Sea Kayak - Ross, Diablo & Gorge Lakes

SIGHTED:  SEALS, CORMORANTS, MERGANSERS, EAGLE, DEER, RACOON

This trip was supposed to be a Diablo Lake weekend but current forest fires and bad air quality on Ruby Hill and around Baker Lake caused a switch to clear and easily accessible Blake Island.  Except for Terry the other paddlers dropped and Larry signed on at the last minute.  They were already unloading at Lowman Beach when I arrived at 0900 after dodging the inevitable marathoners along the park.  They (not the marathoners) kindly helped carry my bags as well as my boat down the lengthy rocky beach to the distant water line on the minus tide. There are no public restrooms here so the minus tide made that chore a lot easier along the bulkheads. After  moving our cars in the numerous available street parking spaces we shoved off at 1015.  It took an hour of easy paddling with no boat sightings or pauses across the shipping lane to reach the marina jetty.  After that it was a short hop being mindful of the many sub surface boulders over to the WWTA camp on the  NW side of the spit.  It was gleefully empty and we pulled up on the long sandy beach with its accompanying spinach seaweed.  This is a shallow beach and fills/empties rapidly so by the time the boats were emptied it was a shorter haul to the driftwood at the top than when we started.  We chose the eastern most space 51 to pitch our tents as it offered more room for tents.  Campsites are still $12 a night, payable with cash or check and you use the lock box at the kiosk.

It was easy to see and greatly appreciated that the ongoing clean up efforts have kept the spiny – and painful – nettles mostly clear. I tore out a few around my tent site but we can’t burn them because all the fire pits have been removed.

Once I had my tent and tarp situated we began with another set of poles to set up my tarp over the table area.  The clouds had rolled in and it began to rain before we were done. We sat down for our lunch and while we had repositioned the table the tarp wasn’t quite big enough to cover the large area so the table was wet on the ends. It was about 3:00 when we all decided to take a walk to the ranger station in Tillicum Village.  By the time we got there we were all soggy but it wasn’t cold.  It was sad looking at the closed up Native buildings but there are still happy memories of the place. By this time we could barely see Bainbridge Island in the gloom, let alone the eastern shores of Alki and downtown Seattle.  But the marina had quite a few boats in it and people were wandering around with a party going in one of the large shelters.  Unfortunately the ranger station was currently closed—they open sporadically—and we weren’t inclined to sit around in the rain for another hour waiting even for the It’s It ice cream treat.  So it was back to the campsite to discover that the wind was rising along with the increasing rain.  Terry pulled out his tarp and poles and we got that one up to supplement mine.  By this time it was dinnertime but Larry was the only one who had to use a stove.  There were only a couple of tents on the power boaters' side of the spit so the bathrooms with their sinks and flushing toilets were clean and stocked.  Unfortunately they are also unlit so campers need to bring a headlamp as it is dark inside even by the late afternoon in them.

There weren’t nearly as many raccoons around as in the past but two deer came through our camp in the evening. The rain had slacked off by the time the sun was going down but without a fire there wasn’t much point in sitting outside and we all got into our tents around 9 PM.  There is a constant buzz on the water on Blake Island from passing ship traffic.  There were two large tankers anchored off the north end of the island.

I got up around 10:00 to clouds that gave way to sunshine along with a rising wind by noon. We waited for the tide to come up and launched around 1400.  While the NE wind felt like it was blowing over 10 knots on the beach it settled down considerably once we were underway to barely a noticeable 5 knots or so.  The whitecaps were mostly left behind once we were in deeper water and once again we had it clear crossing the channel.  We landed on the almost deserted Lowman Beach about 3:15 to a much more welcome higher tide.  It made the take out go much more quickly and easily with plenty of excellent teamwork to get the boats loaded up.  We ate our post meal dinner at Taco Time in West Seattle with no complaints and thanks exchanged. We may not have had mountain views but beautiful Blake Island never disappoints! All paddlers performed well with excellent group dynamics.