San Juan Islands Sea Kayaking from Anacortes

The thermometer got up to nearly 80 degrees in Seattle today! Out here in the San Juan Islands we are blessed with the natural cooling effects of the sea we were in the 70's. Perfect weather for sea kayaking. Although it was the day after a holiday weekend, which is usually pretty quiet, we were out in force as people looked for a great way to spend the day.
J-Pod came right down the Fidalgo Island shoreline this morning. The whales swam underneath the Burrows Island Lighthouse, and cruised by Allan Island before heading out towards the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
This whole week looks like great weather. We're sending out a couple of multi-day trips over the weekend, let's cross our fingers and hope that this warm spell continues!

The first big holiday weekend of the 2007 sea kayaking season is drawing to a close today. Although the weather wasn't very cooperative yesterday, it was blowing a gale down at Deception Pass, our Burrows Islands kayak trips were able to go out into the sheltered waters behind Allan Island, Young Island, and Burrows Island. At least today's Memorial Day celebration will be treated to sunny skies and warm temperatures.
The orca whales were over on our side of the San Juan Islands again yesterday, right in our backyard actually. J-Pod was sighted over on the northwest side of Cypress Island, right where our Outer Islands kayaking trips and Multi-day kayak expeditions often paddle. To add to the excitement, a group of about 8 Transient (mammal eating) Orca whales were just a couple of miles away at the time. Usually the Resident and Transient orcas stay well clear of each other so it was a bit of a surprise to see them in such proximity. The Transients wisely ducked into Peavine Pass over by Blakely Island and headed west into the inner San Juans, thus avoiding a potential confrontation with the more numerous J-Pod. The guests aboard the Island Adventures whale watching boat were treated to a great encounter that I'm sure few of them will ever forget.

Last week was a big week for training here at Anacortes Kayak Tours. Our weekend with the instructors from Body Boat Blade International was outstanding, as always. It's amazing how much their professional coaching elevates everyone's sea kayaking skills. The whole course took place in Deception Pass State Park. The Deception Pass Narrows are widely known as a fantastic training ground for advanced sea kayaking, and our guides took on the surging water like they were born to it. Of course we would never want our kayak trips to be put into that sort of situation, but it's nice to know that our kayak guides are trained to handle rough conditions.
The rest of the week was spent honing our skills and preparing for the Big Weekend.
I'm so impressed with this year's staff. Everyone seems to possess wonderful paddling skills and local knowledge of the area. To make things even better, the chemistry between everyone is wonderful. I think that we're all going to have a lot of fun this summer!

Now if I could just get them all to give me some pictures so that I can update our guides page on this website......

Well, it's that wonderful time of the year again. Migration. Huge skeins of Snow geese can be seen flying north over the eastern San Juan Islands and towards their Arctic nesting grounds. Robins are moving through as well. It's fun to imagine them in Central American rainforests, they are such a Pacific Northwest bird to me, yet they call the hot and humid jungles home as well.
Another creature is also in a seasonal transition. Our kayak guides have been returning from their winter habitat high on mountain slopes, or in university libraries. Over the last two weeks we have been out on the water nearly every day going through the skills training that every trip leader needs to have. Over the last few days there has been a large exchange of water through the San Juan Islands. These tides, called spring tides, create large currents that course through some of the narrow waterways. We've been able to take advantage of the swift moving water to practice rescues, rolls, and the kayaking skills that make our guides some of the best trained kayak tour leaders in the San Juan islands. Tomorrow we'll begin the first day of formal training with Body Boat Blade International. This is the first of two 2-day kayaking courses that help to take our guide training program to a whole new level. Under the expert tutelage of the world-class instructors at Body Boat Blade Intl, we are able to fine tune the kayaking skills that will ensure that our guests enjoy a safe and memorable trip. The course is always a highlight of the season for everyone. This year we will be holding the class in the waters of the Deception Pass Narrows, widely recognized as one of the best training grounds for advanced sea-kayaking.

Speaking of Deception Pass, we had a wonderful trip on Wednesday with the students from Tulatin Valley Junior Academy. Our longtime guide, Andrew Rice, set the trip up through his company Academic Adventures. He moonlights as a kayak guide, but his real job is educating children about the natural worls through exciting outdoor adventures. This week the students helped him conduct his annual Sea Star Survey of Bowman Bay. Thanks Andrew for another great trip!

The great thing about Deception Pass is that there is something for everyone. The Narrows offer exciting and rough conditions, and the areas outside of the Pass are calm and beautiful places to experience a day on the water.

The "best guide on the east side", or so he claims, spent enough time up on Cypress Island these last two weeks to qualify him for residency. Ryan came back over the mountains from Yakima to take a group of students from Central Washington University up to Pelican Beach, the same camping area that we all were at the previous weekend. His trip was a great success, the students had a fantastic sea kayaking experience and were also able to take in some of the nice trails that Cypress Island has to offer.
Since he was in the area, we solicited him to stay for the rest of the week to assist with our annual San Juan Islands sea kayaking trip with the Mount Bachelor Academy. Using the Island Express water-taxi we transported the kids, kayaks, and camping equipment to Pelican Beach where we set up our base camp. The weather was good for the whole week. We had a bit of wind on the first two days which helped us to teach the kids about the importance of group dynamics and he non-verbal signals that are so vital for a safe sea kayaking experience. The last day was picture perfect weather, sunny and warm, so we opted to make a longer crossing over to Sinclair Island. From the south shore of Sinclair we were able to take in the outstanding beauty of the eastern San Juans. It had been a while since I had been able to enjoy kayaking along that shoreline, the series of pocket beaches and meadows of wildflowers was a real treat to experience. We saw lots of Bald eagles and seals on this trip, not to mention the array of intertidal life that comes out during low tides. On the last morning, as we headed in on the water-taxi, we looked up Bellingham Channel and saw J-Pod (one of our Resident Orca whale families) coming south towards Anacortes.
This was our fourth kayaking trip with the Mount bachelor Academy and we really appreciate their support of our program. This is one of my favorite trips of the year.

The next ten days is promising summer-like conditions and our trips are filling up fast. It looks like we will be getting busy early this year!

Last weekend our friends from Yakima ventured across the Cascade Mountains for their annual sea kayaking and camping trip in the San Juan Islands. The first year that we did this trip we went up to Sucia Island for three days. At that point we had two small babies in the group (our son Taiga, and his "girlfriend" Ruby Duke). This year we stayed closer to home, opting to kayak out to Cypress Island. Our group has grown, doubled in fact. In addition to Taiga and Ruby, we had two more little ones- Harper, and Maren. As if that wasn't enough, two of the women were very pregnant (including Megan- the brains behind Anacortes Kayak Tours). It was a fantastic family adventure. Although rain fell on Friday it didn't slow the kids down one bit. Taiga and Ruby kept busy re-arranging the stones on the beach, digging holes in the sand, and re-filling the sea by throwing rocks. They were wet, but happy, and so were we.
Watching them interact with their natural surroundings strengthened our resolve that becoming the most "family friendly" sea kayaking outfitter in the area is a great idea. It's in the best interest of the children to make certain that they get a connection with the landscape, and develop a sense of "place".

This weekend Ryan Hopkins (our seldom seen kayak guide) is leading a group of students back up to Cypress Island. He called in last night to tell us that the kayaking was great, they passed through the Cone Islands on the way to Pelican Beach. It appears that the big Bald eagle's nest is once again being used by the resident mating pair.

On Monday Ryan and I will be leading a 5 day trip back up there. The weather looks fantastic. Although we've seen a lot of the place, we're excited to go back. Cypress Island is one of those magical places that are hard to get enough of.

Although we've been running sea kayaking tours out here since January, the boating season has officially arrived here in the Pacific Northwest. Opening Day celebrants had great weather yesterday as they enjoyed the boat parades down in Seattle.

May has finally arrived, and our summer sea kayaking season is in full swing! The days are getting longer, the air temperature is warming up, and the sunsets seem to linger on forever. Last night the sun set at 8:31pm. Our weather only gets better from here. The Pacific High (a massive semi-permanent high pressure system) is moving north and east across the Pacific Ocean, and the Aleutian Low (our winter storm factory) is receding to the west. The presence of that monstrous high pressure system limits the strength of approaching weather disturbances and creates warm, sunny days. The average precipitation for the Anacortes area is less than 2.5 inches in May.

Our spring wildflower dispay is winding down now, but the fresh smells of new plant growth still permeate the air. Great weather and favorable tides meant that we were able to circumnavigate both Burrows and Allan Islands on several kayaking trips this week. Allan Island's west shoreline is remarkably rugged with overhanging cliffs and shallow sea caves. Eagles roosted in the trees above us, and curious seals escorted us down the shoreline. It's amazing how bold these animals can be when they are in the water. When they are hauled out on the rocks we have to exercise great care to avoid disturbing them, but in the water they feel much more comfortable and actually follow us around. Once again it was a week filled with wonderful porpoise encounters, we are quite fortunate to have these little cetaceans around so often.

The sea lions that have been hanging around the northern San Juan Islands this winter appear to be working their way back out to the Pacific Ocean for the summer. We have been seeing one or two of them a day off of Burrows Island as they head south down Rosario Strait. Once they all leave we generally won't see them again until the summer is nearly over. The Stellar sea lions that we see here in our waters are almost always males. They appear to be either young males (not ready for the big guys out on the coast), or older individuals that may be past their prime. We've also been seeing a few of the smaller California sea lions foraging on the east side of Allan Island. California sea lions are distinguishable from the Stellars by their darker color, smaller size, and the sharp forehead of the males (called a sagittal crest). Although we don't see large numbers of these guys around the San Juans, they seem to be in the area all year.