Kayak, Bike, Nature and Travel

All the signs of spring are here.  The song birds are singing, the days light lingers on to late in the day and I have even seen a few Turkey Vultures back in the area.  But the ever present rain is here today.  Dark skies, a cool breeze and rain.  Soon the rains will dissipate and the San Juan's will become a sun haven for a few months.  Warm days and cools night will come in to replace the cold. The island will be covered with visitors.  Kayak tours will be going out daily I am leaving for Seattle tonight and then off to Denver for the next few days.  I am taking advantage of my last chance to get off the island before I have to be here everyday.   I start training new guides as soon as I get back from Denver.  So check back for some fun kayak photos.

Here are a few more images from my trip . A few Sea Stars. Stuck in the tent looking over tides and chart. Just a nice pic. My buddy Kyle enjoying one of many Ferry rides.  I am in the background lounging on the car. Getting ready to take off. Hmmm , maybe we are lost. Just kidding. ME It is a blurry image but I like it. Lost of Urchin left overs on the beach.  Guess there are Otters around.  We never saw any.

We arrived back on San Juan Island ahead of our scheduled time.  Mainly due to the weather in Johnston Strait and the limited amount of time my paddler partners Kyle and Katie had to enjoy their spring break.  Just to note for some reason SPOT, our tracking device did not record all of our kayaking route.  Not sure why but thought I would mention it. We arrive on Quadra Island in BC Canada on the 22 nd and made our way to Surge Narrows Road. This would lead us to an area where we could get the kayaks on the water.  It was a short but steep carry to get all the gear down to a tiny dock. This is where we loaded kayaks and took off.  We left the dock with little light left in the sky and headed toward the Octopus Islands.  We were luck that Surge Narrows was nice and calm when we passed.  Since we had just put on the water and were pushing to make camp before it got much later.  We moved along and the water conditions were fine. Beautiful views all around.  We made it to some unknown sm...

Just wanted to post that I am heading out of town to do a bit of kayaking in the Johnstone Strait region in British Columbia.  I leave Saturday March 21st and hope to be on the water by Sunday March 22nd.  Once I am on the water I will activate my Spot Satellite Tracker.  I will have it on during the times I am paddling and you can follow along at home by following this link. http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0VEczhk70Xp9hp1s8Gjj7o23ulPcbCKOo I should return back to San Juan Island March 27th.  I hope to return with great new photos and stories to share. Have a great weekend and next week.  Check and see where we are and come back to see some cool images from my kayak trip.

Today I had a short chat with my good friend Matthew Ross of SeaKayakShop .com in Anacortes Wa .  He was excited to inform me that he will be a dealer of TideRace Kayaks out of the UK.  I had a chance last fall to demo the TideRace Xcite .  It was an impressive kayak.  I hope to have the opportunity to paddle the Xplore as well.  It was defiantly a kayak I put on my wish list. He is thinking he will get some of the kayaks in the his shop, located at 2515 Commercial Ave in Anacortes Wa , by May.  This is a pretty awesome kayak to have available to paddlers in the region. There are a lot of high performance kayaks out there and to add this to the list is exciting.   If you are searching for a high performance kayak and have been looking at NDK's , Valley, or P&H kayaks.  Check out the TideRace kayaks when they come in.   For more info on TideRace Kayaks visit their site.   http://www.tideraceseakayaks.com/ For more info on Matthew Ross and SeaKayakShop .com visit his sit...

Over the weekend I left for Seattle.  It was a quick trip, just one night.  But I was heading down to catch a show at the Show Box.  With the current Ferry schedule to get off the island, it is hard if you miss a 10:00 ferry then you have to wait until 1:30.  It pretty much rained the whole drive down.  But once in Seattle is was a good time catching up with some friends and seeing what was new with them.  Two of my friends which are a couple, have sold everything they own and bought a 1976 VW Bus and are getting ready to embark on a 1 year journey of travel with no certain direction.  The old bus needs work but looks like a great project.  I love having friends that will just up root and go against the grain of the usual fabrics of life.  You go guys! The show its self was amazing.  If you ever get a chance to see Brett Dennen live, DO IT.  It was a sold out show and that was a bummer since some of my buddies were going to buy tickets at the door.  I had purchased mine early online....

Over the past few days I have been busy doing a bit of work and having fun.  Well work is fun since it is kayaking, but we will call it work.  After the snow the weather got much nicer.  It took a bit of time but the day time temps were on the rise. Tuesday I met up with my friend Monika and headed out the our typical area to check out some birds.  It was nice and sunny and at first we did not have much to see.  We were searching for the Red Tailed Hawks (RTH's) that we have been watching. We spent our time basking in the sun and thumbing through this wonderful book of mine.  Raptors of Western North America, it was gift I was given for my 32nd birthday.  It is full of wonderful information and tons of color photos. Which great since there are so many variation in Red Tail Hawks, it is nice to see them all.  Out of know where a Norther Shriek flutters along and land near by in a shrub.  I was able to get the scope on it and get good detailed views.  This was the first time I have ...

When Monika was out taking photos she snapped off an amazing image of the Cattle Point Lighthouse.  You can see me and Guinness in the distance.  Check out Monika's Blog  http://orcawatcher.blogspot.com/ It is the top image from todays post.  You will see us out in the open hiking along.  Plus there are other great images to enjoy!

This morning was once again a surprise with snow wisping through the air and a cold wind.  I kind of thought that the snow was over since yesterday afternoon was nothing but sunshine.  But I was wrong.  After spending time in doors getting a few work related things done I headed to town for lunch and then off to the outdoors. A nice cup of soup from The Market Chef and back by the house to pick up Guinness.  We arrived at the trail head at the south end of San Juan with snow patched trails.  One of the Red Tail Hawks was kiting in the wind near the parking area.  A good start to the hike.  While I was at lunch I was asked how my day was.  I took a minute and thought, humm nothing has really happened, good or bad.  So I asked if it were ok if I answered with indifferent.  We kind of laughed and I said the day was not over and I am sure by then end it will have been a great day. I was in a nature wonderland for awhile.  Tracks on the trail give way to the fact that others where ahead ...

The forecast called for snow and we did see some snow falling at my house.  With no accumulation on the ground.  But when I was in town there were cars coming in from other parts of the island with a few inches on top of their cars.  The sun soon came out and blue skies were all you could see. I decided I was going to head out to the south end to see if I could find a hawk or two.  I called Monika and she was ready to get out as well.   On our way out we passed through an area where snow covered the ground.  When we arrived at the south end of San Juan there was no snow.  It was actually really nice outside.  We made our way to Cattle Point pull out and took advantage of the nice warm sun and went for a short walk.  We did spot one of the Red Tail Hawks.  It was soaring high above then out of sight.  We watched from the top of the bluff as a male Merganser was doing his best to woo the females around him.  It was pretty fun to watch.  Moving along we bumped into Richard as he was out e...

Just wanted to put up a quick post to catch everyone up.  I have been delayed in getting information post due to a friend from out of town visiting.  We did lots of hanging out and just having fun.  So that is the main reason I have not posted recently. I was teaching kayak class today and it was a nice time on the water.  I had return student who had been struggling with some of the kayak skills and today she really seemed to be putting it together. I gave her a few simple home exercises to do to help gain muscle coordination and memory. It seems to have helped and she agrees.   Just letting all of my friends back home that even though I live in the Pacific Northwest.  I still have the home state represented with a Razorback on the bow and stern of my two personal kayaks!  The is the bow view Here is the stern view. GO HOGS. Now that things are getting back to normal for me and my friend got on the ferry today.  You can expect to see more wonderful photos of San Juan Island and more k...

When planning your vacation to San Juan Island there are a lot of things to consider.   If you are coming from out of state you have to look a plane tickets and what sort of transportation you will be taking to the island once you land in Seattle.   If you are driving to the island you have to look at what times are best to get out of the city to get in line for the ferry.   Ferry lines can often get backed up and throw your travel plans off.   So if you want to do a kayak trip on San Juan Island and not use and Outfitter, imagine all the other details you will have to cover.   Things such as kayak route plan, weather, tides and currents.   If you plan on doing a kayak camping trip you have to account for places to camp, camping equipment, meal planning and much more. So this brings me to the subject of this article. What are the benefits of choosing to go with a Kayak Outfitter such as Discovery Sea Kayaks . Taking the load off is what you are doing w...