May 09, 2010 - Griffin Bay (San Juan Island)

As I've mentioned before, we are starting to try new locations.  We are looking through our guidebooks, some of which are not even for boaters, trying to come up with new places to check out.  This time we've decided to go to American Camp, on San Juan Island.  Back in the late 1850's there was almost a war between Britian and the US which all started when a US farmer shot and killed a British pig on San Juan Island.  It is now known as the "pig war".  The border between the US and Canada through the islands was decided as a result of this joint occupation.

Click here for wikipedia "pig war" info

Anyway, I have asked many boaters I know and I have yet to find anyone that has been here by boat.  Apparently almost a million visitors go to the park by car every year, but very few go by boat.  There are reports in a few of our books of a mooring buoy or two near the park.  We leave Shelter Bay by about 3:30 and Kathy is now starting to run the boat.  She does a fine job of backing the boat out of its slip and navigating our way out the marina, down the channel, and through deception pass.  It is time to make this a truly equal effort.  We both need to be able to handle all aspects of the boat, since we are planning to spend a year living on board this boat down in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico in 2-3 years.  Kathy needs to be fully competent at running the boat should I become injured or sick and she needs to take control.

Kathy enjoying the view of San Juan Island

The weather couldn't be better; clear skies, no wind, warm air, and almost no boats.  We enter Griffin Bay and find no boats anywhere.  The bay is about 3 miles long and we cruise the entire length and never spot the alleged mooring buoys.  So, we drop the hook up at the north end of the bay in about 20' of water.  The anchor again takes a quick and firm set.  This anchor is much more reassuring than our old one.  We are very close to Friday Harbor, which is just over the hill from us.  It would probably be an easy walk into town from here if we needed supplies, which we don't.

We have read that there are sand dunes at English Camp, about 3 miles south of us at the other end of the bay.  We all go to bed early and then get up early.  We are finished with breakfast by about 8:00AM so I get the dinghy down, Kathy packs a lunch for us, and we all head down the bay toward the park in the dinghy.  We find the trailhead at the beach and land the dinghy there.  It's about a 1.5 mile walk to the sand dunes.  It's an almost perfect day with no clouds.  We find the dunes, which are slowly being taken over by vegetation.  There is still a lot of nice sand to play in and the kids have a blast.  We are here for hours!

  

Kevin catches some air.

Cindy's turn - with style!!!

What a setting - the Olympic mountains in the background.

On our way back we see two foxes running on the road towards us.  They are very tame and come up pretty close.  This is a little freaky because we aren't sure what their intent is; they are wild animals after all.

This fox is maybe 20' from us!

Here's his buddy.

We walk back toward the boat, but take a different route along a nice trail through the woods.  It's a popular trail that leads down to the beach, quite a ways from where we left the dinghy.  The kids are having fun running down the trail and chasing each other.

Kevin on the move.

We walk the beach and slowly work our way back to the dinghy.  We decide that we could probably anchor down here very close to the park, and we might move down here this afternoon, or Sunday morning.  When we get back to the boat the kids want to go swimming.  Yikes!  The water is only 49 degrees.  They do it anyway!!!!!  They are braver than us adults.

Getting out of the COLD water

Cindy swimming - she doesn't even look cold.

Steve and Cindy out playing in the dinghy after dinner.

Sunday we get up and move the boat down close to American camp.  We drop the anchor a few hundred yards off shore and get another good bite from our new anchor.  VERY nice!  This would be a great spot to spend a weekend and it would be well protect from West, South, and East winds.  We dinghy over to shore and and hike back to the sand dunes for some more fun in the sun. The kids love this place.  There are lots of hiking trails that we didn't have time to explore.   We never made it to the old site of "American Camp" or even down to the south beach.

We will be back here again for sure!