page one...jones island...page two

...yet another batch of photos from my latest kayaking trip...
:::Deer Harbor (Orcas Island) to Jones Island, Yellow Island, and the Wasp Islands:::

well... i thought about doing this kayak trip earlier this month, but it didn't work out.
since i only had to work a half-day on friday, i tried to drive up to anacortes in time to make the 3:30 ferry.
my not-that-secret, not-very-evil plan was to kayak out to Jones Island and camp there friday night,
and kayak around the nearby islands on saturday.

got stuck in some icky traffic around everett, and it was after 3pm by the time i got to arlington. bleh.
decided to stop & buy some shades at the burlington mall, then waited around at the ferry terminal to catch the [VERY LATE] 6pm ferry.
missed it & waited for the "6:35" ferry that didn't arrive until around 7pm...
didn't land on Orcas Island until around 8:30 i think. by then it was already quite dark outside,
so i decided to just drive over to Moran State Park & ended up camping at site #32 at Midway Camp.
like most of the campsites at the park, it was very close to Cascade Lake.

i tore down camp pretty early, and was on the road about 8am.
the launch site, Deer Harbor Marina, is pretty much at the opposite side of Orcas Island.

^ here's the kayaking route - in red... with the hiking routes in green/black ^

Deer Harbor Marina (above), and the little island in the harbor (below, on the left)

same little island on the left, but a little closer to the rockeries of Deer Harbor:

radiation + starfish =

rounding a point at Deer Harbor - another island in the background

aforementioned "other" island, with Jones Island in the middle-ish... i think.

approaching Jones... where it looked like an eagle was soaring over the trees...

a southeast chunk of Jones, with the Wasp Islands in the background:

i *may* have landed here on Jones for a quick potty break...

there were a bunch of harbor seals chillin' on a rock just northeast of Jones:

around 11:30am, i landed on the north bay of Jones Island.

the north end of the island has some impressive storm-struck trees:

there are 2 main hiking loops on the island - i did the NW loop first:

i could just barely spot my beached kayak from up the hill on the NW loop trail... can you spot it?!?

one of many steep dropoffs down to the water... complete with rick-shadow:

trees are neat.

towards the end of the NW loop trail, the terrain gets a bit dry & desert-y:

i think this was pretty close to the Cascadia Marine Trail campsite on the NW corner of the island:

the trail loops back at this point. made a brief pit stop at the uh... pit toilets... yeah.

the first chunk of the SW loop trail is nice & mossy:

yup - autumn is here folks.

here is the south bay of Jones Island. um...

winding back up the SW corner of the island...

here are the crazy prickly pear cacti that you'll find here & there:

back up towards the kayak/canoe-friendly campsites...

pretty much done with the SW loop now...

...then back towards the north bay...

page one...jones island...page two