Sea Kayaking from Seabeck Marina to Stravis Bay (11-5-2011) ---- About 8 miles round trip (Class I and II)
It was a nice weekend spending time with the PWC members and friends: sea-kayak paddling on Saturday and hiking on Sunday. Both events were excellent since they were sort of a half day event that happened during daylight. For both trips, I came home during daylight, so it gave me a chance to spend some time with my family and to take care of a few things around the house.
So far the fall weather has been gentle and benign. For the past few weeks, the weather forecast has been gloomy that expected some chance of raining in the low land and snowing in the high country (above 5000 ft elev), but it just has been mostly overcast. On 8 Oct, the Constance Pass (5850 ft elev) had about 1 ft of snow but most of the snow were melted out as of 23 Oct due to its mild weather with occasional sprinkling. Since then, I was able to squeeze in a couple of high country hikes: Buckhorn Mt & Charlia Pass in the Northeastern Olympics. Both were excellent day hikes.
On Saturday, we paddled from the Seabeck Marina to the Stravis Bay hugging the shore. Temp was in mid 40s-low 50s. We started paddling 1110 and returned around 1530. It was calm (Class I) all the way to the Stravis Bay but on the way back the water became little choppy with breeze (Class II). On the way to the Stravis Bay across the Puget Sound to the West, we were greeted by the Duckabush valley & delta, the Brothers Mt, Jupiter Ridge, Dosewallips drainage, the majestic Mt Constance (that I really wanted to climb, maybe in 2012), Mt Walker, Buck Mt, etc. I have hiked most of the trails in the Eastern Olympics area but did not realize that the town of Seabeck was just across the Sound from those major hiking destinations. Seabeck is just 10 miles West from our residence just above Bremerton, WA.
It was neat to see a couple of estuaries which could be paddled around only during the high tide with greater than 8 ft. We had a perfect timing. An excellent plan and coordination by our event leaders, Les Moore and Paul Dutky. When we returned back to the Harbor, I spent 10-15 minutes to practice high brace and roll attempts while Les was practicing different types of rolls. While I was in the water, I did not feel cold since I had a dry suite, new neoprene hat, and hot inner core temperature.
14 PWC members and friends paddled the
Stravis Bay. An
open view of the Eastern Olympics (Duckabush, Jupiter Ridge, Dosewallips, Mt
Constance, Mt Walker)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
