Dear Paddlewisers - or is it Dear Wise Paddlers?, I thought I should pass on some updated information launch or take out sites in the San Juan Islands in Washington State, as well as find out if anyone had any ideas on how to change the situation. Someone with a wicked sense of humor might call this "revenge" of the PWC, since many of us supported the county council a few years back, when they banned PWC, but now, while we can paddle in peace and quiet, it's hard to get there. Most of my San Juan trips start in Anacortes, so I just put in at one of the many boat launches and paddle across the shipping lanes in Guemes Channel and in Rosario Strait, but on some of my higher mileage trips I like to catch the ferry for the return leg. My trip this weekend started in Anacortes, and by the time I hit the dock at Orcas, I had put in over 45 miles in 3 days and would have needed to paddle another 12-15 in a weird weather system that seemed to be a few hours of high winds, followed by a few hours of calm, all weekend long, to get back. The problem is that over the last 5-10 years we have lost launch/take out sites that are near the ferry docks - i.e. within 1 kilometer or a bit over 1/2 mile on all of the ferry stops except the one at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. I believe the next closest take out to a ferry dock would be the one at Odelin Park on Lopez, which about 2 hilly miles from the ferry. Some of this has occurred as a result of the rise in popularity of the sport, the lack of economic impact it represents (i.e. most kayakers don't buy food or fuel from places where they use the facilities such as launching, toilets, garbage, etc., don't pay boat registration fees, don't join lobbying organizations, etc.) and the tendency of kayakers to tie up launch areas and docks by slow staging, as well as a few instances of brain dead or "dane bread" (apologies to any Bakers of Danish Origin on the list) boating. A result of this is that in addition to the loss of the "convenient" launch sites, we no longer have "easy to use" foul weather "bail out" options. This leads to my next concern, which is the safety implications of needing to cross Rosario Strait or San Juan Channel even in inclement weather. I realize that this skips the options of not going to the islands or just staying put until the storm blows over - if you're waiting for a favorable current direction, and winds under 15 or even 20 knots or waiting for the fog to burn off, you shouldn't be stuck for more than a few days. With the number of people kayaking the area these days I can't help but think that this will result in more deaths as a result of people doing a Sunday afternoon - "gotta get back for work" - crossing. While all the beaches that are owned by the Ferry system have been closed to kayak launches and take outs for about 10 years (allegedly for safety - even when the beach was well away from and faced in a different direction than the ferry dock - and you can still land on these beaches to drop off passengers, you just can't take a kayak out (the signs don't mention canoes, so that may be another option)), Orcas has had a private boat dock that used to accept kayakers at $5 per boat each way. As of 1999, they no longer accept kayakers, since the reason for building the dock is for refueling boats, and as a result they lose revenue when we tie up the docks. I also know that gaining access to public property on the easiest site, Shaw Island, is out of the question, due to strong local opposition (the state had at one time owned a sand beach (even gravel beaches are rare here) that was about 50 yards from the ferry terminal, and was slated to become a marine park for kayakers, but was sold to a group of local islanders to keep this from happening). This leaves Orcas and Lopez, as the other two candidates. I'd guess that Orcas would be the path of least resistance, and could see the cheapest solution being a ramp on the private fuel company property built to the beach (this would keep the kayakers off of the float), while it wouldn't work at high tide - the beach is at the base of a cliff, and gets submerged at high tide, my guess is that it could be done for less than $10,000 USD. Another option would be to aquire access at Dolphin Bay, about 1/4 mile east of the dock, this wouldn't require any ramps since the road basically goes down the hill to the beach, but I suspect that the marina would be worried about kayakers, sailors, and power boaters mixing. - Right now , they have many No Tresspassing and No Kayak Launching Signs, and I suspect may not like kayakers a whole lot. Either of these two sites may get some support from the Hotel, Restuarants, and Grocery stores near the ferry dock, since the many residents of the nearby islands that don't have ferry service, were also used to using the same fuel dock to do their shopping, and can no longer do so. So now my question??? Does anyone in this group know if anyone is working on getting this situation changed? Maybe lobbying for a new park? or lobbying for legalized access for launching at the various pieces of nearby public property? Maybe even working a financial deal with the fuel company to allow some type of use of their property? Any other ideas? Thanks - Saul Saul Kinderis saul_at_isomedia,com My new web page is at: http://www.isomedia.com/homes/saul (425)402-3426 POB 2221, Bothell, WA, 98041 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jun 01 1999 - 05:40:45 PDT
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