Second annual San Juan Islands trip.

[spiffy]

Jasan- I got ahold of Andrew and he is going to try to get that week off, I sent him the link to this thread although he was wondering about what the island hopping schedule would be.

We will be in San Diego so we can't swing it this year.

[Westy78]

Damn, you guys won't be able to make any of the days?
Got a PM from Andrew so he'll have all the info.

Here's a revised, loose itinerary.

Since traveling back east should be no charge we'll start at San Juan for Saturday and Sunday. Then do a couple of nights at Orcas in Moran State Park. Then three nights on Lopez in the county park on the beach (or was that a city park?).

Alternatively we were also considering leaving early (I'm off the previous week also) and staying at San Juan Thursday and Friday nights and then heading to Orcas and Lopez mid week. That would give us a couple of extra days to mosey home and maybe stay somewhere in the Olympics if the mood struck us along the way.

Anyone else gonna be able to swing at least a couple of the days with us?

Wayne, I think you said you'll be out of town right?
Gypsie, how 'bout you guys?
Hammy? Be great to see you up there also. Maybe you could join us at the end of the week for Thursday and Friday on Lopez.
Andrew will be there for at least part of the tour.
I haven't talked to Susan lately about it. I'll shoot her an email and get her thoughts.
John?
Neal, Cheryl?

If you are planning on making all or part of the trip I would suggest making reservations soon once we get the itinerary locked in. I think by this weekend we'll have it finalized.

[hambone]

I'm pretty broke after my Chicago trip...and now I gotta cough up 3 bills for th' Colin visit. I'll know if I can swing it in a couple weeks, after the flurry of shreadded dollars settles.

[Gypsie]

I'm headin' to Montana in a couple of weeks. At 14 mpg right now I will be runnin' lean for a bit as well.

That being said...

The weekend trip to catch up to wherever y'all are might be nice. I'll play it by ear.

Sounds like a fab trip though, good time of the year too.

[Westy78]

Here's where we'll be.

Aug 16-17, San Juan County Park, site 8
Aug 18-19, Orcas Island, Moran State park, Midway Campground, site 59
Aug 20-22, Lopez Island, Odlin County Park, site 19

Hope some more can make it for some of the dates.

[hambone]

Crap! My daughter goes back to Chicago on August 23... Looks like I'm out.
Well <sour grapes> I couldn't afford it anyway.
Hope we'll all still be able to hook up this summer a couple times.

[spiffy]

Crap! My daughter goes back to Chicago on August 23... Looks like I'm out.
Well <sour grapes> I couldn't afford it anyway.
Hope we'll all still be able to hook up this summer a couple times.

We will, come hell er high water. Let's start planning one, ay?

[hambone]

Hambone Springs, end of July? You'll love it. The road will make you poo yerself.
I'll start a thread.

[spiffy]

Hambone Springs, end of July? You'll love it. The road will make you poo yerself.
I'll start a thread.

Perfect. End of July is exactly what I was thinking.

[hambone]

Gives us time to lick our chops.

[Westy78]

Well, this trip wasn't what it was last year but a week in the islands is still not bad at all.

We left two days before we had reservations on San Juan island to take a leisurely drive up the outside of the Olympic Peninsula via hwy101. I'd never been this way and was looking forward to it as was Jill. We weren't all that impressed. Much of the drive is a distance from the coast and through heavy logging areas which meant a lot of views of clear cuts as you weave in and out of the national park boundaries.

We didn't have any camp reservations for Thursday night and had plans to find something around Lake Quinault. All of the campgrounds around the lake were full so we headed out to a free campground about 12 miles into the rain forest. Remember this was the day it hit 100° in PDX and was about 75-80° out in the forest, rain forest that is. The humidity had to be near 100%.

Me doing some on the road tuning. Checking and setting the advance to try and find the coolest running in the heat.



Paying $4.65 for regular in Quinault. Possibly the source of the pained look on my face. When you need gas in the area they're it.



We finally found the campground and set up camp for the night in the thick, sticky air. Heeding the warnings all over the campground of bear and other nightly raiders of food not stored in the supplied food locker or inside a locked vehicle, we kept the cooler inside the bus. This plays into the later drama of the night.



After cooking some dogs over the fire (not pleasant in the heat) it was getting dark so we went inside to play some cards. I used my handy battery powered bug zapper to get rid of some large crane flies and dumped them into the garbage bag I always hang between the seats. Sometimes the zapper doesn't always do them in fully and their wings will vibrate on the plastic bag. Between the buzzing wings and the ice cubes settling in the cooler we had some ambient noises that went mostly ignored. Unfortunately, these sounds also sound a lot like mice crawling around and whiskers vibrating on plastic shopping bags stored behind the drivers seat.

The first flash of varmint I saw after realizing that all of the sounds we were hearing weren't normal was through the slots for the heater controls. Yes, we had mice inside the bus! These were a bold group of deer mice that didn't care if you shined a light right at them, they just stared back. They had found a way up through the front splash pan and into the fresh air vents that are in the nose of all buses behind the kick panels. If you don't know about these, crawl under the front of your bus and you will find some plastic hoses that go through the floor and leave a clear way for pests to enter. I would estimate that we had at least three or four inside at once as they traveled in and out with bits of trail mix that was in the cabinet. After a bit of panic we got all of the food stashed into the fridge and storage box in between the seats. Still they came. All night. A very sleepless night. Even after all of the food was stashed away where they couldn't get to it they began chewing on news paper, paper towel rolls, and something else that sounded solid that I've yet to discover. Hopefully not the wiring under the dash.

Finally at about 5:00 in the morning when the sun began to come up they went back to their nests and we were able to get some sleep. Before then it would seem that just as you drifted off to sleep one would run over our pillows or down the middle of us as we lay there. Not a fun first night. It suffices to say, we will not be visiting that camp ground again. To bad because it was a beautiful area.





The next morning we were up fairly early and hit the road to get out of the forest and hopefully were not carrying any unwanted hitchhikers. We set out for a campground where we had reservations on the south end of Whidbey Island. Along the way we saw some much better scenery and stopped off for some lunch at a day use area that once had been a campground along Lake Crescent. It would have made a much better spot to stay the first night.

















We got into Port Townsend at around 3:00pm to catch the ferry to Whidbey about an hour and a half early only to be told that we were right on the edge of missing the next ferry and would probably be on the 6:45 sailing. Seems that the Washington ferry system is now taking reservations so if you don't make any you get bumped until there is room for you. Luckily we made the ferry we wanted by only three cars.

By the time we got into camp that night, washed all of our dishes of mice feces, wiped down every surface with Clorox wipes, and made dinner it was after 9:00pm.



A quick shower (we were in a state park) and we were off to bed in order to get up early to catch the 11:00am ferry out of Anacortes to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

More later when I get the rest of the photos uploaded from Jill's camera...

[hambone]

Great narrative! Very nice to read. Mice...you know I had one this spring and it sucked. Can't imagine multiple mice running over me in the night.
How did you find those other camps? Interesting, that's a very popular area. Are there many opportunities for Clacky style camping up there?
Looking forward to the rest! Hope it got better for ya.

[Westy78]

How did you find those other camps? Interesting, that's a very popular area. Are there many opportunities for Clacky style camping up there?
Looking forward to the rest! Hope it got better for ya.

The camps out in the rain forest are actually on the maps of the Olympic National Park. There are two of them east of Lake Quinault but one is closed by a washed out road. There really isn't much in the way of free primitive camping due to being inside the park. To even enter the park's boundaries you are suppose to have a permit so just pulling off into one of the pullouts along the way I don't think would be allowed. We didn't bother with a permit for just an overnight thing and don't think we didn't consider just camping along side the road along the river pictured above. I'm sure we would have been fined if we did though.

[Westy78]

Saturday morning we were at the Anacortes ferry dock by about 10:00am. This year we went to the furthest west island to start so all of our trips back east were no charge. As we headed towards Friday Harbor we passed what would be home later in the week at Odlin Park on Lopez Island.



After about an hour on the ferry we arrived at San Juan Island and after having lunch at the local craft brewery we headed to the west side of the island to San Juan county park which sits on the shores of Small Pox Bay.









We had one of the best sites in the park that sat up on the hill and for the most part and compared to the rest of the sites had some hint of privacy.





We had great views from our spot with an amazing sunset the first night.













We even had some of the local wildlife pay a visit.





That evening we heard distant thunder but the rains held off until the next day. Being the late risers that Jill and I are we didn't get up and get breakfast done 'till about noon. That put our hike to Lime Kiln Park to see if we could catch one of the local Orca pods passing off until about 3:00pm. We packed up some supplies and set out on the three mile walk/hike to the park just about the time the thunder started again. Unfortunately no whales where in the area at the time but it was still a nice area with some history of the lime mining taking part years ago. You can still see the kilns they used to separate the lime from the limestone which were still in very good shape for being so old.









One of the many amazing homes on the islands. This one over looks one of the kilns and the lime stained cliffs.



Then the storm came. By the time I was taking this shot the thunder and lighting was just a couple of seconds apart. I tried to get a shot of the lighting but the reflexes let me down.



After the rains had passed it started getting a bit chilly and after a small fire we went to bed. We woke up early to get camp packed up and to get to Roche Harbor before they stopped making the "world famous donuts" and have some breakfast. This was a must do stop for Jill. She has fond memories of coming here with her family on their boat that they had when she was a little girl. It was a very nice spot, and yes, the donuts were pretty damn good.

[Westy78]

We headed to Orcas Island after breakfast and once again the clouds and rain had rolled in.







Along with us now was our mascot for the rest of the trip. Found in an empty camp site at San Juan.



We camped at Moran State Park in the Midway campground right along the lake. A nice state park with some good hiking trails.





Once again and thanks to the storm clouds we had a fantastic sunset that night.







The next day we went for a hike around the lake and up to Cascade Falls.









After working up an appetite on the hike I made up a batch of jambalaya in the dutch oven for dinner. Sorry, no photos. It's a trade secret.

In the morning we got camp packed up again and took a drive up to the top of Mt. Constitution. A steep climb from near sea level to nearly 3500ft in under six miles of switch backs. Second gear in a bus packed for a week long road trip.

It was cold and windy up at the top so we didn't spend much time before going to catch the ferry to our last camp on Lopez.