The Olympic Sea to Summit team had a blast on the San Juan Islands! On Tuesday we left Deception Pass, met our kayak guides at the ferry terminal and set off for our 3 day kayaking adventure! After taking the ferry to Guemes Island, we packed up our essentials into the hatch’s of the kayaks and paddled off to Cypress Island. We set up our tents on Pelican Beach and then hiked up to Eagle Cliff for a beautiful view of the San Juan Islands. Our kayak guide taught us about all the native plants and trees along the way and we tasted some red huckleberries and Oregon grapes from the side of the trail.
The next morning we woke up for some yoga on the beach and tide pooling during low tide. We found sea stars, anenome, and crabs! As the tide started to come in we started paddling to the other side of cypress island. Along the way we saw seals, eagles and blue herons. At the beach we enjoyed some lunch and some went for a refreshing swim.
That evening back at our campsite we enjoyed some seaweed salad that we made from seaweed we harvested that afternoon, and had a rock skipping Alpenolympic contest while watching the sunset. Each evening we spend some time for LOD appreciation where each camper gets to share what they appreciate about the leader of the day. This is a special moment of the day for the girls to reflect on their leadership and strengthen our community bond.
On the third day of our kayak trip we paddled back to Guemes island with the currents in our favor. After a short ferry ride back to Anacortes, we set up our new campsite at Washington Park. Today we will spend the day resting, exploring more tide pools and trails around the park.
We are so excited to go rock climbing tomorrow and then head off on our backpacking adventure on the Olympic peninsula!