Tag: Deception Pass State Park

Wending our lazy way home

We had wisps of rain throughout the night but the temperature was pleasant. I was quite comfortable walking to the bathroom in my camp skirt.

Bill cooked another bacon, egg, and potato breakfast while I made the bed and started getting stuff ready for the road.

We got all hitched up and took one more walk to the beach. Saw a seal and piebald grebe.

Wandering home through La Conner, we stopped for coffee and really nice dark hot chocolate and also bought some Christmas presents and a lovely pair of earrings.

Searching for Fish Town

I saw Fish Town on the map and we tried to go there. The county road ended at Swan House Farm’s driveway. They have a lovely sign. The farm stand was open, but we didn’t need produce and couldn’t tell if we could turn around up there. Turned at the end of the county road and headed off again into the light drizzle.

As we backtracked, I looked up Swan House Farm. They are pretty neat. They’re family also owns San Fermo, an Italian restaurant in Ballard. The farm supplies the restaurant produce and meat. I sent a quick email to San Fermo to see if they had enough gluten-free items for Bill and I to visit without being sad.

I also looked up Fish Town. I mean, why was it on the map and not anywhere to be seen?

Fish Town was an artists colony/retreat of the most basic, barely tenable sort. In 1968, an artist dude who turned out to be a white supremacists–which apparently no one knew back then…although his art incorporated Hitler, swastikas, and other hints, people just thought they were allusions to horrible ideas, not a promotion of them. Anyway, this problematic guy, was walking along the beach and noticed some shacks on stilts that looked abandoned and decided to move in.

Apparently they really were (mostly) abandoned. Gill net fishers used to use them as scant comfort while they waited for their nets to fill. As fish stock tanked, regulations to protect them increased and eventually gill netting was banned, so there was no more need for the shacks.

Anyway the guy eventually made an agreement with the land owner to pay a super low rent (maybe a dollar a month or something). Other people started to visit, then stay and Fish Town grew. Some people lived there year round–sogging around during the big grey with no running water and no electricity–ugh! Some just visited to renew their spirit and energy by living simply among the gorgeous Skagit County water and woods. (With, maybe, the occasional horrid neonatzi rant, who knows?)

There were no roads to Fish Town. You either walked the beach, came by boat, or trespassed across several farms — some of which would really rather you didn’t. The last quarter mile was across the swampy ground on a raised boardwalk. Kind of cool, except for the problematic views of some of your neighbors.

Fish Town thrived?? until 1989. A landowner clearcut the forest right up to the colony and that was the end of that.

Again, who knew?

Tulalip Tribes

Our back road route took us through Tulalip lands. Another prompt for reflections. This land is beautiful. There was a small herd of bison, so off I went on another search. Bison aren’t indigenous to this area.

Of course the Tulalip Tribes know this. Bison has been an indigenous food for the people of the great plains forever though and the Tulalip Tribes’ efforts to create an elk farm ran into some difficulties that bison didn’t present. The tribes are encouraging healthy living by making more traditional foodways available. So I get to see bison on my roadtrip! Pretty good all around.

Along the road there were periodic signs with words in English and Lushootseed, the traditional language of the Coast Salish People. Do I remember any? No. Do I LOVE that the signs are there? YES!

The Tulalip Tribes offer a nice guide to visiting. I especially like the section on The People of the Salmon: the story of the tribes that become Tulalip.

There was a lovely sign along this part of the road, “Free apples, U-pick.” That’s my kind of sign. (Mine says “Neighborhood Fruit Fence, pick all you can use.”

Freeways as napping venues

Bill was driving, so I took a nap once we hit the freeway. I’ve seen this bit many times and love to nap in the car. Actually, I love to nap absolutely anywhere and happened to be in a car. Napping makes a long trip shorter.

Then a shower and another nap at home after tucking Brave Horatio away in the garage and hauling the perishables into the house.

Lovely little trip.

Exploring the North end of Whidbey Island

We expected rain so it was great to wake up to a beautiful morning.  No rain and not too cold.

Bill had coffee going when I finally came out of our warm nest. That’s typical.  I wake up while he’s doing teardrop yoga (putting on his pants) then I either drift back to sleep or stay awake listening to coffee being prepped.

I poured us each a cup and sat by the fire while Bill made potatoes, bacon and eggs. Such a cushy life.

Presidential tantrums

We read about our ridiculous president’s tantrum against Portland and tried to have faith that most people everywhere are kind. (Portland’s a beautiful place to live and visit. If you haven’t experienced it, do go.)

Never thought I’d see the US heading toward a totalitarian state. How can a group of people promote less government oversight of business while at the same time promote government all up in our bedrooms and bathrooms and censoring what we can say? Bully-based power should have been quashed in grade school.  I hope we grow up soon.

…back to our head-in-the-sand camping trip.

Dishes and showers

I did breakfast dishes in our super efficient, lightweight, super cheap, small plastic tubs while Bill showered. Our dish tubs are labeled Wash and Rinse (in Sharpie) so the rinse water’s never greasy.

Deception Pass State Park has showers! Yup just push a button, no quarters or tokens required. Cushy life indeed.

Penn Cove

We drove through Oak Harbor and around by Penn Cove, famous for tasty mussels and a horrendous Orca capture in 1970. Orcas stayed away from Penn Cove until last year (54 years later). It’s not enough that we’re horrible to each other, we’re horrible to other species also. Orca are such a treat to see cruising in their element. They travel hundreds of miles a day…not a creature to be kept in any man-made tank.

Fort Casey

Speaking of people being horrible to one another, we visited (and enjoyed) Fort Casey Historical State Park. You can see several batteries (big guns and their supporting infrastructure) from the parking lot. They sit in a serene looking bowl facing out toward the entrance to Puget Sound. The guns and infrastructure are hidden from the water side as are those at Fort Worden and Fort Flagler. These three forts were designed to protect the entrance to Puget Sound. They never fired at an enemy, largely because airplanes made hiding from ships obsolete.

The facilities preserved at Fort Casey are pretty interesting. There’s this weird juxtaposition of tools of war (despite the obsolescence) and the absolutely gorgeous setting. Visually the natural contours blend with the man-made contours and the starkness of the gun emplacements has it’s own kind of beauty — especially in this setting.

Several of the guns are still in place. One in the lower position and one raised. They are (were?) disappearing guns. They hunkered on their haunches until hydraulics raised them up enough to fire. The recoil pushed them back down into place again. All this happened really quickly and must have been dangerous just to be around. It’s very quiet now though.

It’s interesting and, I think, great that there are no railings along the top of the emplacements and you can climb ladders up/down in several spots. The top is just a smooth concrete surface curving down a bit toward the water before going under the grass. The drop from the inside edge to the next (concrete) level down where the guns are is quite a distance and you can walk right up to it. You can also look down the gun barrels and almost everyone I saw, did. Quite a bit of the concrete structure underneath the guns is open so you can walk around a warren of concrete rooms. Again, oddly beautiful in a kind of awful way.

We walked to the water-edge of the grass slope and watched two groups of 4-6 sea lions each doing something very actively at the edge of a rip. They were separate from each other, but not too far apart (maybe a football field or three?). My guess is that they were cooperatively fishing, but I don’t know. We watched them for quite awhile.

Admiralty Head Lighthouse

We ate our banana and snack bar lunch at a picnic table near the lighthouse. It’s just north of the multiple battery facility and just behind another smaller battery…or maybe it wast some other kind of defensive war structure. I guess you could look at both as protective, though one protects without blowing stuff and people to smithereens.

Bridge walk

Some summits are shorter than others

Pre-walk walk

As is typical for us, Bill woke up first and after a short teardrop yoga scramble into his pants he started coffee while I dozed. The morning was soft and nice and our granola an coffee breakfast, just fine.

We walked back to the beach in the lovely morning light and met a four-year-old searching for gold. which he apparently does EVERYWHERE. He and his dad were waiting for their parent-kid hiking group to assemble.

Walking north on the beach we spotted a pair of oystercatchers (they rarely catch oysters) and more cormorants and grebes. We scrambled up the rock to round the point and met a couple making breakfast in the most beautiful breakfast spot. The smell of their bacon added to our morning.

The quartz lines running through the rocks that make up the shore are a bit surreal. It looks like wax has dripped down straightish seams. Maybe that little guy will find his gold.

We found more oystercatchers and a seal.

484 foot high summit

We decided to walk to the top of Goose Rock, the high point of Whidbey Island with 360 degree views. Back at camp, Bill made sandwiches while I washed up from last night and breakfast. We followed directions to the trail past the amphitheater.

The trail was easy to spot. Evergreen Trail Run folks were all set up to cheer on the Fidalgo Trail Run participants. They hollered and rang a cowbell for each passing trailrunner and, after I asked, they hollered and rang the bell for me too!

It was a nice walk and we enjoyed the many different ages, colors, body shapes and paces of the runners. They had several different lengths to choose from, 5k to marathon. Bunch of happy people sharing the trail. 

The path offers lots of meanders and we took most of them. We ate lunch on the beach watching people fish and a family enjoy the beach. Their toddler was so absorbed in filling and dumping their toy trucks. It was sweet.

We saw lots of really nice long casts but the only successful catch we saw was a seal’s. It was interesting to watch the seal keep his fish away from the two hopeful gulls that stuck close. They waited patiently when the seal was under but I don’t think they got even a bite.

The path went right under the bridge.  What a cool perspective.  Then up pretty steeply,  but not for long and we were out on top. The parent-kid hikers were there too. Playing tag, and talking, and having lunch on the top of this piece of  the world.

We headed back down a different route and were passed by more trail runners. I think some of the marathon length runners passed us three or four times.

It was a good walk and helped us enjoy our campfire roasted bratwurst, baked bean and potato chip supper.

The weren’t a many Screech owls last night (or immature owls, or whatever that whistley screetchy noice was).