Friday Harbor, San Juan Islands
Given the rainy days at the start of this voyage, it’s perhaps fitting that our last day of this southbound trip should be spent in the temperate rainforest’s dryest region. The San Juan Islands, protected by the rain shadow cast by the Olympic Mountains and the mountains of Vancouver Island, boast vegetation from a more arid climate. Madrona trees and brown grassy hills stepped down to the rocky shores of this Washington state archipelago.
The bird communities, too, had shifted overnight. Heermann’s gulls soared by the boat, and double-crested cormorants replaced pelagic cormorants as the dominant black-necked diver. We have come south and intersected a different range of creatures.
After a quiet morning cruising Georgia Strait, we docked in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, a hub for pleasure boaters and a necessary stopping point for any boat arriving from Canadian waters. And what boats! The docks were crowded with watercraft of all sorts, from schooners to kayaks to yachts to huge green and white state ferries.
Once through customs, we set ashore to walk the town, and nearly all of us made a stop to the Whale Museum part of our rounds. There, the killer whales that we listened to yesterday in Johnstone Strait were echoed by recordings of the whales studied in these waters, perhaps the most-watched group of killer whales in the world. Having spent hours with the G and I pods up north, we had the beginning of an ear for the subtle differences in the calls of the J, K, and L pods that make these waters their home.
There is so much to take home from this exploration of the Northwest coast. Having given it our attention for these past eleven days, it has given us in return an appreciation for the specifics of its fierce beauty and a hope to apply that wonder to the history, culture, and nature of our own homes.
Given the rainy days at the start of this voyage, it’s perhaps fitting that our last day of this southbound trip should be spent in the temperate rainforest’s dryest region. The San Juan Islands, protected by the rain shadow cast by the Olympic Mountains and the mountains of Vancouver Island, boast vegetation from a more arid climate. Madrona trees and brown grassy hills stepped down to the rocky shores of this Washington state archipelago.
The bird communities, too, had shifted overnight. Heermann’s gulls soared by the boat, and double-crested cormorants replaced pelagic cormorants as the dominant black-necked diver. We have come south and intersected a different range of creatures.
After a quiet morning cruising Georgia Strait, we docked in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, a hub for pleasure boaters and a necessary stopping point for any boat arriving from Canadian waters. And what boats! The docks were crowded with watercraft of all sorts, from schooners to kayaks to yachts to huge green and white state ferries.
Once through customs, we set ashore to walk the town, and nearly all of us made a stop to the Whale Museum part of our rounds. There, the killer whales that we listened to yesterday in Johnstone Strait were echoed by recordings of the whales studied in these waters, perhaps the most-watched group of killer whales in the world. Having spent hours with the G and I pods up north, we had the beginning of an ear for the subtle differences in the calls of the J, K, and L pods that make these waters their home.
There is so much to take home from this exploration of the Northwest coast. Having given it our attention for these past eleven days, it has given us in return an appreciation for the specifics of its fierce beauty and a hope to apply that wonder to the history, culture, and nature of our own homes.
