It’s barely summer in the PNW and we’ve already had three days with temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Thankfully, Giovannina and I had previously planned to spend the weekend on Orcas Island to celebrate her birthday, visit some friends and camp out with her sister’s family.
After all the socializing, our plan was to spend a few days on our own exploring some of the islands via kayak. The currents weren’t very favorable for a trip to Sucia and so we decided to head to Jones Island for a couple nights. Jones is one of our favorite places to camp in the San Juans. It’s an easy 45 minute paddle from Deer Harbor on Orcas and the whole island is a state park. Full hiking trails ring the whole island and while all of the campsites can be full, the island never feels busy.
We arrived Sunday afternoon, 7/27, camped at the WWTA site on the island’s west side. We shared the area with a large paddle groups from The Tacoma Mountaineers, out for a week-long leadership training trip. They wore drysuits while paddling, adhering to the “rotary cooling” method of heat control – if you get too hot, roll over and cool yourself off.
On Monday, 7/28, the hottest day in Seattle’s history, where temps hit 108, we opted for a twenty mile circumnavigation of Shaw Island. Being on the water was certainly cooler than being in the city, but it was still 90 and the typical cool sea breezes felt more like a hair drier.
Still, we had a great time exploring Shaw’s gorgeous shoreline and even stopped for some frozen pops at the Shaw Island General Store, which is as delightful as it sounds.
We headed back to Deer Harbor Tuesday morning. The winds had picked up and the air had cooled. Great paddling conditions. At the Deer Harbor launch site, we met a lovely couple, Alec & Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, from Chicago. They’re kayak coaches and offered to show us around the Chicago waterways the next time we’re out there. You can check them out at havekayakswilltravel.com. For a sport that naturally lends itself to social distancing, kayaking certainly has introduced to a lot of very cool people.
