San Juan Islands June 2014

Left my brothers this morning around 7:30a. Stopped at Snoqualmie Falls for the scenic view. Tonight we found a very nice campground, Campground St. Regis. Very clean restrooms and showers. (NO QUARTERS! :-) And nice folks checking us in. And price is reasonable too. $28. Stopped by to visit with Marti Stow (Jim was working) in Coeur D' Alene and introduce her and my wife. Thanks again Marti for the hospitality and snacks!

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When you were at Snoqualmie Falls, you were less than a mile from the Snoqualmie Brewpub, owned by C-Brats Pat Anderson (me, Daydream) and David McKibben (formerly Anna Leigh). Too bad, you would have enjoyed lunch there - the food is great! Jim and Marti in Couer d'Alene are just awesome folks, glad you got to meet Marti anyway!
 
Pat, sorry we didn't have time or knew about the local place for lunch. :-) However, Jim & Marti put me up on the way out, so I was fortunate to make their acquaintance! :-) Just wish it would have worked out for my wife to meet Jim also. Colby
 
Stayed at a nice campground in St Regis, Campground St Regis, night before last. Internet a little slow, but otherwise very clean. And no quarters for the showers.! Got to Yellowstone NP yesterday. Pulled into the Old Faithful visitor center just in time to see the next blow 30 mins later. Walked around what I remember as Painted Pot geysers. Very fortunately we were able to just pull in and get one of the last few campsites at the RV Park, probably because of the rainy weather! This was around 6pm Saturday nite. Ok, another watercraft inspection somewhere between the East entrance and Cody, at the bottom of the long descent, and this guy was pretty damn thorough, telling me the whole time I was fortunate to just have come from salt water otherwise he would have to give me the indepth inspection.... Wtf, the guy was using a small mirror looking into my outboard water intake, hinges on the trim tabs, and any other nook and cranny he could find. 25 mins later he decided I was clean... I did get him to give me an inspection report and place a seal on the boat so I could be done with this nonsense. Just hit another inspection station at the Wyoming port of entry after getting back on I90 just before Sheridan. This time just showed the gal my report, she checked the seal and waved me on! Hopefully any other states doing this inspection stuff will check the seal and wave me on. The other previous inspections all seemed pretty easy compared to that one outside of Cody. Oh yeah also stopped at the Wild Buffalo Bill museum in Cody. Definitely worth the stop. We spent a few hours there and could have stayed a bit longer! Colby.
 
Enjoyed another nice night on the boat as a camper. :-) Indian Campground and RV park in Buffalo Wyoming, another clean and reasonably priced campground. Other than the Cottonwood trees (at least it didn't rain gluing the cotton to the boat. :-)... And right across the street a great little ice cream shop! Did Mt. Rushmore today, and decided to stop at Sleepy Hollow campground next to Wall Drug. Finding the C-22 works just as good "dry" camping, as it does on the water. While we have been the only "boat camper" in the campgrounds, we do get a lot of lookers complimenting and asking about the C-Dory. I have been towing with my 2010 Toyota Highlander with a 6 cylinder. And have had no problems with any of the grades, including one 8% climb up to 9000'. Downhill the 8% required some brakes, otherwise the 6-7% grades just downshifting and running at 50 has not required much any braking at all. Mileage straight and level, no wind, has been about 12.5mpg at 60mph. Today with 20-40 mph winds up the tailpipe we actually got about 16mpg. Climbing the higher passes has put us back at about 9mpg. (Compared to around 21-23mpg without towing, highway driving at 65-75mph.) I have the oil bath hubs, and they continue to run quite cool. The one thing I have noticed, is the trailer hitch ball does need to be greased daily. Colby P.s., never did see any invasive species inspection stations entering S. Dakota today on I90.
 
Ah, Home sweet home. Finally back home. Had a great vacation. Found a few more nice campgrounds and enjoyed visiting Mt. Rushmore then traveling through the Badlands. I'll put together a nice little summary of all this sometime this weekend. Until then, I'll leave you with these thoughts: the Minute Man museum leaving the Badlands is also a worthwhile stop. The Corn Palace in Mitchell, S. Dakota isn't all that corny. :-) And even if one doesn't have a lot of time to spend in any one place, it's still worth what time you do have to see what you can! Colby
 
colbysmith":j80svzr1 said:
And even if one doesn't have a lot of time to spend in any one place, it's still worth what time you do have to see what you can! Colby
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I agree!! Do it while you can when you can regardless of the time spent. Don't wait for more time as it might not show up.

Glad you had a great trip.
 
colbysmith":7suerguj said:
The great weather continues. Brother and his wife took us up to Mt. Rainier National Park, Paradise visitors center. Many in shorts and t-shirts! Great views all around. Stopped by the Recycled Spirits of Iron Sculpture Park near Elbe on the way back. If you are in to metal art, you'll enjoy this place! Also stopped by to visit an old friend I haven't seen since college. She is a retired physician that now keeps a Bed and Breakfast near Mt. Rainier. ( http://www.minerallakelodge.com/ ). Pikes Market tomorrow!
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just got caught up on your trip, glad you're home safe and it looks like you had a fun time! This Mt Rainier detour is hilarious to me because I know you likely drove right past my house on the way up there :)

flipped through your san juan pictures, looks like you guys had a great time! I'll probably make 3 trips up there this summer myself, starting in 2 weeks. its a beautiful area. Hope you enjoyed yourselves :beer
 
Dustin, I don't think we went that way to Rainier, but I did go thru Enumclaw on the way home. (That's not the usual way we'd go, but I didn't want to deal with traffic thru Auburn, and the Enumclaw way worked well! (My brother lives in Graham.) Sorry I missed you! Colby
 
I'll try to summarize our vacation to the San Juans here. This was my first time dealing with Tides and Salt Water and needless to say I had lots of concerns. I was taking on a 4000 mile round trip between the San Juans and Madison Wisconsin towing my CD-22 behind a 2010 Toyota Highlander with the 6 cylinder. I will say, while I had no doubts in the capabilities of my Toyota, it even exceeded my expectations climbing and descending mountain passes to 9000 feet with as much as 8% grades. (I have a Shorelander twin axle bunk trailer with electric brakes.) Mileage averaged about 12.3 mpg, getting down to as low as the mid 9's climbing hills or headwinds, but as high as 16 mpg with a horracious tail wind. My route took me out I94, but I came back I90. I prefer the northern route for scenery, but wanted to show my wife some national parks on the way home that I90 allowed. As some folks shared with me before my trip, planning was good, but not to worry. They were right. It was nice to have all the charts and an idea of where I wanted to go, since our time was limited, but once the boat was in the water, with a Garmin GPSMAP 541S that can "Guide" one to waypoints, and a current G2 Vision chip in it, life was easy. (Along with backing things up with the charts!) The weather was pretty nice for us, with only two days of rain, but it was a little chillier at night than I liked. Ended up buying an electric heater from the hardware store in Friday Harbor, and that took care of business! Our "Midnight Flyer" does condensate a lot at night with the cold outside air, and having the electric heat helped. (We do not have a factory heater.) Put in at Cap Sante Marina, which uses a sling, or hoist, launch, and they had plenty of room for long term parking of the Car and Trailer. While many said we would be restricted on what we could see/do without a dinghy, we didn't have much problem finding dock space at the places we went. (But understand we were early in the season.) I'll admit a dinghy might have opened up a lot more options, but we had no problem finding plenty to do and see without one. Besides staying at Friday Harbor, we visited Roche Harbor, Deer Harbor, Rosario Harbor, Fishermans Bay, Blind Bay (& Shaw Island store), Stuart Island (both Prevost and Reid Harbors), Fossil Bay on Sucia, Lopez Island Village, and Blakely Island Marina and Store. Out of these locations, I'd say we enjoyed Roche Harbor, Stuart Island, Fisherman's Bay (access to Lopez Village) and Fosil Bay on Sucia the best. And of course Friday Harbor was a great place to cruise from daily. We saw the Orcas around South Beach of San Juan Island, and then again leaving near the west side of Orcas Island. Speaking of Orcas, I would strongly suggest anyone going out in their own boat to look for them, go to the Whale Museum first at Friday Harbor, or at least pick up a brochure regarding all the regulations for being near the whales. We had not done this, and were only aware of a 200 yard restriction, but there was a lot more we should have known. (Hopefully we won't be hearing anymore about this from our encounter with Sound Watch!) Actually, considering our second time seeing the whales was purely coincidental, I'd suggest anyone cruising in the area, learn about the regulations! Also, for those trailering through Montana, Idaho, Washington and Wyoming, be prepared for invasive species inspections. I had no problems with the first three states and my boat has a clean bottom and was otherwise very clean. But I did face a rather anal inspector between Yellowstone's east entrance and Cody, Wyoming, who was looking in every nook and cranny to find something. (As in outboard water intakes, anchor locker drain hole, trimtab hinges, etc...) Other than the fact I had just come from Salt water, I don't know what else I could have done to make this inspection any easier, as my boat was still fairly clean, except for road grime! Towing home, we hit the national parks of Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands. Also stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, S. Dakota. Lucked out without reservations on a Saturday night at the RV park in Yellowstone, but wouldn't try that later in the summer. ;-) Found the following campgrounds very clean, quiet and inexpensive. Campground St. Regis in St. Regis, Montana. Indian Campground (I can't remember the city or state, but there was a great ice cream shop across the street! This one was between Cody and Mt. Rushmore.), Sleepy Hollow Campground in Wall, S. Dakota, and Adrian Municipal Campground in Adrian, Minnesota. While I'm thinking about it, the Smoke Jumpers museum in Misoula, MT was worth seeing, and so was the MinuteMan museum at the east exit of the Badlands loop. I know many commented about needing much more time to see the San Juans and other places. However, I continue to believe that one shouldn't bypass seeing what they can see with whatever limited time they may have available! Just do it! :-) P.s., on the way out I spent a night on Montana's Flathead Lake in a slip at Finley State Park. Beautiful lake, but the little slip area isn't the most protected as it was pretty wavy all night. Other than that, a lovely small campground.
 
hey, judging by the smiles in that summary, you did the trip exactly right. it doesn't matter what you see or what you miss if you enjoy your trip!

the dinghy does open up doors, but if you can get by without it, then its one less thing to lug around!! and the whole point of these C-Dorys is being able to travel light, right?

that's a great summary. my next san juan trip is in 2 weeks with a buddy, we are sticking to the south side of the islands. the the north side and Sucia in early august with my wife. I'm going to have to reread your summary and see if there are some places we've not visited yet, I think I see a couple on there!! (and I live only a couple hours away!).

had fun watching your trip build from planning, to driving, to boating, back to home. glad you guys enjoyed our back yard and are safely home. If you're like me, you'll remember that trip forever. hope you make it back :)
 
It was a very fun vacation. And I've wanted to take my own boat to the San Juans for almost 8 years. (This desire first began shortly after I bought a used 26' Searay cabin cruiser, the boat that preceded Midnight Flyer!) The hardest part of this trip was the solo drive out. (My wife flew out to join me once I got there.). The last time I had driven out to the area, was in my motorhome with my boys and first wife (who passed of cancer). Seeing much of the same scenery that I saw earlier with my family then, brought up many happy memories, but also some grief. Don't know if I'll make the trip out again with my boat (it's a long drive ;-), as there are some other places I'd like to visit, not to mention all the beautiful cruising grounds I have right here in the Midwest, but this was definitely something I'm glad we did, and memories made to cherish forever! And several new friends made! Already talking about the North Channel and Lake Powell possibly for next summer!
 
Hi Colby,

I found your sharing of this trip interesting & enjoyable, with us having visited many of the same places in the past & the San Juan's like you, our first trip there, with us, arriving 10 days or so before the Friday Harbor Gathering & leaving just before your arrival & like you, we went through Yellowstone on our way home.

We too found our experience in the San Juan's to be much different then we are used to, though for different reasons. We have had quite a bit of experience before this trip on the salt water, but it's been mainly in the more isolated waters of Southeast Alaska where the fishing boats far out number the cruisers & houses on shore are a rather rare sight, so watching out for all the other boats & finding a spot at a dock at the state parks was all new. We did enjoy some wonderful relaxed walks on the islands without concern for bears & that was probably the biggest difference of all.

Again, thanks for sharing,

Jay
 
colbysmith":5mul3v4d said:
Don't know if I'll make the trip out again with my boat (it's a long drive ;-), !
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I bet if you're in the area again a number of brats would taxi you around with enough planning ;) we're a cultish bunch :)
 
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