrounded by large pods of hunting porpoises.. very cool... When we arrived at Fox Cove on Succia we were the only two campers. A few sailboats were spending the night in the next bay but we had peace and quiet except for the crows, seagulls, eagles, cormorants, blue herons and many varieties of song birds that call the island home. Sunday evening a group of eight paddlers arrived, they were a group of friends who paddle over from North Beach just to have dinner ( wine and cheese ) then paddled back home. After all was quiet we saw a river otter which is now the third year in a row we have seen that family, they seem to be doing well.
Monday we were up at 5:30 to the call of the pesty crows, this day dawns cloudy with a few intermittent rain sprinkles. A beautiful rainbow has formed over the Canadian mountains to our west, very nice. After coffee and oatmeal the boats are packed and we are headed back to the 'real' world arriving back at North Beach at 8:15am and we have plenty of time to pack the car and catch the 10:20 ferry back to Anacortes.
Go visit the San Juan Island before or after the busy the summer months, you will enjoy...
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