Rating
Beginner
Minimum Age
13 years
Price
Adult: $714
Deposit: $300/person
Trip Itinerary
Here’s a sample itinerary at a glance…it may vary depending on your individual guide.
- Day 1: Your guides will pick you up at 8:30 a.m. at the Friday Harbor ferry ramp on San Juan Island, Washington. After loading your gear and the provisions, your guides will discuss paddling basics and thoroughly review all safety procedures. Your paddling destination today is the lovely, pristine Jones Island, one of the archipelago’s twelve designated “Marine Parks.” You’ll be paddling up San Juan Channel, passing numerous small islands, including Yellow Island, a Nature Conservancy owned island. After setting up camp on Jones you are free to walk around the island while your guides prepare dinner.
Activity: Sea kayaking distance, 8 miles—4 hours. Terrain: Open water with waves, tides, and currents. - Day 2: You will break camp and paddle along the scenic and unpopulated coast of Orcas Island, up President’s Channel to Point Doughty. After a hearty lunch you’ll cross over to the Sucia Island group. These islands are a series of ancient limestone encrusted islands, which due to their shallow waters and many nooks and crannies, were a haven for smugglers bringing in Chinese laborers and alcohol from Canada during Prohibition. You’ll set up a base camp in the Sucia Island group that night.
Activity: Sea kayaking distance, 10 miles—5 hours. Terrain: Open water with waves, tides and currents. - Day 3: You’ll leisurely circumnavigate around the 10 islands that comprise the Sucia group. There’ll be time to explore the myriad bays and inlets that the Spanish originally named Sucia—which, meant “dirty” or in a nautical sense “foul.” Their loss is our gain as the area is perfect for exploring from the seat of a kayak and contains various wildlife including Dall’s porpoise, harbor seal, river otter and bald eagles. In the afternoon we’ll return to our campsite and another tastefully prepared Dutch-oven dinner. After dinner, you can ask your guides if it is advisable to go out on a “bioluminescence” paddle to see the marine life that glows at night.
Activity: Sea kayaking distance, 10 miles—5 hours. Terrain: Open water with waves, tides and currents. - Day 4: After a leisurely breakfast, you’ll break camp, bid adieu to your campsite on Sucia Island and work your way back to Jones Island, hugging the shoreline of Waldron Island. Waldron is a remote island and home to one of the few remaining one-room schoolhouses in the state of Washington.
Activity: Sea kayaking distance, 10 miles—5 hours. Terrain: Open water with waves, tides and currents. - Day 5: Today you will break camp and paddle through Spieden Channel. You’ll arrive at the take-out site on the north end of San Juan Island between 1 and 3 p.m. After unloading the kayaks and sorting gear, you’ll be driven back to Friday Harbor. Flight reservations departing Friday Harbor can be scheduled after 5:30 p.m. We recommend allowing plenty of flexibility on your return to Seattle. We cannot guarantee your return back to Friday Harbor before 5 p.m.
Activity: Sea kayaking distance, 8 miles—2-4 hours. Terrain: Open water with waves, tides and currents. - Please note: We do our best to adhere to the above itinerary but it may change at the guides’ discretion due to wind, currents or other circumstances beyond our control. Also, this trip is rated as moderate, which it is most of the time. However, it can be a bit more challenging under certain moon phases, when the currents are stronger.
