After Cypress we knew we wanted to head north. I had never been to the outer islands of Matia, Sucia and Patos and our friends Laurel and Omar had also recommended we check out Lummi. They had told us about a secret spot they knew about on the southwest corner of Lummi Island where they had built a tent platform out of beach rock and you could camp out beneath Lummi’s towering cliffs while you watch the sun set over Orcas Island. The only catch was a lack of water, but after hauling a full dromedary down from the lake on Cypress we knew we had enough or at least a few days.
There was a great assortment of tidepool critters. There were sea stars, including the ochre sea star and leather stars. There were aggregating anemones, tons of tidepool sculpin, chitons (mossy and hairy),myriad limpets, and the largest rock isopod, known as a sea slater, we had ever seen. Not a bad way to spend a morning waiting for the currents to shift.
We picked a lovely campsite on the west side of Clark Island, in the vegetation just above the line of driftwood. We later learned that we probably shouldn’t have camped there, but there were fire rings in the area and so we figured it was okay. But in the future, we’ll need to stick to the rocky beach on the island’s east side.
We were surprised with a visit from our friends Christy, Sean and Sophia who had a motorboat and were camping on Sucia Island, about eight miles away. They knew we were in the vicinity and with a little cell reception texted us if we needed anything. We asked for water and lettuce, which they promptly brought along with some delicious cookies. Man, what a difference a motor makes. A crossing that would take us three hours, only took them twenty minutes.
How special it was to sit with friends on a remote island beach, share a sunset and catch up on our individual adventures. Christy and Sean were in the islands for their wedding, which would be in a couple days on Lopez Island. Sophia would soon be returning to her job as a professor in Barcelona. It was a reminder that even as we had been plotting our way these oh so many miles, the rest of the world was still moving forward, one sunrise and one sunset at a time.
