Kayak Border Patrol

Evening light on Jones Island

The sky was black with the stars bringing only a hint of light to the shoreline while we slipped the double kayak into the water. We paddled silently into the darkness. Our quest was something prevalent in the murky depths surrounding the San Juan Island Sound and only visible during the night. We were seeking a living light… and we found more than we bargained for… A symphony!

 About 8 months previous, at the start of one of the colder Utah winters on record, I was looking for something to mark my 50^th birthday coming up in July of 2013. I’d read over the years about sea kayaking in the islands off the Northeast coast and around the San Juan Islands at the northwest corner of Washington. It had always seemed like a far off dream but I decided it was time to make this one come true. I did some research online and found an outfitter that seemed just right. I emailed with Tim at San Juan Kayak Expeditions, based in a little town called Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, and the plan was put in place and the date set.

When we finally met Tim and our 2 guides (Tara and Will) in Friday Harbor, we were excited for the unknown adventure that lay in front of us. Well, Huffygirl was actually feeling a little anxious about being in a teeny little kayak in large bodies of water for several days, but she had decided that she was going forward in spite of her fears. 4 days later, Tara asked us while we were paddling toward the take-out place of our journey what our favorite highlights were. Both of us were overwhelmed in trying to pick favorites from a smorgasbord of over-the-top experiences. At one point a couple of days earlier, I was trying really hard to permanently etch one of the magnificent views into my mind and Huffygirl asked if I was okay. I guess it’s hard to remember stuff really good without looking like you need to go to the bathroom or something. In trying to answer Tara’s question, here are a few highlights…

Panarama from Honeymoon Bay on Henry Island

-          Putting the paddle in the water for the very first stroke at the start of this trip. This had been a dream until that specific moment and now it was real. That is an amazing feeling.

-          There were so many bald eagles standing guard in trees along our 37 mile kayaking route. So majestic, it was if they were standing guard against unseen enemies, protecting all of us. I know they were really looking for surfacing sea life and helpless baby seals to snatch up, but it was way more fun to think of them as keeping us safe from border-crossing Canadians and such. We never tired of seeing the eagles…

-          Speaking of Canadians, Tara told us that she had been going over the map with members of a previous expedition when one lady asked what there was to stop Canadians from just crossing the border to the USA?! This caused us to watch the waters we crossed a lot more closely. We never saw anyone swimming but we also did not see any kind of floating border fence. Not only is it clear we’re doing very little to stem this international threat, but we saw sailboats and cruisers that were blatantly flying their Canadian flags high and proud. And as if to confuse the authorities (and the bald eagles), some boats even had both Canadian AND American flags! Clearly this is a problem that is not getting enough national attention.

Relaxed paddling behind Speiden Island

-          The seals! We saw so many either sunning on the shore or swimming and playing in the water. We learned that we were supposed to stay 200 yards from any seals we saw on the shore, but they clearly had no such rules as they sometimes appeared very close to our kayaks. One curious seal followed us for a bit as we fought the current behind Spieden Island. I guess he wanted to tell his Orca friends in case we biffed it in the rough water. Will told us not to look the seals in the eyes. I thought he was kidding so I stared straight at the next one we saw. I immediately felt a desire to eat mackerel and swim among the kelp beds and I cried out for Huffygirl. She held her paddle in front of my face and it broke the lock. I never looked another seal in the eyes.

-          Speaking of rough water, our large water channel crossings were amazing. A kayak sure seems small compared to just about anything when you are in rough choppy water from currents and wakes of both US and Canadian vessels. It was a perspective and part of the experience that had me on edge, attentive and aware that this was not the place to make a mistake in balance. Very cool.

From our tent on Posey Island

-          Every night, we got to place our tents in the most amazing spots! Always facing the water and always breathtaking.

-          Hiking completely around Yellow Island, a nature preserve with a live-in curator in the middle of the Sound. So much history and beauty. And some of the best skipping rocks I have ever seen! Seemed odd that is was called Yellow Island and there was not a single bathroom on the whole place…

-          Posey Island – maybe 100 yards long and 50 yards wide, covered with short trees and amazing views. We camped here one night and had the whole island to ourselves. We found tiny crabs, Spider Crabs and Hermit crabs by the dozens in the tide pools on the shore. The one little deer that kept us company on the island and we named Posy was so sweet. We kayaked over near Battleship Island to watch the sun set over the Canadian horizon. It was absolutely amazing to see the sunset from a kayak… It was hard to pull ourselves away to head back to our little island.

-          Jumping off an outcropping into the cold, clear, beautiful water of our own little lagoon on Jones Island. Will and I jumped in and each of us just about ran on top of the water trying to get out, it was so cold! But it was too fun and we kept jumping. Tara jumped too, but not before spending about 15 minutes talking herself into it (and trying to ignore the excellent humorous taunts from the other 2 jumpers who shall remain anonymous). I also found a large crab in a tide pool that pinched me hard! And a raccoon ransacked Will’s tent and stole a roll of toilet paper. We figured he must have been out and was desperate. This private lagoon was also where we went in search of the bioluminescence…

Sunset watching from kelp beds by Battleship Island

I had read about bioluminescence but could not really create a picture in my mind of what it really was. Tim told me Tara would take me out to see it. Tara had never seen it either, other than hints of it from shore. So at around midnight, we slipped into a kayak and pushed away from the shore into the darkness not exactly sure what we were going to find. And like magic, with the very first paddle stroke, the water lit up. Everywhere we disturbed the calm water, with the paddles or the kayak or our hands, colored light formed and swirled and trailed, marking our path in vivid display 20 feet behind us. I was in the back of the kayak and got to see the lights flowing off Tara’s paddle into the path of my own. Easy paddling produced more distinct and individual light streams while more vigorous effort lit up the sea around us. But the most fun was to drift calmly, letting everything go dark, then leaning over the edge with my face close to the water and using my hand to splash and swirl through though the water. It felt as if I was conducting my own Fantasia-like show. It reminded me so much of a movie that I saw earlier in the year called Life of Pi. I was giddy and felt as if I’d discovered a hidden wonderland in the Puget Sound. This was definitely a personal highlight during a trip of one pinnacle after another.

 

This was the kind of trip that was a full-contact sensory experience and one that I hope to repeat soon. Huffygirl and I were discussing just this morning who we know who might want to join us in helping the bald eagles in monitoring the border for those pesky Canadians…

I said Corona Pass, not pass the Corona!

Huffygirl and I decided Colorado was a good place to spend a week celebrating our country’s independence. It was also the week following our wedding and we were told the moon would look like honey. We looked and looked and it appeared more like a thin slice of moon pie than honey. Anyway, Fraser, Colorado became our home base for a few days and today, July 4th, we were headed to Corona Lake, near the top of Rollins Pass. We had explored some mountain biking paths earlier in the week and had visited the wildlife and the glaciers in Rocky Mountain National Park and now wanted to hike to a little backcountry lake for a relaxed day. The trail description stated, “Corona Lake is a 2 mile out and back trail located near Nederland, Colorado and is good for all skill levels.” There were other words like beautiful and historic in the description as well, but I latched on to the words, “good for all skill levels.” That was MY kind of trail!! Even though I trip over rocks a lot and get really tired, I have been walking for so dang long (almost 50 years!), that I felt I had to be on the upper end of the skill level scale.

Huffygirl called from the other room, “I have the first aid kit, dear. All set to go!” This was one of 7 first aid kits we received as wedding gifts. I have the best friends ever!

We allotted ourselves a whole afternoon since it was a pretty good drive into the mountains to get to the trailhead and we brought along some light raingear since it was July 4^th and it always rains on Independence Day. One of the first challenges was to find the dirt road that would take us to the Corona Lake trail. We used a little tourist map of Winter Park and got real close, I mean real close, but couldn’t quite get there on our initial attempts. We found a small road that we thought was right, and tried following some mountain bikers who seemed to be headed in the right direction. After a while, Huffygirl thought we might miss the evening fireworks at that pace so we gave up on them. We asked a local who told us the road was too rough and narrow and steep for my little Honda Civic and that he couldn’t tell us due to liability concerns. He looked straight at my passenger and said in a very deliberate and raspy voice, “A man’s got to know his limitations, Ma’am. If he has the brains to, I reckon.” Then he wished her good luck and he and his Gran Torino disappeared in a cloud of dust.

After a couple of failed attempts, we finally found ourselves on the proper road and seemed to be headed into the right direction. I was a little worried about the sign that said 4X4 vehicles only because I assume it meant 4 wheels and 4 passengers and we only had the 2 of us… The road itself was pretty rough and curvy, and we found ourselves adding lots of turns in the attempt to avoid rocks and potholes and small canyons. The Civic has a full 3 inches of clearance with the tires fully filled so I was sure we’d be fine. There were 2 spots where I got out and had to figure out a path through some obstacles. Huffygirl drove while I directed. She is always so good about noticing the cool sights… “Oh, at this angle, I can see straight to the bottom of this ravine!! And Sweetie, the drinks spilled from the drink holders again… ”

At some point, a big Jeep passed us with a guy and a girl – I think they were on a date. I’m pretty sure we could hear a female voice sharing, “I thought you told me this was a Jeep road that only big, tough, cool Jeeps could drive up?! I thought you said you would take me on a road that only a real man could handle??!! THAT WAS A CIVIC WITH 2 INCHES OF CLEARANCE! And that guy was clearly NOT a real man!” I was about to clarify that we had 3 inches of clearance but they bounced over a ledge in the road and were gone…

We rounded one corner and came upon an old railroad trestle bridge and decided we had to hike to it. It was raining pretty hard at this point and the hike to the railroad bridge was pretty steep, but we felt we had to see this piece of history up close. After slipping and scratching and digging, I finally reached the top where Huffygirl was patiently waiting. Standing next to a nice road, she sweetly asked, “Is this the same road we were already on?”

“No way”, I told her. It was clear that the little speck down below that was our car was on a very different road than the one that went right by this railroad bridge. And I’m sure the guy who drove by in the big truck who told us our windows were down was talking about a different champagne-colored Honda. On a completely different road.

The trestle bridge was pretty awesome. I squeaked past the big red and black “Danger” sign (they put it in an awkward place that really made it hard to get around) and scrambled onto the remains of the bridge and pretended I was a train (“Choo, choo!!”) and admired the pretty view. There were plenty of creaks and groans from the bridge (everyone’s a weight critic) and Huffygirl took some pictures and asked if we should maybe go roll our windows up. So we headed back down, traversing the small stream and waterfalls that had formed in the steep trail and got back to the car much faster that we had gotten to the bridge. We opened the doors to let out some water, rolled up the windows, and decided we’d better head back down the road before we slipped off the side.

The way down was much faster as we were generally able to just float along with the small uprooted trees and boulders that were being washed downhill. In spite of the rain, the mountains and squirrels and lakes and glimpses of the green valley below made this a spectacular drive. I was thinking this was one of the prettiest roads I had been on when Huffygirl brought me back to the present…

“Paddle, Huffyman, paddle!”