Olympic Island
MorningFayBay.JPG
Boat, sunrise and Cascades on the second morning out of Banbridge.
The Camp Cat.JPG
This cat woke us up at Fay Banbridge State Park. She was quite friendly.
PullingBoat.JPG
Jordan pulls the boat just off Indian Island to escape the current ripping through the channel.
PortTownsend.JPG
Rowed right up to down town Port Townsend. Rowing up to this Victorian town felt like going back in time.
Elephantseal.JPG
This big guy lay on the beach on Dungeness Spit. He was huge.
HarborSeals.JPG
On the other side of the spit were fifty or more harbor seals. They came over to our side, they were curious animals.
SpitSnacks.JPG
Greg using the boat as a windbreak on the exposed spit to grab a bite.
DSLighthouse.JPG
The lighthouse the evening of the third day on Dungeness Spit.
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Sunset on the Spit.
Dinner.JPG
Greg cooking dinner on the beach in the small wind shadow of the boat.
Elephant Seal.JPG
Woke up that morning to the Elephant seal scooting towards us. He stopped once we stood up and went to the water.
Crab on Dungeness.JPG
On the spit with the Olympics in the back ground.
Pokey.JPG
Our mascot for this trip was Pokey the Triceratops.
Rainbow.JPG
Rainbow off Clallam Bay.
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Greg with rain soaked laugh before we headed in to dry ourselves at the small fishing village of Sekiu.
Fisherman.JPG
A fisherman overlooks Clallam Bay at Sekiu.
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Jordan rests a bit after rowing through kelp off of Neah Bay.
RowersNeahBay.JPG
Greg and Jordan pose for posterity upon reaching Neah Bay.
Kelpyjelly.JPG
A small jellyfish dances among the Kelp.
Cape Flattery.JPG
Rock formation off Flattery. Reminded us of Easter Island.
Fishboat.JPG
A small trawler off of Tatoosh Island.
LargeJelly.JPG
A large jellyfish swims next to our boat in the Pacific Ocean.
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Fog closes in on us the first day in the ocean. Greg sets a course on the GPS as land is no longer viewable.
Sunfishsurface.JPG
A small sunfish took advantage of the calm and basked in the fog filtered sunlight.
Sunfishunderwater.JPG
Same sunfish let us come right along side for this shot before our company got old and he swam away.
A heaven of sorts.JPG
For whatever reason the calm water and the setting sun made we wonder if with this is what the gate to heaven looks like for watermen. I tried not to dwell on this.
SealionIsland.JPG
The din of roaring Sea Lions was overwhelming and could be heard for miles from the group on this island.
CapeAlavaKelpbed.JPG
Swells were long and low, choked down with kelp, still troughs of waves revealed rocks like gentle breaking whales. We kept rowing through the night as we could not see a safe place to land through the fog.
SunsetoffAlava.JPG
Sunset was still spectacular in the fog. We rowed through the night to La Push.
St.Jamesisland.JPG
Greg and St. James Island - the fortress rock that guards the small town of La Push from the Pacific.
Pelican.JPG
One of many Pelicans that flew off of Destruction Island.
TheBoatAshore.JPG
Greg and I rowed the boat ashore just north of the Queets River.
inventory.JPG
Jordan and our Crayola color drybags from sealine after we landed through the surf.
SunsetQueets.JPG
Our boat and the sunset from our camp in the driftwood just north of the Queets.
Sunsetqueetstoo.JPG
A half hour made a huge change in the color of the same sunset. It was cold on the coast.
Charts.JPG
Greg studies the next days charts to Gray's Harbor. Nature had other plans.
Intheready.JPG
Our boat sits on the shore waiting for us to bring her out beyond the breakers.
Gregfightswaves.JPG
Greg guides the boat in what looked liked breakers we could fight.
Thewaves.JPG
It wasn't this wave in particular that got us, the the three more right after that flooded the cockpit of the boat. We changed plans after this.
Chewtoy.JPG
That night the Pacific tossed this stump like a chew toy a few yards from us and our boat above the tide line.
StumpOne.JPG
We thought the other stump was big, this is a mammoth left by another storm.
Stumptwo.JPG
Another example of the oceans power. Something had to put it here.
Queetsmouth.JPG
The Mouth of the Queets. Found out later that the Makah Tribe had just made it past the breakers in a canoe after 60 years of trying. Made us not feel so bad for having to change our rout.
GregRecon.JPG
Greg runs back after checking a fork in the river. We took the other one.
Queets.JPG
The Queets just up from the mouth. This was the start of our detour to Hoquiam on Gray's Harbor. It was a prudent and safer option.
Wishkah.JPG
We start our row up the Wishkah to Lori and Scott's place. They own Bottomsiders, the boat pad company that outfit our ocean rowboat.
Sunkboat.JPG
A boat, not unlike ours on the Chehalis River bottom. We were blessed with better luck.
Riverisland.JPG
We camped at a turn in the river that produced a comfortable island for the night. The river rock was good to sleep on.
Freshwatermussles.JPG
On our island were freshwater mussles, some nearly four inches long. Some animal had been eating several of them as shells were all over the beach.
Elevationgains.JPG
Getting out and pulling, pushing and prodding the boat became commonplace as the river gained in elevation and ceased be affected by the tides.
Deer.JPG
Despite passing through much farmland the river still had plently of room for Black Tail Deer.
Upriver.JPG
Greg continues our row upriver, rowing was becoming more rare.
First Portage.JPG
Our first portage that involved clearing all the gear out of the boat.
Bubbles.JPG
A shot of moving water.
Brekki.JPG
Greg cooks breakfast on a secluded bank.
Chokedlogs.JPG
Jordan helps pull the boat through a narrow section choked by logs from flooding.
Thunderheads.JPG
Clouds like these always seemed close with their thunderheads as we made our way to the mouth of the Black River.
Chehalissunsetone.JPG
Our boat and the last daylight clouds at our last camp on the Chehalis.
Chehalissunsettwo.JPG
Again, a half hour and the sun was a different hue of pretty.
Uptheriver.JPG
I suppose overuse broke this oar.
StartingRepares.JPG
Greg cuts a supple branch to become the brace for the broken oar.
Shapingthebrace.JPG
Jordan carves the branch, enhancing its already curved shape to fit the face of the broken blade.
StrongString.JPG
Once again strong string proves important for Jury rigging. The brace was tied to the blade.
Ready for action.JPG
The oar was then wrapped in vulcanizing tape followed by Gorilla tape. This mended the oar for the rest of the trip.
horses.JPG
These great looking animals showed little to no interest in us.
Up the Black.JPG
The river continued a back and forth game of rowing and pushing.
Underwaterplants.JPG
The black river rock is where the river gets its name. It is punctuated by these brilliant plants that grow among them.
Checking the rout.JPG
As the river narrowed and the path became more confusing the GPS became more important.
Theblueflowers.JPG
These blue flowers first appeared at the start of the Black River in small clumps. Here we pushed our boat through them.
Hopenotlost.JPG
After following two forks in the river and having resigned ourselves to another pick up a call to our navigator David Burch sent us down this small rivulet and a cow pasture.
Timetodry.JPG
Now was the time our dry suit use got serious. We were now in and out of water that seemed to get colder as we got nearer to the source.
Narrow.JPG
The path continued to Narrow. We had no idea what we were in for.
Wheretogo.JPG
The trees closed in on the river. We only knew where to go by following the flowing water. This picture was taken after I hacked a path through with the machete.
floodplanes.JPG
Once past the over growth we had a short while of un-choked stream with tall grass on each side. Our footing was slick clay.
Overland.JPG
Our largest dry portage. A quarter mile back to the main stream.
Wepush.JPG
To get the boat over land we emptied the boat. We striped down and got behind the stern. Pushing as hard as we could over the grass got some distance between five and fifty feet.
Gondolaman.JPG
Once back in the main stream we riverboated along for a bit.
Gondolaman2
Merrily we paddled along, it was quite wet.
Blogging.JPG
That night we spent dry and cool under and overpass. Our last mile had been rowed. I blog about the day while Greg cooked dinner.
Entertheswamp.JPG
That next day we were certain we would make the lake. How long could 2 to 3 miles of swamp take?
Wecarvebush.JPG
This picture does not do the angle justice.
theangle.JPG
Greg is not holding the back down. This is just the angle of the boat to get around a fallen tree. It was a slow lesson to learn that no problem existed in this swamp that could not be cured with a machete and some grunt work.
AfricanQueenOne.JPG
The Lilly pads were huge. Thick stocks beneath the surface allowed us to use our feet to feel from stock to stock as we made our way through the maze of pads, reeds and thicket.
AfricanQueentwo.JPG
This shot was taken out of the waterproof camera housing. I'm not sure which one I like more. All I know is I am no Bogart and Greg is no Hepburn.
Blacklakeexisits.JPG
We spent an extra day in the swamp. Day two covered a half mile in eight hours.
Victory.JPG
This was really quite a moment for us. There were tears and gesticulations of the celebratory sort.
Goodbyeswamp.JPG
We leave the swamp. Tired but satisfied. The last 300 ft of the swamp was a thicket, not even a hint of a main channel.
knuckles.JPG
Our knuckles were pretty chewed up after days of moving a boat upstream and through swamps. Rowing 12 hours a day is much easier.
TheCanal.JPG
North of Black Lake is a canal that took us three and half of the five miles to Capitol Lake and Budd Inlet.
Embankment.JPG
This is where the Canal out of Capitol lake ran into Percival Creek - unrowable - instead we pushed the boat a mile and half down a rail road track - also unrowable.
Capitollake.JPG
Took two hours to push the boat on railroad tracks to get here. Almost broke my leg and I think I'll lose a toenail.
Lastcampsite.JPG
Rowed through the night to get to Devil's Head in the south sound.
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Got a good shot of the sunrise before I passed out for three hours to catch the next tide.
The Narrows.JPG
The Tacoma Narrows bridge was the final goal before Gig Harbor.