Day 1 of Kayaking Trip

Sara and West were our guides for the trip. There ended up being 10 people scheduled for this trip; John and Annette, husband and wife from Cashmere, Washington; Jentzen and Melissa, husband and wife from Los Angeles, California; Jeff and Shereen, friends from church from Los Angeles and Huntington Beach, California; and the four of us.

All of our stuff was loaded on the van.

Judy inspected the kayaks. We were all loaded in the van and the adventure began.

San Juan County Park was where we launched the kayaks.

The first thing was to get the kayaks down to the beach

and all the camping supplies.

We transferred our stuff to the two dry bags that were provided to us and hauled down to the shore. We looked at all that stuff

and wondered it how it was all going to fit in five double kayaks and two single kayaks but it did with room left over.

Then we were “fitted” in to our kayaks,

the person in the back had petals to control the rudder while the person in the front also had pegs to put their feet on but they were just for leverage. Then it was back up to the grass to have a paddling lesson.

We also got safety instructions and what to do if we had whales get close to us. Time to get all geared up and in to the kayak,

Susan and Traci were in one kayak and

Judy and Ginger were in one.

Right outside of the park a few of us saw a couple of Orca whales but they were going away from us and very far away so hard to see. Our first day was a 13 mile trip to the campground with a lunch stop a little over half way at Posey Island.

The first half of the trip was mostly along shore with some short channel crossings. We saw lots of sea birds and seals.

After lunch we had a three mile channel crossing with lots of boats, we were glad we were fueled up for it. The water was very smooth and the crossing went great.

On the way to the campground we passed more sea birds, seals,

and a couple of Bald Eagles.

After arriving State Park Campground we had to unload all the kayaks and haul everything up to the campsite.

Then we had to set up our tents.

Time for dinner which was smoked salmon fettuccine

with apple crisp cooked in the Dutch oven for dessert. We slept well that night.

San Juan Islands Kayak Adventure Begins

Our adventure started in Anacortes at Randy’s Pier 61 Restaurant on Sunday, August 15th.

Susan and Ginger traveled from Indian Wells, California; Judy from Sun Lakes, Arizona; and Traci from Salem, Oregon.

Earlier this year when Ginger was getting ready to head back to Oregon for the summer she asked Susan what she was doing this summer and she said she was going kayaking in the San Juan Islands. To Susan’s surprise Ginger said she wanted to go, after a couple of phone calls Judy and Traci were also included in the Outdoor Odyssey’s 3-day kayaking trip. None of us had ever kayaked and we were not equipped. Thank goodness Outdoor Odyssey provided most of the necessary equipment and we only needed to find proper clothing (no cotton), water shoes, hats, and gloves. Throw in some waterproof cameras and sunscreen and we had everything we needed. Judy did a great job of getting us very nice accommodations in Anacortes at the Fidalgo Country Inn. Susan was able to convince them to let me leave my van there so we only had to deal with one vehicle at the ferry terminal. After a good nice sleep and waffles for breakfast we were headed to Friday Harbor.

We had a very nice ferry ride. Friday Harbor is beautiful but it is busy with all the people, cars, trucks, RVs, and semis getting on and off the ferry. We found our hotel and were not able to check in yet but they were able to store our luggage. Judy was told we could ride the bus to the end of the island to Roche Harbor so we did that.

Roche Harbor is another beautiful harbor but a lot less busy.

We walked around enjoying all the beauty and history of the town. We had a wonderful lunch and then ended up playing Bocce Ball.

We caught the last bus back to Friday Harbor that ended up being standing room only.

We walked back to the Bird Rock Hotel where once again Judy booked us perfect accommodations. We had a wonderful two room suite with a common sitting room with a couch, kitchen, and table between the two rooms.

We relaxed before dinner and played the card game Hand & Foot. We had a wonderful dinner at Downriggers.

After dinner Ginger and Susan went back to the room and

Judy and Traci went for a walk down to the pier to enjoy the boats in the sunset.

We enjoyed our last night of sleeping in a bed before two nights in a tent. The Outdoor Odyssey’s van was picking us up at 8:30 at the ferry terminal.

More later...

WAG NADAC Agility in Newport Oregon

HOT, HOT, HOT!!! That is what the temperature in the valley was the week before WAG’s Newport NADAC trial, July 9th-11th. What do you do when the temperature in the valley is hovering at 100 degrees and you do not have air conditioning? You dream about leaving the valley Friday afternoon and spending the weekend at the beach!! That was the only thing that kept me sane that week. Thank you WAG for scheduling the trial the weekend after a blistering week!

Thursday night we were packed and ready to go! Jordana and Stephen headed over Friday morning to get the tent set up.

I left work at noon, made a quick stop at the house to pick up the rest of the dogs and the food from the refrigerator and we were headed to the coast. It was a beautiful afternoon at the coast. Most of the competitors came from the valley and most of them were happy to be out of the heat. We had two runs Friday night; Weavers and Hoopers. Jordana ran Hershey and PITA in Hoopers and neither of them wanted to play.

I ran Kant and Echo both with same course in mind; one ran in 35.48 seconds and the other in 36.45 seconds, both qualified!

Stephen ran Kant in Weavers and did a great job running a very nice qualifying course.

I ran Echo in Weavers and she did great on the weave poles but missed a hoop on the way to the finish tunnel so no Q.

Saturday was a full day! Jordana and I were scorekeeping and running 4 dogs.

Thank goodness Stephen was there to help with the dogs, keep us fed and hydrated, tape our runs, and run Kant in a couple of classes.

With dogs is almost every class and level we had lots of conflicts between the two rings. It kept us on our toes and constantly busy. I did manage to miss a couple of walk throughs.

But my dogs ran amazingly great!!!

Hershey needed three more Regulars and got 2 on Saturday.

Stephen brought a kite to fly at the beach

and he found time to do it between runs!

Even Arti got to play on the practice jump!

Sunday was just as great and busy as Saturday!!

Hershey got the last Q needed for Championships!!

And my blue girls ended up with 10 qualifying runs out of the 14 for the weekend!!

Jordana and PITA struggled and only got one Q but they had pieces of good teamwork in each of the runs

and Jordana learned she need to practice more and work-out.

Stephen did a great job running Kant; he has learned so much. I was very proud of everyone and had a great weekend!!!

Thank you WAG for another super Newport trial and judges Dwayne and Pam for wonderful courses.

And a huge thank you to Joe Camp for more awesome pictures.