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| CAMPING TRIP August 12th thru August 15th |
| Wednesday, August 12th, Vick arrived to pick me up - load all my 'stuff' into her truck, and we headed north for about an hour. We arrived at our destination - Thousand Trails, a camping resort - near La Conner, WA. We selected a campsite and proceeded to set up camp - actually Vicki did about all of it! She did let me hand her a tent peg or two, hold a pole, rake a spot for the tent floor. But she did all the real work - I was exhausted just watching her!!! |
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| We took a walk to the beach to check out the area. There is a small store with some grocery items and souvenirs. We sat on the beach for awhile and just enjoyed the view. This beach is 'Lone Tree Point' properly named as you can see by the pic. We planned to check out Deception Pass the next day. |
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| The map isn't very clear - but the 'X' on the right is Lone Tree Point - the area where we camped. The 'green' is Deception Pass State Park. The bridge is on the left side of the map, joining Fidalgo Island on the North to Whidbey Island in the South. The 'O' is Cornet Bay. |
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| Deception Pass State Park is one of my all time favorite places. It is located on the North end of Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. The park extends across the channel to the southern area of Fidalgo Island. This area is one that has many sites in my special area of interest - early explorers, history, adventures, tales of pirates and smugglers, Native American customs and legends - plus some of the most beautiful scenery to be found anywhere. Whidbey Island has been considered a key defense site. In various places, Military relics can be found - 19th century block houses to protect from Native American attacks, concrete bunkers from WW II, lighthouses and now the home of the Naval Air Station Whidbey. Many places are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has one of the first and largest Wildlife Reserves in the U.S. Coupeville area has about 100 'sea-captains' homes, over 100 years old from the early sailing days in the area. Several State Parks and a wide variety of interesting places to visit and views to enjoy. More about the Park - DECEPTION PARK. Connecting Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands is the DECEPTION PASS BRIDGE. There are two spans, a total of about a quarter mile in length. The bridge was completed in 1935 at a cost of $482,000. It cost more to paint the spans in 1983 than it did to build them in 1935. The bridge is about 180 feet above the water - depending on the tide. On the average, 20,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day. Deception Pass State Park has over 1,000,000 visitors each year. |
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| Thursday AM we left camp and drove to Deception Pass, across the Bridge to the parking area. From here you can walk onto the bridge, find trails down to the beach, enjoy all that is there to be seen. We purchased tickets for a jet boat tour under the bridge. From there we went to Cornet Bay to board the boat - a flat bottom, cataraman type . |
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| Once underway, we passed BEN URE ISLAND, named for one of the early pirate/smugglers of the area. We continued to the area of Canoe Pass - the small bridge span - but didn't go through the pass due to the current that day. We drifted in the area for a short time to see seals, several unusual birds/ducks and a most impressive bald eagle perched on a tree just above the water level. |
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| Just above us about half way up the rock cliff was a 'cave'. This had been a prioson - 1910 to 1914 - a rock quarry operated by 40 inmates. They stayed in two, 8' X 10' rooms in the cave. The cave is about 150' deep into the rock. |
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| We went West, under the bridge. The day was gray and drizzly - so the pictures don't really show the panorama! We headed out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and again 'drifted' awhile as our intrepreter told us about the various areas in view. |
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| To the South is the Naval Air Station with one runway painted like an aircraft carrier - for practising takes offs and landings. West looked out toward the Pacific Ocean and just slightly North of there is Vancouver Island. The lights of Victoria can be seen at night. To the North are the San Juan Islands. There are about 170 of them, though at low tide, about 300 more rocky islands can be seen. Eighty-three of the islands are protected by the San Juan Wildlife Refuge. There are about 90 resident Orcas in the area. The Four largest islands have towns, tourist accommodations and quite a few residents. Some of the smaller islands are privately owned. One, Allen Island - named 100 years ago - was purchased a few years ago by Microsoft's Paul Allen. It has a house, a dock and is private - though I hear there is no running water! It is now for sale if you are interested. the price has been cut to about 1/3 the original asking one - a real bargain if you are in the market. Our next 'drifting' time was in Bowman Bay. Several movies have been filmed in part here. Among them - The Postman, An Officer and A Gentleman, and one of my favorites - Free Willy 2. Back under the bridge as we returned to Cornet Bay after an hour of very interesting sights, great ride and awesome scenery. We went into Oak Harbor for lunch and talked of where to go next. Years ago I had been to a beach area on the North side of the Bridge where there was a carved statue of an Indian girl. There was a legend about her. I wanted to revisit the spot and after a couple tries, we found it. She was a Samish Indian, now known as the MAIDEN OF DECEPTION PASS. Following is an abbreviated version of the legend. |
| THE MAIDEN OF DECEPTION PASS Ko-kwal-alwoot was a beautiful Samish Indian girl living in a village at this site. Sha was gathering seafood one day when a young man from beneath the sea saw her and fell in love. But when the man of the sea asked her father for her hand in marriage, he refused, for fear she would drown. The young man warned Ko-kwal-awoot's father that the seafood would disappear unless she married him. When his warning proved to be true, Ko-kwal-awoot's father granted permission for the marriage. The beautiful woman waded into the sea to join her new husband. Once again the seafood returned and was plentiful. Ko-kwal-awoot returned to her people once a year for four years. Barnacles had grown upon her hands and arms, and her long raven hair turned to kelp. Chill winds followed wherever she walked, and she seemed to be unhappy out of the sea. Seeing this, Ko-kwal-awoot's people told her she did not need to return to them. Since that day, she has been the Samish Tribe's guiding spirit, and through her protection there has always been plenty of seafood and pure, springwater. This 23 foot story pole was carved from Red Cedar by Tracy W. Powell of Anacortes. The pole was a joint project of the Samish Tribe and the Skagit County Centennial Commission. It was dedicated in a colorful, spirit-filled ceremony Sept. 24, 1983. |
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| Front side of statue |
| Back side of the statue showing the changes. |
| Back to camp - tired but a wonderful day even though the weather was rather 'gray'. Friday AM we went into Anacortes. This was once known as the Salmon Canning Capital. The first cannery opened in 1893 and by 1915, there were eleven canneries stretched out along the channel. In 1913, a record year, fishing boats delivered some 39 million salmon and Anacortes canned over 800,000 cases of fish. At one time, the English were the primary market for hand-packed, red-fleshed fish. They preferred to buy cans painted red, which indicated that the salmon was packed by hand and not by machine. Some say this is why red labels became predominant on canned salmon. Others say red labels were used to subliminally suggest that the salmon inside was red. |
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| We went to the site where the W. T. PRESTON - a 'snag boat, last of the Puget Sound sternwheelers was on display. We were able to tour all three decks and learn about 'snagging operation'. This boat cleared snags out of the area rivers, towed logs down the rivers to the mills and occassionally rescued a cow or other animal that had fallen into a river. The Preston is the last of the three snag boats that operated in the area. The first, Skagit, began in 1885. She served until 1914 when replaced by the Swinomish. In 1929, the wood hulled W.T.Preston took over. About 10 years later the wood hull was replaced with steel. The steam powered engines were in use for over 65 years having first been installed on the Swinomish in 1914. Overall Length 163' 5.8" Paddlewheel Buckets (Paddles) Beam Width 34' 8.5" Length 18' Length 6' 6" Draft 4' Diameter 17' Width 18" Engines Two, 150 HP with Buckets 48 in 3 sets Thickness 2" |
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| We next visited the Museum in the Carnegie Library Building. Interesting info and stories about some of the early pioneers and characters of Anacortes. Back to the mainland and a stop in La Conner. This is a small community - population 761 in the 2000 census. In April it hosts the Tulip Festival. The few short blocks of the historic district are along the Snohomish Channel. This is the channel that separates the mainland from Fidalgo Island. Many little shops, cafes and a museum along the street. On one side the shops are along the waterway with patios and decks so you can enjoy a cup of coffee and watch the activity on the channel. The 'La Conner Sculpture Exhibition' has items displayed outside in several places. Some are owned by the town, many are for sale with prices ranging from $1,000 to $20,000. One of the $1,000 items is "All That and a Bag of Rocks". It is about 4 feet high, a steel mesh bag shaped like a purse and contains rocks????? This is art???? The $20,000 is called "December" and made of concrete - huge and made no sense to me. All in all, the stroll on this street, visiting many of the shops, enjoying a cup of coffee - along the channel - made this a pleasant stop. Saturday AM - time to pack up and head for home. I arrived at my place by 1 PM - tired but in a good way. It was a wonderful adventure, so much to see and learn. And the time spent in camp was great! Vicki always has the best menus planned, is lots of fun to be with and it was an all around exceptional few days. NOTE: After supper we played 'Yahtze' a couple evenings. Since I've been home I retotalled our score sheets with a calculator. It appears we both failed in our addition - perhaps the evening light, or flickerng lantern was the problem. However, the corrected results show she didn't beat me by as much as originally thought! |
| LINKS scattered below will take you to pages with more info and pictures. |
| WEB CAM will take you to a page where you can find links to Web Cams in the San Juan Islands for live pics. |