After a flight across the country and two days of falling in love with San Juan Island, the big day finally arrived – time to get into the kayaks!  Steve and I had booked a five-day kayaking ecotour around the islands and we were looking forward to seeing lots of wildlife and incredible scenery.  Our itinerary directed us to meet up with our kayak group at the traffic circle in Friday Harbor, so that’s where we headed at 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning.  (Yes – “the” traffic circle.  There’s only one.)  We were the first to arrive, so we dropped our dry bags on the curb and plunked down on a bench.  Soon other pairs of people toting their own dry bags began to arrive; we sized each other up and started cautiously chatting.  (I whispered to Steve: “By the end of the week, we’re either going to hate these people or they’ll be our best friends.”  Spoiler – best friends, as it turned out.)

Before we knew it, a white van pulling a trailer loaded with kayaks pulled into the circle.

An extremely energetic college-aged kid bounded out of the van and introduced himself as Ben, our guide.  We shook hands quickly and got to work loading our bags into the trailer.  And then it was time to hop into the van for the fifteen-minute drive over to San Juan County Park, our launch point for a week’s worth of adventures.  On the ride over, Ben had us introduce ourselves and share where we were from and our paddling experience.  The group hailed from all over the world – we had paddlers from Canada, England, Germany, both coasts and the upper Midwest of the U.S.  Steve and I were the lone representatives from the East Coast.  Before we knew it, we were rolling up to the launch beach.

Our rides for the week!  (And Steve discovered via his Maps app that we were launching from Smallpox Bay.  Cue the Gilmore Girls jokes about “Sores and Boils Alley.”)

After hauling the kayaks down to the beach, we all got to work hefting our dry bags.  Here’s Steve’s and my pile – not too bad!  I insisted on bringing my own life jacket.  Ben was skeptical and asked me if it was Coast Guard certified.  “Of course!” I said confidently.  (Narrator voice: she was not confident, but it was from REI, so that’s something.)

Let me tell you: carrying a heavy fiberglass kayak is hard enough without trying to do it while walking on a rocky beach covered with slippery bull kelp.  Anyway!  Some friends came to see us off – a small family of deer.

A great blue heron and several belted kingfishers (look at the very top left corner of the photo).

And a bald eagle!  (Note: sorry about the blurry wildlife photography.  I was armed with multiple cameras, but in the kayaks and on the beaches, the easiest thing to do was to just pull out my cell phone.  Sometimes the cell phone’s accessibility was the difference between a bad blurry picture and no picture at all.  So – consider this your warning, more blurry pictures ahead.)

Anyway, I was sure that the wildlife on the beach as we loaded the kayaks was a good omen for the week.

A quick review of paddling techniques for the less experienced members of the group, and it was time to hit the water – FINALLY!

One of our first sights from the water – a small island with a massive seal haul-out!  There were probably a couple dozen harbor seals, lazing about and enjoying the sunshine on the rocks.  We gave them a wide berth, but it was so cool to see them.  (Again – blurry photography alert, sorry!)

We paddled for a few hours and then pulled onto a beach for lunch.  As we were meditatively munching our sandwiches, we noticed a few whale watching boats idling just offshore – a good indicator that something interesting is in the water.  Ben mused, “I wonder if they have a baleen whale tucked away in that cove.”  Before anyone could get up to check out the scene, I spotted a massive dorsal fin cutting smoothly through the water around a rocky jetty.  We all lost our minds and ran, slipping over bull kelp, to the waterline.

It’s hard to tell from the picture, but this dorsal fin was at least as tall as me.  Its owner was a massive bull orca from one of the transient families – or Biggs killer whales, as they’re sometimes known.  We all had to pull our jaws off the beach as this gigantic boy swam just offshore.

Two female members of his family followed him – most likely a mom and sister, given the structure and organization of transient orca families.  They stick together in matrilineal groups, much like the southern residents – and while female orcas will eventually start their own families in a continuation of the matriline, bull orcas are gigantic mama’s boys and tend to stay with their mommies for the rest of their lives.  Transients will occasionally get together in larger groups and often cooperate with other matrilines to hunt, but they don’t tend to roll in a big pod like the SRKWs.  This was a small family group and they were just traveling along, very chill, right off the beach.

It was incredible to see them.  As I told Steve, even if we didn’t see anything else for the rest of the trip, those few moments while the Biggs family swam past made the whole trip worth it.  All my life, I’ll never forget the moment of seeing that giant bull orca dorsal fin coming around the rocky jetty.

Once the orcas left, we hopped back into the kayaks for the afternoon’s paddling.  We were headed for Stuart Island, a smaller – but still populated – island in the archipelago.  The last bit of paddling was the easiest, through a long, calm bay.

Landed!  12.5 nautical miles of paddling – I think this was the longest paddling day either Steve or I had ever done (but it wouldn’t be the longest day of this trip).  Our shoulders were pretty stiff, but damn, we were proud.

The end of a paddling day doesn’t mean the end of the day.  We hauled the kayaks up to a safe spot on the grassy bank, then got to work pitching our tents and setting up camp.  In addition to our own personal gear, we were each hauling some of the communal camp kitchen gear and the food.

Another new experience!  Steve and I muddled through and figured out how to pitch our tent – home for the week.  (Steve discovered that he really enjoys pitching tents – who knew? – so he mostly did that task by himself for the rest of the week, and I helped Ben set up the kitchen and start dinner.  But on the first night, we built our home together.)

Cooking time!  We were all pretty hungry.  Everyone pitched in to help, either with the cooking or with the dishes after the meal.  (Ben said that as a collective, we were the most helpful group he’d ever taken out.  Yay, us!)

My station: salad!  It was hard not to inhale the entire pot.  I was hungry!

Settled for this lovely plate of green goodness.

And then a hearty, warming pasta with tomatoes, pine nuts, goat cheese and artichokes – delicious.  After dinner, Ben took a few people out for a sunset hike, but most of us chose to stay in camp.  It was a long, tiring day.  I did some yoga, Steve read an ebook, and we spent some time perched on a log, taking in the views of the bay before turning in early – I don’t even think we made it to sunset.

It was a darn near perfect day.  New friends, orcas (and lots of other wildlife) and a full day of paddling on the water – what more can you ask for?

Next week: RAIN.