Orcas/Jones/Yellow/Blind Islands
Summer 2002 - Two Nights
Our son was 18 months old when we decided it was time to get back on the water. We were fairly experienced kayakers before kids (and by now thinking we were getting the hang of the whole parenthood thing) so we figured it was time to get back to enjoying one of our favorite pastimes. Surprisingly, in '02 there was not much information out there about kayaking with children. After some more research and some careful consideration, we put together an outing that was essentially a cut down version of one of our shorter pre-child San Juan Island trips. Well... it was a good trip (er, learning experience) but If you have read our "A Great First Trip in the San Juan Islands" post, you have already figured out that our route above looks a little longer than optimal...
The Orcas to Jones leg was perfect! Calm wind and slack current, with the kid sacked out and the self rescue gear deployed (communications in the dry bag in front and the pre-inflated paddle float behind) we were ready for anything. We were a little apprehensive about taking a young child kayaking so we made sure to go with a group of friends... one of them was nice enough to humor us and play "water dog" (the water rescue guys who jump out of helicopters). He wore a wetsuit (probably lost 40 lbs on the crossing 'cause this leg of the trip was pretty warm) and stayed within a boat-length the whole trip!
We made it to the beach on the west side of Jones in a couple of hours. Even though we did time the crossing to coincide with our son's normal nap we were still surprised (and lucky) that he slept most of the way.
Catching the sunset! The west side of Jones is a great spot for watching the sunset. However, there were a lot of things that did not cross our minds when we chose this side of the island. For one thing, we were still in "adult thinking mode". Not only was the crossing a bit long (although we did luck out this time), the site is not ideal for children. The campsites are located along a small bluff between the beach and woods. This is all beautiful, and great for adults, but there is not much space for a small child to toddle around and it heightened the concern for his safety (there is a 10' drop right behind the tree my wife is leaning on...). If Jones Island is on your itinerary and you are kayaking with children, we would recommend landing on the south beach and camping near the meadow there instead!
After spending the night on Jones, we headed south. Our original plan for this trip was to spend the next night on Turn Island. We figured that we would break up the long crossing (a glimmer of the awakening parental consciousness) with stopovers on Yellow Island and at Friday Harbor.
After landing on the south side of Yellow Island we decided to have a quick snack break... only to have a park ranger walk briskly over and inform us that we could not eat on the island (among other important but prohibited paddling break activities). Apparently in the years that passed since the last time I had been on the island it was turned into a nature preserve and the old house converted into a ranger/research station. I am all for that, but it did put a crimp in the plan. We did finally talk the ranger into letting our child eat, and he was helpful in telling us about the public land located on the NW side of McConnell Island where we could carry on our previously planned snack break (no camping allowed there however). While we were on Yellow, we caught up on the latest research findings on the historic Native American horticulture on the island (harvest of camas bulbs... the edible ones were tended on the uplands, the inedible ones were dug up and tossed to the shoreline... a pattern you can still see when they are in bloom). There is also a very romantic marker inscribed with two poems on the east point... left there by Lewis and Elizabeth Dodd, who settled there in 1947 and then sold the island to the Nature Conservancy in 1979. A very beautiful island, but by now stomachs were growling and we decided to head to the
spit on the NW corner of McConnell Island to resume our previously
scheduled snack break.
When we hit the beach at McConnell our son was in playful mode, crawling in and out of our friends singles. We had a nice break here but the weather had started to take a turn for the worse. A strong southerly was starting to kick up and we figured that if we were going to make it to Turn Island we better get going. The further south we went, the stronger the wind was getting and whitecaps were now visible all the way to Friday Harbor. This is the defining point in any trip with kids... the bail-out point! Sure, we could have plowed through, and our wetsuit wearing gung-ho friend was willing to continue on (maybe secretly hoping for a chance to really rescue someone) but reason (and some advance research on possible alternate routes) prevailed. We chose to change course to the east, knowing that the waters there were sheltered and if conditions deteriorated further, we could always return to our Orcas Island launch point, pack up, and head to East Sound for a dry change of clothes and warm coffee! As it turned out, the conditions did improve somewhat. With the light showers abating and the wind getting lighter we decided to salvage the two night version of our trip by camping on Blind Island. It was a brief weather respite, and from here on out the camera was put in a dry bag. With scattered showers and sketchy forecasts coming in over the VHF we had a nice (if not slightly rushed) dinner on Blind and crawled into the tents. In the next morning's rain, we beat a hasty retreat back to the cars (and on to East Sound, dry clothes and coffee...)
It is worth mentioning patience, flexibility and bail-out plans here once again. This trip could have turned out much worse if we had proceeded to Turn the night before. Not only would the crossing to Turn been sketchy, we would also have been heading further away from our launch beach. Although there would have still been options for bailing out of Turn, none would have been as convenient as spending the night on Blind.
Like they say... this was not our first rain shower. All in all it was a positive experience and we learned quite a bit. We also made good decisions in not-so-perfect conditions. After going through the recap on the ferry ride home, and thinking about how our son reacted to the whole event, we chalked the trip up to a huge success!
