Camping at Orcas Island, Sep 4th to 7th
This is the second time I go on this yearly trip to Orcas in the San Juan Islands. Although this time weather was not as good as last year when we went for the 4th of July, it was descent enough to have a good time. As you’ll see in the pictures, there are periods of time that are not captured. These where either due to bad weather or me not being able to take the pictures. Nancy and I took of from Portland late on Thursday with the idea of spending the night at Anacortes and catching the ferry the following morning. On Friday morning, we had a quick breakfast at the hotel before heading out to the ferry. The morning was looking great with bright sun and some clouds so after we got in line for the ferry; we went out for a walk on the beach.
Our walk while waiting for the ferry
Once on the island, we drove straight to the park and to our campsite, set up camp and had a light lunch. The group that had gotten there on Thursday where already out for the day so with Marianne we decided to go for hike up Mt Constitution. This mountain is the tallest peak in the island and from the tower on top; you can get sweeping views of the San Juan Islands and the Coast all the way to Canada. While doing our hike, weather started changing a bit and getting cloudier, we knew the views where going to be quite limited. On the way up, we did notice a cave a bit of trail and adventure ourselves to it. We went in as far as we felt comfortable but not having enough flashlights we didn’t explore the whole thing. Further up, we got the ridge that overlooks Mountain Lake and some of the islands. From there to the tower was a short walk. Since we had Shia with us, we took turns to go up the tower to get the views from the top. This time, there were not as impressive as the first time but still very enjoyable. That night we had a potluck dinner at camp and some nice conversation that didn’t go too late as we were all pretty tired.
On Saturday, the weather was less than optimal with low level clouds and fog. Only a few adventurers woke up early in the morning to go Kayaking while the rest of us took our time to wake up, have breakfast and plan for the day. Since David and I had our mountain bikes with us, we decided to go for a ride while others in the group including Nancy, went for a hike around the lake. To make our ride fun, we took the road up to Mt Constitution, riding for about two hours. While going up, temperature started dropping; we got a bit of rain and even crossed paths with a deer. Once up we took a short brake and then headed back down but this time on the trail I had done the previous day. The ride down took us about half an hour going thru some really fun and fast sections where we just flew down and some other more technical sections that even required us to get of the bike to make the tight turn. We would have done it a second time if it wasn’t for the fact that you needed to ride up first! Later that day, Nancy and I went for a ride looking for a pottery store towards West Beach. We got there about 10 minutes before closing so we only did a short tour around. Not only the place was amazing with a couple of small houses a tree house and an incredible garden with ocean views but it was packed with beautiful ceramic pieces. We spent some time going around but then decided to go back the following day with a bit more time. From there, we continued toward West Beach and got there before the sunset. We didn’t know that the whole beach is part of a resort that doesn’t allow non-guests, so we stayed on a little section of beach enjoying the views and taking pictures.
View from West Beach
That night David had planned a potluck dinner so we got back to camp just in time to start preparing our share that consisted of some avocadoes, tomatoes and some good spices. After enjoying our time with the group around the campfire, we headed out to the lake to make up a fire there and take some night shots. Nancy and I started playing around with a couple of glow sticks and then doing some light painting which resulted in some very nice shots.
Happy faces
AS planned, on Sunday we went back to the pottery store and spent more time there checking out the pottery. After that we drove back pass the park and went all they way to the other end of the island to Obstruction Pass. At this end, there’s a smaller state park with the same name that has some beach access and campsites. We did a short hike around the park while enjoying the views of the sea and the rocky cliffs with the contrast of the red Madrones. It was a rather short hike, but very worth it, especially because of Nancy’s company. Later that evening, while we were still on the road, it started raining so we got back to camp to set up a tarp and cook dinner. I made some “Venezuelan” style hotdogs that were delicious. After that we went to bed early as we couldn’t do much with the rain.
On Monday, the last day of our trip, we woke up early, packed everything quickly and headed to the port to get in line for the noon ferry. Once there, we went for a walk, had a healthy big breakfast with views of the sea and then went to the port to take some more pictures before heading back home.
On our way back to Anacortes
As with our previous yearly Orcas trip, this one was very relaxing in the company of a great group of people. Hopefully we'll keep the "yearly" portion of this trip going.
