ESCAPADE to Blake Island

June 10, 2001

On Sunday I returned with two of my children to meet Ron McDonald at the Manchester boat launch for another ESCAPADE tour. The destination of this excursion was Blake Island, where we planned to have lunch.

The morning started off a little wet, with gray skies and periodic misty drizzle encountered as we drove from Bellevue to Manchester. As luck would have it, the rain stopped by the time we reached the ramp and met Ron, who had just launched his boat.

I made the kids put on their jackets, rain coats and rubber boots, launched the boat, filled it with kids, blankets and goodies and began pedaling towards the island.

The water was a bit calmer than the previous day. However, my daughter said that she was getting splashed every so often by the spray from the larger waves. Even though I took great care in trying to avoid splashing she decided to take cover under her rain coat! Oh, well.

It took about 40 minutes getting to the sandy northwest corner of the island. The skies sometimes cleared enough to let the sun through, and the temperature was in the 60's. My son Max decided that Ron and I were racing, and cheered whenever our boat was ahead of Ron's. Max also kept a sharp eye looking out for any sharks that might be swimming nearby.

As we approached the harbor, Ron spotted an eagle returning to the island with its prey. I caught a glimpse of a large silvery fish jumping near the shore.

We managed to arrive at the harbor before the Argosy Tours boat, but decided it would be better to not tie up at their dock; rather, we found some space between two yachts near the ramp to shore.

The kids ran off to play, observing the sea life in the shallows, digging in the sand, and exploring the area. Ron & I carried the food and cooking equipment over to a nearby shelter and started cooking.

Ron brought a propane stove/barbeque that was compact, lightweight and did a great job grilling my bratwurst, and Ron's and the kids' hot dogs. Soon we all sat down at a nearby table above the beach and gobbled down our food.

While we were eating we observed a group of kayakers who had beached their boats nearby. They turned out to be members of the Mountaineers, a large outdoors club based in Seattle. One of the group described in awe how some of the others in the group could perform eskimo rolls without any apparent effort. Needless to say these folks were all equipped with dry suits, spray skirts, etc.; otherwise the 43 degree water would quickly be a problem!

After lunch we stowed our gear back on the boats. As the skies had turned rather threatening we also put up the biminis. Ron's boat was equipped with side curtain windows, so he snapped those in place, too.

Aria and Max ran down to tell us about some deer they saw in the field. We hurried to find them, but they had disappeared into the forest. We decided to follow them along some of the trails.

It started to drizzle. We were all wearing some sort of rain gear, but decided that the leaves of the trees were not going to protect us for long so, spying a nearby cabin shelter in the empty group campground, we made a run for it. Max, however, decided he would rather hide under a large tree that was growing on top of an ancient red cedar stump! Eventually we all took shelter in the cabin, as the rain droned on and on.

The rain finally stopped, and we headed down a trail to the beach. The minus tide left quite a bit of the sea bottom exposed, revealing a number of crabs, jellyfish, sea stars, anemones, clams and barnacles.
These were all of great interest and delighted the children, who made good use of their waterproof boots as they walked through the tide pools and wet sand trying to find the next ones.

The wind was getting a bit chilly, and it appeared that the rain was returning, so we scampered back north to the picnic area. Once there the trees provided excellent protection from the wind.

It was getting to about 2 PM, and we saw the Argosy Tours boat leaving the marina. As we were still a little cold, I took the kids into the Tillicum Village building, and we started to explore the now deserted gift shop. Unfortunately, however, a short time later some employees came by, and informed us that the store was now closed. They did offer us the helpful suggestion that we could come back the next day after 11 AM. Thanks, but somehow I don't think we'll be back then!

The rain had stopped, so after one last pit stop for the kids we loaded ourselves into the boats and departed. Just after taking the bimini down for better visibility, however, it began to sprinkle again. Sheesh!

It was not long before the sun came out and stayed with us. The seas were pretty calm, and both kids were soon fast asleep.

As we headed back towards Manchester we crossed paths with a motor yacht. At first it did not appear to have seen us, and was more or less headed straight for us. A couple of hundred feet away it adjusted its course slightly away and zoomed on by. This provided us with some nice waves to plow through. I challenged Ron to try to catch up to the other side of the wake for a little surfing practice, and we began pedaling furiously. Eventually we caught up, and I managed to surf on a couple of the waves. It does not quite have the same effect as being on a board, but it is fun nonetheless!

The tide had not quite covered the end of the boat launch by the time we reached it, but it was just deep enough that we could pull the Escapades onto their trailers with little difficulty. With the skies threatening again, we headed home.

Thank you, Ron, for making this an excellent ESCAPADE!

Pictures can be found here.

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