Paddling Alone & Dodging Death

Stuart Island

25-27 November 2024 (3D/2N)

Roche Harbor to Reid Harbor: 6.6 Miles

Paddling: 13 miles - Trekking: 18 miles - Daylight: 8h 46m

Campsite: #15 - Water: 7l - Fuel: 111g

Out: 2.9 mph (Strong Head Wind) - Ret: 3.4 mph (Calm)

Planning Notes

Fall kayaking in the San Juan Islands is a dance. Well doing anything outside in the PNW this time of year is. But kayaking is for sure. I’d been tracking a potential weather window for another fall overnight kayak trip, and as usual the glowing long range forecast become less and less glowing as the days grew near.  For my Sucia Island trip I planned my crossings around a storm with 40-50 knot winds & 70 knot gusts. But for this trip I needed to plan around an unusual combination of an Atmospheric River combining with a Once-in-a-Decade Bomb Cyclone.

On Sunday evening the forecast was still looking good and I was packed and ready to catch the morning ferry to Friday Harbor. I’m still tweaking my kayak load out so I’m keeping pretty detailed summaries of my weights and kayak placement. (PS I look forward to kayak camping “on season” when there is drinking water available.)

Monday, 25 November 2024

Where as my Sucia Island Trip happened during an intense storm, it came and blew itself out as forecasted, this Bomb Cylone Atmospheric River was like a bad marriage that refused to go its own way. So I woke to grey skies and rain, but caught the first ferry from Lopez Island to San Juan Island. Once I arrived at Roche Harbor, the reality of the misbehaving forecast became more obvious. Instead of the calm NW winds to 7 knots there was rain and a foul wind exceeding 10 knots with some concerning gusts. I retreated to the Lime Kiln Cafe for breakfast to fuel up and ponder my options.

My Plan

I had read a fair bit about Spieden Channel and the risks and challenges that it presents. So I planned to cross so I hit slack at mid channel.

I launched from Roche Harbor at 10am bound for Posey Island. I planned to have lunch and wait for slack and camping at Posey Island was my plan “B”. And the closer I got to Posey Island, the more plan “B” was looking like plan “Only”. The NW wind was increasingly foul and there was a bad juju in the air. That said, the forecast, promised, that the wind would abate as the day wore on.

The trip to Posey Island was easy and uneventful. And everything that I had read about this sweet little state park was spot on. Not only is this a great stop over on trips to the Northwestern San Juan Islands I think it makes a great off season stop all on its own. It’s has a pretty great campsite for hammocks and offers lots of “exploration possibilities” for day paddling.

With my crossing window approaching I had a decision to make. The wind had settled down a bit and the contrary current was moderating the seas. But the conditions were still not ideal and I’m trying to err on the cautious side since I’m a relatively new, solo, kayaker. After ponding quite a bit, I decided to go ahead and launch and stick my nose out into Spieden Channel to see how the conditions felt. And, apparently, it was “lesson time”.

The wind, of course, strengthened as I headed further into Spieden Channel. Mostly, it was dead on the nose, so the waves weren’t much of an issue. That said, progress was slowed and the whole experience included a fair bit of anxiety. But while the conditions were a “bit” challenging, I had certainly been in worse, aka Cattle Pass. But it reminded me of something I discovered while sailing in the San Juan Islands. There is a difference between risky & dangerous and lack of familiarity. And in this case it was more a lack of familiarity than dangerous. Speiden Channel comes with a quite a rep, and the combination of wind and a new crossing created some nerves. So I just tried to relax and breathed into my strokes. Of course when the gusts hit, the anxiety reared it ugly head.

The crossing seemed much longer than it probably was. During my preplanning stage I had received some very detailed advice about campsite selection. And the “Goldilocks” sites were described as being on the Prevost Harbor side of Stuart Island. But the combination of this foul NW wind and my desire to get out of it made the decision for me and I ducked into Reid Harbor and its sheltered waters.

I quickly scanned the campsites on the south side of the Reid Harbor beach but settled on site 15, the WWTA site, on the north side. After setting up camp I relaxed with a cup of tea and a hot meal.

Tuesday, 26 November 2024

I woke to a glorious day and it was hard to enjoy my morning coffee and breakfast instead of exploring this new, to me, island. One of the many reasons I took up kayaking was to “tour local”. I quite enjoy hiking in the mountains on the mainland, but that has come to seem excessive. Especially when I have so much beauty in my own backyard.

My first “task” was to scout the campsites in the Stuart Island State Park. This my normal ritual when I visit parks for the first time. It’s a great way for me to get to know a new place but my ulterior motive is to scope out campsites and find fabulous hammock friendly ones for future visits. I won’t detail that effort since I include it in my Stuart Island Planning Page.

I confess that my initial opinion of Stuart Island, based on my short exploration of the beach at Reid Harbor, wasn’t very positive. But that quickly changed as I hiked up the ridge towards the saddle area above the State Park Dock on Reid Harbor.

One of the big draws of Stuart Island for me, was the Turn Point Lighthouse. I’m kind of a lighthouse nut and had been wanting to visit this one for years. So after lunch I hiked down to the south end of the Reid Harbor beach to the county boat ramp which joins up with Reid Harbor Rd.

My first stop along Reid Harbor Rd was the Old Stuart Island School & Museum. This was sort of a drive by for me since I wanted to get to the Lighthouse and back before it got too late and dark.

A fair bit of my trekking this trip was on the gravel roads of Stuart Island. Normally this isn’t as appealing as hiking through forests on trials. But I quite enjoyed the tree covered roads of Stuart Island. My Day Job is photographing buildings, so I was immediately drawn to the little community of Prevost.

Seems I spent so much time exploring on the way to the Turn Point Lighthouse, that my glorious fall day, turned a bit gloomy. So no fabulous Lighthouse pics. No worries on my part since this was mostly a scouting trip for when I start packing a “real” camera. It was still a fun trek and OMG do the Turn Point Lighthouse Protection Society folks do an amazing job of preserving and maintaining this Lighthouse.

One of the things that I noticed on my trek to the Lighthouse and back was the preponderance of “No Trespassing” signs. I imagine that in the busy summer season, the locals might get their fill of tourists. But of all the signs asking to respect our privacy, this was my favorite.

Wednesday, 27 November 2024

In spite of the pleasant overnight forecast, it rained. It wasn’t “real” rain, just enough drizzle so things were damp in the morning. This slightly altered my plans so instead of breaking camp and packing up, I opted for a second hike up to the saddle between Reid and Prevost Harbors while things dried out. There also was an additional “loop” trail that I hadn’t visit during yesterday’s hike and I wanted a second look at the Prevost side campsites.

My plan for the trip home was sort of a reverse of the trip over, hopefully with better crossing conditions. The first leg was from Reid Harbor to Gossip Island then wait out the current and cross during slack. And the conditions cooperated spectacularly and the water was as calm as a millpond. There was even a pod of Humpback whales, although too far in the distance for me to see.