Puget Island Vacation

It was chilly in August on Puget Island, in the middle of the Columbia River of southern Washington. How nice to have to wear a jacket in August! We got advice from Julie, our Boondockers Welcome host, and she suggested a trip to the nearby Julia Butler Hansen Wildlife Refuge. We stopped in at the ranger station to ask advice about the best places to kayak or ride bikes. Because we were so close to the ocean, the sloughs where we would kayak were very influenced by the ocean tides. When we checked the tide schedule we found that low tide was 9:36 a.m.  We were looking at those schedules at 9:30, so it was low tide right then. The water in the sloughs was too low to kayak. So instead, we unloaded our bikes and took off on the paved road through the wildlife refuge. We could see the muddy banks and the low water levels in the slough beside us as we pedaled by.

The paved road took us three miles and all the way to the Columbia River, which looked wide and windy on this cool morning.

Again, we saw a bountiful harvest of blackberries. They were just starting to turn black. Even though the red ones looked yummy, they were not. Ask Denisa how she knows.

Many of the blackberry bushes were draped by the bright pink blooms of the sweet pea flowers.

We walked the Columbia River beach, and could look west where it entered into the Pacific Ocean.

Low tide was evident on the river, where more of the sand was showing on the beach.

The muddy Columbia river shore was littered with lots of shells. The water here was briny since it was so close to the ocean.

Then we biked the White Tail Deer Trail. This refuge's official name is "The Columbia River White Tail Deer Refuge," and we were hoping to see one of these deer on our bike ride. While white tail deer are prevalent in many parts of the country, they are rare in the Pacific Northwest. This herd is a pure bred line that is separated from other white tail herds by the mountains.

When we were packing for this trip, we wanted to bring our kayak for sure. But we decided against bringing our big bikes and bike rack. We finally decided to bring our small fold-up bikes. They made things pretty crowded in the back of the pickup, but we were glad to have them this day.

The end of the White Tail Deer Trail brought us to another paved road. When we saw someone with a big camera pointing towards the trees, of course we were going to stop and ask questions.

The camera man was looking at an osprey nest high on a platform. He had been watching this nest all summer. So he explained that the one on the right was the female chick, sharing the nest with her brother on the left. The parents were out hunting, as chicks this big can eat a lot of fish.

This wasn't his first summer of staring at osprey nests. He had provided pictures to the wildlife refuge to document the hatchlings from this nest over the last several years. After watching this pair of chicks grow all summer, he was predicting they were ready to fledge any day. But right now the sister was ready for a little rest as she snuggled down into the nest.

While we were standing there chatting about osprey, a bushy tail weasel ran by and we didn't even get a picture of it. We did sample more of the fresh blackberries that were everywhere. The local photographer called these delicious bushes "the bain of the northwest." He kills them out whenever they try to grow on his property. He doesn't want to give up yard space to these thorny bushes that spread like crazy. If he wanted to pick blackberries, he knew he could go down any country road to find his fill of wild berries to harvest. We also noticed that the foliage along these country roads was showing some tints of red even though it was early August.

After taking way too many pictures of young osprey, we checked our map to see that we were making a nice loop around the wildlife refuge. If we took the Central Trail, it should take us back to our pickup in about 2.5 miles. The only problem with this option was that the Central Trail was a walking trail. We're not sure why bikes would be limited, but we finally decided it was better to walk our bikes for 2.5 miles, rather than riding them eight miles backtracking to our pickup.

Besides, maybe we would see some of those white-tailed deer that were protected in this refuge. We didn't see any deer, but we did see some unusual fuzzy pink flowers blooming along the trail. We certainly didn't see any reason that bikes weren't allowed on this perfectly flat gravel road, so maybe we did ride our bikes a little.

After 2.5 miles, we got to the end of the Central Trail. According to google maps, we were only a quarter mile from where we parked our pickup this morning. So we were certainly surprised to see this "end of the trail" sign. We could have just kept on riding right past it to our vehicle, but the rest of the sign made us pause--"area beyond this sign CLOSED." What?!? Now we had to go back 2.5 miles on the walking trail plus the eight mile bike ride to our pickup? We had a bit of a phone signal, and Mark called the ranger station, pleading our case. The ranger recognized us from this morning, and understood our predicament. He finally gave us permission to continue past the "end off trail" to our vehicle.

It was on that short bike ride past the sign that we saw our only wildlife in the wildlife refuge. If you look closely on the left side of the road, you'll see the back half of a white tail deer jumping into the tree line.

We finally got back to the pickup to put the bicycles away. Then we checked out the sloughs in the wildlife refuge. After sinking into the thick black mud on the edge of the water, we decided to look for a different kayaking spot. We found it at Skamokawa Vista Park just a few miles away. Nope, we don't have any idea how to pronounce the name of that park. We ate our picnic lunch overlooking the river and paid the parking fee. Then we unloaded the kayak at a nice cement dock by the bridge. We took this picture to note the level of the water on the boards under the bridge.

We crossed under the bridge for a nice paddle down the Skamokawa Creek. We were thirty minutes before high tide, and we got a little push from the tide coming in as we went up-river.

A blue heron was watching us slide by on the creek.

When the tide changes from high tide toward low tide, there is a period of slack where there is no water movement. The creek water was completely still during the slack period, reflecting the clouds and blue sky like a mirror.

We found old wooden posts in the water, that time and water had turned into flower pots rising above the creek. Grasses and ferns were getting a steady watering through that old post wood to keep them looking good.

But the best part of the kayak trip were the creek-side blackberry bushes. We had never been able to pick blackberries from the kayak before. It took a while to persuade Denisa that we needed to keep paddling with so many blackberries on the water.

As the calm slack tide ended, the water started running out of the creek as it turned towards low tide. This creek was close enough to the ocean that we got a bit of a push back to our launch point. But the wind was now in our face, cancelling out the positive effects of the tide. We had to paddle both directions today.

Unlike the muddy slough water we saw in the refuge, Skamokawa Creek was perfectly clear. At high tide, many of the flowering plants were under water. We could see their blooms through the clear water.

The birds seem to be used to kayakers. Like the blue heron earlier, this hooked beak cormorant just ignored us.

As we got back to our launch point, we could count the number of boards under the bridge that were above the water. Sure enough, about 12 inches of water had drained out of the creek since we started this kayak trip.

We had thought about kayaking on up the wide Columbia River towards the Pacific Ocean. But the wind was picking up and the skies were turning gray. It didn't seem like a good time to go boating to the ocean in our little inflatable kayak.

We had a great two nights on Puget Island, with a day of biking and kayaking in between. We biked about ten miles, and kayaked another 5 miles. The August weather was great for us, with a high temperature of 69 degrees. After our vacation on the island, the next morning we headed back over that long bridge to the mainland.

Even with some clouds, our lithium battery was at 97% when we left Puget island. According to our solar app, our solar panels produced a record-breaking 73 amps in one day. That was more than enough to keep our refrigerator happy. That also kept us happy on this summer adventure.