Sea Kayak - Anderson Island

SIGHTED: EAGLE, CORMORANT, PIGEON GUILLEMOT, SCOTER, LOON, PORPOISE, SEAL

All paddlers arrived and were ready on time at 1100 for our pre trip huddle. Most of us parked in the upper lot after paying the $8 fee (credit card ok) and using the very nice bathroom facility in the ferry ticket office. After a train finally passed I was able to continue the briefing and Larry and Laura kindly agreed to take over the group if I was indisposed. We launched in the quiet water and saw seals and porpoises before reaching Eagle Island.  Nobody needed to stop and we proceeded on into Drayton Passage on the island's west side to admire the view of the Olympics once we had settled onto some logs for our lunch at 1230.  It took about an hour in the warmish sunshine before we got back into our boats and continued on towards the south end.  Everything was quiet except for a few rounds of shots being fired from somewhere east of the bay before Treble Point.  We got on around the corner and as we approached the WWTA former campsite at the slough we were getting a nice push.  We piled onshore for a bio break for about 15 minutes.  The rising current continued to push us along and it was easy paddling along the shoreline with the beautiful madrona trees high up on the sandstone cliffs above us.  The houses are not visible on the south end.  Once we reached the Lyle Point marker we paused and after a brief discussion, calculated an angle to take us to inside south end of Ketron Island.  Mt. Rainier was clearly visible as we headed across, paddling slowly for this crowd.  I’m not sure why we had paddled so slowly…maybe it was the later than usual launch or we just wanted to prolong such an unexpectedly warm and pleasant March day to have a relaxing paddle!  There was a beat up sign “PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESPASSING NO LANDING” on the very south end of Ketron but there is plenty of empty beach farther north on both sides of the channel.  The train track runs close to the water’s edge however on the east side.  There looks like there is a some kind of driveway/boat launch but not a public one on that side also.  Just at the NE point of Cormorant Passage is the skeleton remains of a boat storage house.  The ferry dock is just past it and a few houses where we arrived at 1730.  Look for the very large and beautiful white sea anemones on some of the pilings of the ferry dock. Good teamwork was applied to get the boats the short distance up the boat ramp under the train track and into the parking lot.  A post trip huddle was completed after all paddlers had loaded up and changed.  No complaints were made and thanks exchanged.  All but one paddler elected to go to dinner at Appleby’s in Tacoma where Tim kindly bought mine. All paddlers performed well with excellent group dynamics.