Salish Strokes: Plattsburgh University does the San Juans!

I just got back from a 6 day trip co-leading with Steve Maynard of Plattsburgh University, helping a group of 13 students plan and execute a safe, efficient and fun trip around the San Juan Islands. They split in two groups to keep the groups manageable, and we left from Washington Park in Anacortes. The students planned the trip together, and with the help of leadership students (seniors), they executed the trip well. With the first group, we went from Washington Park to Jones Island the first day, 18 nautical miles, and the next morning made our way up to Matia, north of Orcas Island. Matia is the last state park island that I hadn't been to, so now I have been to every landable island in the San Juans! On our third day we left from Matia and headed over to Sucia for a day of rescues, skills, and balance development. After nearly 30 miles in 2 days we had to remind ourselves how much fun playing in boats can be. Day 4 we met up with Steve and the other half of the group on Matia and switched groups.

Steve headed with his group down to Deception Pass to do some work in the eddies and current there, while I took the other group to Sucia for rescue practice and balance. They planned on catching the early tide (4am!) from Matia to Cypress to spend some time hiking around the island, but when we woke up at 2:30, there were 25 knots of unforecast winds from the north-northwest bringing 2-4 ft swell into Rolfe Cove, which opened to the west and north! We went back to sleep and hoped for a change in weather. By midafternoon the wind did die down, to around 15 kts, and we made our with with the second ebb tide down quickly to Cypress. Crossing Rosario was quite exhiliarating, using ranges and markers to make sure we were not going to be run over by freighters or barges. Our last day, again we woke up at 2:30 for a 4am paddle, but this time the weather cooperated. Everyone's personal skills improved, and navigation skills were markedly better. Overall we paddled almost 75 miles in 6 days. Not bad! Here are a few pictures.