Today we decided to head over to Orcas Island, the other large island in the San Juan archipelago. Our hippie guide had told us that this island was far less touristy than San Juan Island, and so Libby and I had high hopes for this trip. We got up reasonably early, and caught the rusty-sided inter-island ferry for what we thought would be a quick hop over to Orcas Island; after all, we could see it from our island just across a small straight.

We soon found that we were slightly mistaken. The ferry ride was short, in distance at least. We couldn’t have gone more than a couple of miles as the crow flies. But due to the twisted nature of the waters in the islands, with scores of tiny islets, hidden rocks, and twisting channels, it took us nearly an hour to arrive. In the meantime, we got to enjoy a leisurely morning cruise past all sorts of nature preserves, as our ferry carefully picked its way from one safe channel to another.

Upon arriving, we drove off the island and eagerly headed to the first town we saw on the island map. Here we found a very cute town with lots of little cafes, a good bookstore, and a nice farmers market / whole foods store. Our first stop was at the book store, where we both picked up several books and magazines for the beach. We then explored a little bit, and settled down at a cafe that looked promising for lunch. After eating, we continued looking around the town, eventually buying our first souvenirs of the trip (at least, souvenirs that aren’t vampire related).

After we were finished looking at the town, we decided to head out towards the next town on our map – the largest one shown in fact, to see what it was like. We planned to continue on from there to a nearby state park for some hiking. It soon became apparent that something was wrong, however, as my navigator kept on telling me to take streets that didn’t exist, and a small squabble erupted as I mostly ignored those directions. I figured that turning onto imaginary streets was a poor idea, and that if we just continued in the right general direction we would eventually find a street name we recognized. Eventually we realized what our problem was: we hadn’t been in the right town to begin with. We’d actually overshot the first town we’d planned to go to, and had already been in the largest town on the island. This simplified things greatly, and we continued on towards the state park that we were already nearly in.

Once in the state park, we followed the signs for the small mountain that was the centerpiece of the park, and the largest mountain on the island. Here my navigator started having issues again, as we had to pick our way up a narrow, one and a half lane road to reach the trail head. I chose to ignore the screams of terror, however, and continued on towards the top. When we reached the parking lot, we hopped out and headed up the short path to the top and the observation tower built there. From the tower we had amazing views of all sides of the island, and got some great pictures of Mount Baker looming over us, Victoria in the distance with the Olympic mountains behind it, and even a few shots of Mount Rainier way off in the distance. We both agreed that it wasn’t quite as exciting or fulfilling driving to the top of the mountain instead of hiking, but having it accessible to everyone was worth the trade off.

After the harrowing drive down from Mount Constitution (mostly harrowing because of the incessant screaming by my passenger), we headed on to Doe Bay to check out the resort that had been recommended there. When we arrived we found a small, quiet collection of cabins, a large camping ground, some Yurts, and a great cliff-side view of the ocean, with a nice rock beach and lots of small tide pools. We sat on a bench by the ocean for a while, enjoying the breeze, before deciding to try out the soaking pools and sauna that overlooked the ocean. Given the source of the recommendation for these pools, and the presence of the Yurts at the resort, we should have known to be wary. It wasn’t until we got there, however, that we realized the pools were clothing optional. Since we were already changed, and it was during family hour, we decided to risk it. Sure enough, there was a small family with young children already present, and fully clothed. This reassured us somewhat, and after showering and sitting in the sauna for a little bit, we hopped into one of the pools. It was very relaxing, with the smell of the salt water drifting in off the ocean, and the trees all around us. Before long, however, our relaxation was brought to an abrupt end as several men came in, and jumped into the pool with us. Both had to decided to let it all hang out, as they say, and Libby was less than pleased to be sharing a bench with them. After waiting just long enough to not be rude, we got out and headed to the changing room.

Following our close encounter with nature at the soaking pools, we decided that it was time to head back to the hotel. We got to the terminal with plenty of time to catch the last ferry off, and after a short wait we headed back to San Juan Island.

Signing off,

Fully Clothed Lib and Soaking Steven

Travel question of the day: Do you think its just coincidence that every activity on this island is $95 for 3 hours?