Studio711.com – Ben Martens

It occurred to me that a masterpiece has sat unpublished on my hard drive ever since our camping trip to Fort Flagler back in July. Chelsea spent the first afternoon writing a letter to Diana (her roommate from college) who is spending the summer as a camp counselor in Massachusetts. Tim was whittling and my book was terrible so I figured I'd send her some mail too because what's better than getting mail at camp?

After much deliberation, I broke out my incredible drawing skills and produced this amazingly accurate depiction of our campsite. I know you're impressed. I'm pretty much the best I know, although Chelsea's jaw might be slightly less square in real life. Also, we had another tent up but I got tired of drawing. Notice how I signed it with her name on it so she couldn't resell it on eBay. Lithograph reprints are available for purchase.

Saturday morning started dark and early as I headed over to Kirkland to pick up Tyla. We made our way up to Anacortes and caught the 8:45am ferry to Friday Harbor. The ferry ride is a gorgeous one hour trip through the islands.

Tim from San Juan Kayak Expeditions was waiting for us as we walked off the ferry. He drove us down to the beach and gave us a very thorough overview of how to use all the gear, safety information, and tips for a successful trip. He also suggested a great route that took into account the wind and tides. Since Tyla and I are both kayaking newbies, we chose the easiest route.

We rode past a couple rocks that were covered in seals and ended up at a tiny island which might have just become my favorite summer spot in Washington. You can walk around the whole island in 20 minutes but it's actually a state park. There are about a dozen campsites which are only accessible via boat. Tim said it gets pretty crowded in the summer but mentioned a couple quieter islands nearby. I'm already planning the camping trip in my head. The usual camping crew should prepare themselves for an incredibly awesome camping trip next year. The first picture below is looking east from the campsite and the second picture is looking back west at one of the campsites. The third picture is Tyla checking out the seals.

We felt like we had the whole island to ourselves and only found five other people on the island during our hike. After a nice picnic lunch (with Liz Lovely cookies for dessert!), we meandered our way back, taking time to watch the seals. Tim picked us up and drove us back to the ferry for the trip home.

All in all it was an incredible afternoon. I know you can rent kayaks down by the arboretum for a lot cheaper, but the scenery and the equipment are no comparison to what we got from that rental company. I think I speak for both of us when I say this is a highly recommended trip! We'll be doing it again.

When we were walking along the beach at low tide, we were startled when streams of water started shooting up around us. Most were only about a foot high but some shot four feet up in the air. We couldn't see what was causing it, but after some research, I think I have figured it out.

The mystery animal is a Pacific gaper clam, also called a horse clam. They live 6-12 inches under the surface and have a long "neck" that sticks up to the surface as a siphon. When they are startled, they quickly retract the siphon which shoots water up into the air.

It was hard to get a photo since each shot happened so quickly. I took a bit of video which is embedded below. I don't know if you can pick out the streams of water. There's one at 0:03 seconds in the lower right quadrant, one at 0:08 on the right middle, and one at 0:14 on the left side.

This weekend is our second camping trip of the year, and it's a big one! Our campsite is packed as full as they allow. Campers include Laura, Matt, Andy, Stephanie, Tyla, Chelsea, Tim, and me. Chelsea, Tim and I are getting a heard start on everyone else. We actually arrived at the campsite last night and everyone else is coming this evening.

The popular state parks fill up very quickly. We find the more popular parks by looking far ahead and seeing which ones are booking up. Washington has a great online booking system which makes this easy. On the last day of 2007, we hopped online and reserved a campsite at Fort Flagler. It's over on the Olympic Peninsula so we'll be hopping on a ferry to get there.

The website lists some interesting history for the park:

Fort Flagler, along with the heavy batteries of Fort Worden and Fort Casey, once guarded nautical entrance to Puget Sound. These posts, established in the late 1890's, became the first line of a fortification system designed to prevent a hostile fleet from reaching such targets as the Bremerton Naval Yard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett. Construction began in 1897 and continued in one form or another until the fort was closed in 1953. The property was purchased as a state park in 1955. Fort Flagler is named after Brigadier General Daniel Webster Flagler.

As you probably guessed, our weekend will be full of good food, good times, and plenty of cornhole! Pictures will be abundant next week. Have a great weekend!

On Saturday, Tim and I dropped a car off at Rattlesnake Lake and drove his truck up to Hyak at the top of Snoqualmie Pass. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad used to connect those two points, but in 1980, the railroad went bankrupt and the railroad grade was turned into the Iron Horse Trail. The trail is part of the John Wayne Trail which continues east all the way to the Idaho border.

The Snoqualmie Tunnel is at the top of the trail. It's 2.3 miles long, and even though you can see a tiny point of light in the distance, it's absolutely pitch black when you shut off your headlamps. We couldn't see our hands in front of our faces. Bring a powerful headlamp. You'll need it. Even with the headlamps, if we looked up from the ground in front of us and focused on the light in the distance, we'd quickly start wobbling and running off the trail toward the walls. It's crazy, but really fun.

After the tunnel, we made good time down the rest of the 22 mile trail. We hit some rain along the way, but we were prepared with rain jackets and it wasn't too bad. All in all, it was a pretty cool trip, although it wasn't nearly the workout I had expected. The road is extremely well maintained and it's very smooth and flat since it was a railroad grade. We finished the ride in well under three hours.

While we used two cars to avoid riding both ways, we found out there is a shuttle that runs back and forth so look into that if you want to follow in our tracks.

A few more pictures are available in the photo gallery under Outdoors > Iron Horse Trail.