Camping on Sucia Island

Just returned from camping on Sucia Island before the weather gets iffy. Our younger boy’s summer birthday wish granted a tad late. A perfect three-day window of perfect air, perfect temperature, penetrating sunshine, and the island almost all to ourselves. Three full days of sun book-ended beforehand by a full day of rain and afterward by thick clouds coming in.

Other campers? Just a few. Boaters in the bays and coves? Yes, thankfully, in case we would have needed help. Mosquitoes? Yes; none on Orcas, a lot on Sucia; but our bodies aren’t covered with bites, just some. Incredible sunsets? Yes, incredible. Total silence? No. Kingfishers and gulls by day; the low, steady, inescapable, impending-doom drone of ongoing tankers and ferries going back and forth in the distance all night long. (Poor ocean animals can never get away from it, amplified in the water.)

Help from above in numerous respects – wind would have meant cold; rain would have made a laughingstock of our cheap tent; warmth at night despite forgetting my sleeping bag! Reminds me of when I left my hiking boots on my doorstep while packing the car; didn’t realize it until awakening after a 9-hour drive and preparing to hike up Mt Whitney in spring snow. Had to make do with fleece socks and Tevas.

Note to self: Camp on Sucia every year in September. A gift not only to the birthday boy but to us all. (Except hubby, who just became the Cross Country coach – had to stay home for daily practice.)

A photographic explanation of a place beautiful beyond words…

Barred Owl photo by Bill Tymczyszyn