Pre-dawn to Pre-dusk.

Big day today, not huge water but a LOT of paddling. Left Point Wilson about 0330, arrived Rocky Point, about two hours paddle from Port Angeles before dusk, possibly 1630. Still don't have a watch but it was five fingers horizon to sun.



Winds were down a bit so I slipped out pre-dawn from Pt.Wilson to get off the point and into something new. Paddled in the dark for a few hours, feeling the two-three footers pass under me, sensing where I was in relation to the shore by by the shape of them as they rocked me side to side. I wanted to stay out far enough that I didn't find the randomly scattered car-sized boulders that litter the shoreline below the packed sand and mud cliffs. Seeing Protection Island at dawn's break was a treat. The orange light coming over the cliffs beside me and lighting the Olympics. My first view of them... the snow on their craggy peaks gleaming in the soft light. Two eagles just up with the dawn soared in lazy circles above me while I drifted and munched on my breakfast of deck snacks. By the way they moved in the air I could tell that there was nothiong much happening in the air this morning yet. Hard to see the big picture sometimes when in the shadow of cliffs.



I ducked across the mouth of Discovery Bay, behind Protection Island. Nothing but the open strait out there. I kept paddling and paddling until I was around the next point, and into the mouth of Sequim Bay a ways. Not much here in the way of good beaches with the sea-swell dumping on softball-sized and bigger stones. Just steep cliffs and beaches that close out at high-tide. I dragged my kayak up on driftwood skids, ate a quick snack while shivering in my wet gear. Felt really cold today, a change into my dry's hel;ped a bit but I had a pretty serious chill. Back to the water where the movement would warm me up.



Forgot to re-stock the deck snacks, a mistake that would punish me later. Crossing the bay to the base of Dungeness Spit I came across Mike from the Olympic Penninsula Paddlers and chatted a bit with him about kayaks and such. He mentioned it was a long way around the spit, I had no idea how long though.



I paddled, and paddled, and paddled until I saw a couple of white specks in the distance, and then I paddled and paddled and paddled for hours until they were white spots... It was worth the looooooong slog out there though as the view from the end of Dungeness Spit was spectacular. I couldn't land so I drifted in my kayak and took it all in... I could see everywhere I'd been and everywhere I'm going from out here. Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands (the Canadian San Juans), the San Juans, Whidby Island, the crossing that almost ate me at Pt. Wilson. It all was a big circle around me from here. How much time would it have taken me to paddle straight here from Pt. Partridge I half-wondered. I layed myself onto the water and did a few blissful balance braces, and a soothing roll, floating slowly to the surface before rising up on my paddle. The tip of the spit was a completely different animal,  a strong rip and flood current formed off here, and forced me into the rough shore-break to stay out of it. A lot of work as much of the time I was being slid sideways towards the beach. On the outside a four foot swell was dumping on a steep gravel beach. No place to land and a whole lot more paddling before I could get out of my kayak and stretch my aching legs. I played in the waves, punching through them, and getting facefuls of water, before getting down to the task of paddling. There wasn't a single place I could get off the water for the rest of the day until I reached Rocky Point. No food either... remember not topping up the deck snacks Daniel?



I found a flotsam line and got myself into a counter-current and raced full out for the better part of ten miles to until I arrived. Not much to see along this shore anyways... mud cliffs. Once I landed first thing out was the bag that contained Peanut Butter and a block of chees, both of which I ate by the mouthful and gulped down... sooooo hungry... I was spent, hadn't eaten in eight hours, and had been paddling since well before dawn.