July 24, 2019 – Happy Birthday Diane! This the first year in, like, seven years we’ve not spent it together and I’m sad to not be celebrating it with you.
Nothing finer than waking up next to Mr. Fluffball. A clear and sunny morning. Over coffee, Roger played some of the latest choral performances he’s recorded. Absolutely brilliant! He also took me up to see the building site for his new house/hall. The design and use make me think of it as a secular modern vicerage.
Then it was time to get down to some planning for the journey ahead. I contacted the folks at Deception Pass and, no surprise, they don’t have a campsite that will work until August 11th. Good thing I had already accepted that I might not be able to do things in geographical sequence. The plan is: Uncle, Gaston, and I will take the ferry to Anacortes on Friday and drive to Whidbey, then scout out Deception Pass so that when I get back to it on August 11th I will be able to make the most of the time there. We will stay at friends’ Kris and Mike’s house (thanks guys!) Friday night, t the ferry to Port Townsend Saturday, find a nearby base camp spot, and I will do day paddles along the southern shores of Strait of San Juan de Fuca. My plan is to cover as much of it as possible by day trips, with maybe a day or two of actually paddling from Point A to Point B. I will also go down to Ozette Lake to scout the paddle from the lake to the river to the sea in hopes I can paddle down from Hobuck Beach and to the lake to camp.
I can do all of this because my ground crew and I are splitting up for another little while. Uncle needs to return to the farm to host a large group of campers coming in the weekend of August 2nd, and will leave me with the Saab. He needs to leave for home on the 30th to get things ready, so I will have from the 30th to the 5th (when he returns) to basically do whatever I want. Which is really nice considering that the tides on the Strait aren’t good next week for a contiguous paddle west. This also gives me maximum flexibility for taking advantage of the perfect day to paddle around Cape Flattery.
After Uncle returns on August 5th, we will begin the journey down the north Washington coast. Then I will come back up to Deception Pass on the 11th to paddle the area for four days. Then back to where we left off on the coast, down to the Columbia, then home.
It’s been a little over seven weeks since I started the journey. It’s gone by so fast. Yet I still have almost five more weeks ahead of me. That feels better.
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