Eastern Washington Morels and Stuart Island Kayaking

May was a mostly lovely month, except for the weekend we spent driving and hiking all around eastern Washington in search of our beloved morels. Last year we went to a burn and managed to harvest our daily limit of three gallons per person per day....six gallons in a few hours! Woohoo! This year we returned to that same burn hoping for a second year flush but found nothing. Sooooo we looked at maps of other burns that were a few hours away and decided to ditch our plans of camping near Winthrop and drive south toward Leavenworth. We checked out two more burns that day and still found nothing. Same thing the next day - we checked out more burns and more burns and found no signs of the coveted mushroom. Although we got 100% skunked, we managed to take in some great views and have a beer to wash away our sorrows in Leavenworth.

We are not looking for morels here, wrong habitat right? But we were happy to take in the view of the Cascades and enjoy the blooming wildflowers! 

 At least you don't have to search hard to find beer in Leavenworth! 

We bought this awesome basket in Madagascar, thinking it would be perfect for harvesting mushrooms - especially large boletes. But I was looking forward to getting my three gallon limit of morels in that basket. You can see that I didn't get my wish at all.

A weekend later, while on a trail run, wild oyster mushrooms (image below) came to the rescue of my mushroom desert. Jay was off in Saudi Arabia, working on a research project with his stepdad (Jim), a physical oceanographer, in the Red Sea. So I got to eat all of these beauties on my own! I doubt I'll get Jay to write a blog about Saudi Arabia - he has basically given this blog over to me and he let's me run with it. Maybe if you pester him you can convince him to tell you some stories from his trip! I'll at least try to post some of his pictures (if nothing else).

When Jay came back from Saudi Arabia, I was itching to get out on a weekend adventure. Based on the amazing wind and weather forecast, we decided to take our kayaks to Stuart Island. Crossing Spieden Channel requires fair weather and slack tides - and just look at that water! It was a dreamy crossing, complete with just a tad bit of current pushing us in the right direction. Can't complain about that!

Harbor seals can be found all over these islands and this particular group was especially cute - full of snorts, burping, and farting sounds. Everyone should get in a kayak just to hear the noises these mammals are capable of producing. This is not something you can hear with an engine idling nearby.

Jay found the one and only secluded campsite in Prevost Harbor- which is part of Stuart Island State Park. The remainder of tent sites were all on top of one another. Who wants to be on top of a stranger in a tent? We hate that idea. Our spot was surround by forest and views and it was lovely.

The next morning we jumped jumped in our kayaks and paddled up to Turn Point to check out the lighthouse and look for orcas. Despite seeing the gorgeous lighthouse and watching orcas, I must admit that the best sighting of the day was this RARE pinto abalone. This poor critters are just too yummy and they have been seriously overfished and show little signs of recovery. A cool non-profit that I LOVE collaborating with for my job, Puget Sound Restoration Fund, is working on restoring populations of these fabulous invertebrates. Sadly though, there is a long way to go on the road to recovery and NOAA is currently reviewing petitions to consider the species for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Until then, they are considered functionally extinct in Puget Sound and without human help (we are the ones that took them down, we can be the ones to bring them back) they probably won't be able to find viable mates and reproduce.

Paddling to Turn Point

Male orca tail lobbing

Turn Point Lighthouse

Big boy

We were pretty darn lucky to be in the water with orcas - although they never came that close to us. While I loved the experience of hearing them breathe and watching them tail lob - it was a bit of an odd experience for me. I'm guessing this is because of my time spent working in glorious Glacier Bay National Park. There the orcas travel up and down the bay with a rare boat stopping to watch them....but here in WA the pods are followed by a flotilla of boats. More boats than I bothered counting. My photographs are misleading, I just angled the camera away from the flotilla and didn't upload all the photos with boats. These resident pods are surrounded by boats all day during normal working hours and maybe beyond. So my first experiences with wild orcas were, well, a hell of a lot more wild. This sighting made me feel bad for the orcas and miss Alaska all at the same time. Nonetheless, the orcas are totally cool to see (even if they can't beat a pinto abalone sighting).

After spending the morning in our boats, we paddled back to our campsite and walked out to Turn Point. This way we could watch for more orcas, drink beer, and soak up the sun from land. The secondary growth forest on Stuart Island is stunning.

The station house at Turn Point

We didn't see more orcas, but we chilled out with a bald eagle and enjoyed our lukewarm IPAs while attempting to avoid sitting in deer shit.

The next day we decided to paddle all the way around Stuart Island by heading northwest around Turn Point again and then back southeast to the channel for the big crossing. It was a bit more windy this day and even though it was approaching slack tide when we crossed back to San Juan Island, we still hit some decent tide rips. All those rips paled in comparison to the massive boat wake we had to encounter when a whale watching boat decided to come way too close to us in the middle of the freakin' channel. Seriously? The wake was massive. I screamed like a girl when I saw how steep the waves were - the boat was so close to us that the wake didn't have time to chill out....so we had to paddle into the breaking waves heading right at us. Our kayaks handled it better than my nerves did and we survived. I'd like to have a word with the captain of Mystic Sea Charters though.

Photos are here: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/May2014?authkey=Gv1sRgCJnH_KPE3JuzqAE

Next blog - Joshua Tree National Park and a lovely family gathering/wedding in LA!