Written by Philip and Photos by Hannah !!
Well, it certainly has been a little while since the last blog post! These past 3 nights have all been devoted to a kayaking and camping trip. On our first day, we traveled from Roche Harbor to a campsite on Stuart Island. While the 7-mile paddle there proved to be arduous for some, the paddle was anything but uneventful. Prior to departing, many campers talked about how cool it would be to see orcas in the wild. In an extraordinary stroke of luck, the campers’ hopes were fulfilled as a roaming pod of transient orcas was spotted in the channel. On this ride to our campground, we also found a number of other interesting sea creatures. Harbor seals, harbor porpoises, jellyfish, and crabs were all spotted on our way to Stuart Island.
Even after an action-packed first day of paddling, setting up camp, and observing local wildlife, the excitement only continued to grow. The second day gave everyone a much-needed break from paddling. Paddling time was exchanged for time to explore the island and its many hiking trails. To start our day off, some of us decided to dock jump in the early morning into the freezing cold water. Despite the extreme cold, it did the trick and woke us up very nicely. Our main activity of the day was an extended walk from our campsite all the way to the lighthouse on the other side of the island. On the way to the lighthouse, our trails took us to a library/schoolhouse where we took a quick break to drink water, look at maps, and frolic in the meadow nearby. Flower crowns were made and modeled by all. Some people even used their free time to play some intense basketball games before we resumed our walk. When we finally reached the lighthouse we had great opportunities to look out at the ocean and explore the rocky shores. We also had lunch and toured some pretty mediocre museums detailing the lighthouse’s history and its keeper’s quarters. After we had our fill of the lighthouse we walked back and had the remaining part of the day to chill and relax. Some of us even named areas on the island such as the ethereal garden and the cliff of wisdom. The ethereal garden in particular was a great place to nap on the soft moss as several of us fell asleep in the evening sun. To end our day off, after dinner, we shone a light off the dock and observed some mating polychaete worms. We even saw some devilish raccoons peering at us from the trees with their beady little eyes and foul stares. Rest assured they would be dead if they had the courage to come down and face us for real.
Day 3 went by remarkably quickly as we all slept in much later than the day before and went paddling once again. We decided to go and paddle a little bit as we worked our way through some harsh currents and then stopped and ate some pulled pork sandwiches for lunch. The beach where we ate lunch was also a great place to find sea glass and cool shells. Later in the day we jumped off the docks again and tanned in the sun. We also had our hair braided and got some makeovers (courtesy of Hannah and Maddie). Overall, day 3 was pretty awesome and had a good mix of activity and relaxation.
Finally, day 4 was a challenging day where we woke up early and packed our bags so we could kayak back to camp before any major currents started up. We completed a journey estimated to be 4 hours in a little over 2 hours of paddling with some beautiful conditions. All in all, the entirety of the kayaking trip was an extraordinary experience where we got to experience a really close and personal connection with the wilderness around us and a multitude of different cool animals.
