South Puget Sound Traverse

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South Puget Sound Traverse

Sept 1-3, 2007

Sept 1st:  Ana and I left Steilacoom around 1 pm for Penrose State Park. Although the forecast leading up to the weekend called for cloudy and cooler weather, Saturday turned out to be mostly clear and in the low 70s, just about perfect for paddling.There were surprisingly very few boaters on the water. We made our crossing towards the north side of McNeil Island wondering how close to shore we could get before the prison guards fired a warning shot. After seeing one motor boat speed by the shoreline, we decided that our fears were unfounded, but we kept our distance anyway. We saw several seals along the way and I speculated they could be escaped prisoners wearing seal heads for disguises as they swam to freedom. Ana was not so convinced.

The water was glassy in spots and I attempted some close-up photos of feathers floating on the water, almost getting a couple in focus. After about 3 hours, we arrived at Penrose State Park in Mayo cove on the Carr Inlet. We debated the whereabouts of the Cascadia Marine Trail (CMT) campsites and decided to land on the southwest of the cove to explore. We eventually found one, and only one, CMT site instead of 5 sites as listed in the Washington Water Trails guidebook. The CMT site was in generally good condition nestled in the woods near the day use areas, which was rather isolated from the main campground. We ate our dinner overlooking Mayo Cove and counted 20 sailboats rafted together in a row, and from the sound of it, having a pretty good party. After a nice dinner and beautiful sunset, the day use area cleared out and it became dead quiet……….at least for a little while. A small group returned to the area and managed to talk rather loudly for a few hours, which was a bit annoying.

Sept 2nd: In the morning, we had a simple breakfast and headed to the beach to launch in no particular hurry. The sailing group had come to shore in their dinghies and were having a big pancake breakfast. They seemed like a fun group. After loading our gear, we launched around 10 am to another great day, a little cloudier than Saturday, but very nice nonetheless. Our destination was Anderson Island, via Pitt Passage, past Filucy Bay and then across Dalton Passage to the southwestern shore and the CMT site at Andy Anderson Park.

Upon our arrival at about 1 pm, we were a little surprised by the number of people who had hiked down to the beach. Apparently the good weather and low tide on a holiday weekend had encouraged folks to come explore the shoreline. After we set up camp, we hiked up the trail, eating blackberries and otherwise exploring along the way. We briefly visited Paradise Cove on our return to the beach camp. By around 4 pm, most of the day trippers had hiked back to their cars and the beach was all ours. We enjoyed not doing much for the next couple hours and started to get dinner ready around 6 pm. After dinner, we had a great little campfire below the high tide line and watched as the Sound slowly reclaimed the fire as the tide rose.One of the great things about the CMT site on Anderson is you have it all to yourselves. No noise tonight!

Sept 3rd: Labor Day  We packed up camp and launched around 9 am, heading north along the western shore of Anderson Island. Mostly cloudy skies gave way to some sunshine and views of Mt Rainer as we made our way through Balch Passage and by Eagle Island. The water was generally flat, and even glassy at times. We were greeted by a few seals along the way as Ana and I speculated about which house we liked the best along the shores of Anderson Island. Unfortunately, we missed meeting Ken (who also had paddled that morning out to Eagle Island), by about an hour. My cell phone had died the day before so we missed his message. We found out later that we'd missed each other by no more than 15 minutes. We arrived back at Steilacoom around 11:30 am and a relatively high tide made for an easy landing.  

Gary McCall