Sea Kayak - Goat Island

Trip Report

Predawn image of the Rainbow Bridge at La Conner. This trip was originally scheduled for tomorrow but with the inevitable end of the glorious high pressure ridge we've been enjoying for so long it made sense to move the paddle up a day. IMHO, this paddle would not be practical in rough weather given that it is vital to make good time and hit your marks timely in order to avoid getting caught out on the mudflats on a falling tide. As the Mountain Goats say on their latest album: "The first thing you learn is there's always a clock ticking somewhere. And the second thing you learn is how cold it can get at night." 

Marie and Jeff gear up for our 8:15 a.m. launch from the kayak beach at the south end of La Conner Waterfront Park. Note to self: the park name, originally Conner Waterfront Park in honor of the town's founder, has been changed in Google Maps to match the name of the town.

Jeff heads toward the fishway in the dike, our first stop to make sure the way was open.

At first it looked like good news but sometime after we checked it out the fishway way was blocked by a snag on the river side. We learned that when we went to use the fishway on our way back to town.

The fishway this morning before it was blocked later in the day.

Marie approaches the north landing on Goat Island. The pilings are what remains of the government pier used to supply the construction and operation of Fort Whitman before it was transferred to the state parks system.

The tide was high and still rising so we pulled our boats up as far as they would go and tied them off with our short tow lines. Here Marie uses the rope line someone installed to make it easier to scale the bluff up to the fort trail.

Latest members of the Goat Society!

The Mayanesque ruins of Fort Whitman.

Marie, climbing back down to the beach.

Reflecting on the calm water and vibrant colors of lichen and plants encrusting the strange geology of Goat Island. According to Nick On The Rocks, Goat Island and nearby Ika Island are examples of "exotic terrains" which arrived here eons ago from the other side of the globe thanks to the action of plate tectonics.

Rounding the west side of Goat we encountered some current from the incoming flood so we moved close to shore. It is always nice to paddle here when there is no wind. This can be a sporty paddle in wind due to the long fetch across Skagit Bay.

Handrailing the coast to take advantage of counter currents.

On the long 1.5 hour heading to Craft Island after leaving Goat. Here Marie passes one of the many snags caught up in the mud. We were here at one of the highest tides of the year. IMHO you really need around 10 ft of tide and rising to easily and safety travel in this area. And you must do so swiftly in order to avoid falling tides. Even a few feet of water less and you start hitting ground with every paddle stroke. And any more and you risk being hopelessly mired in mud and far from any chance of escape until the tide comes back up to uber high levels.

Interesting patterns in the sky reflected on the sea as we approached Craft Island. Despite the nearly 10.5 foot tide at the time, the water here was only about 4 or 5 feet deep! The Skagit River deposits millions of tons of sediment into Skagit Bay every year, material that keeps building up year after year. One could expect this area to be even shallower at this tide level over the next few years. 

Aiming for the neck of the "turtle" that is Craft Island as seen from the western approach.

Arriving at right about high tide at around 10.5 feet. I've tried lower tide level approaches and won't go for anything less than that here due to the risk of grounding on the infamous Skagit Bay mudflats. Mid morning high tides like this do not happen often and are mostly a winter phenomenon. It's vital to keep an eye on the time and tide because you don't want to get caught when the water level begins to fall out here.

Jeff

After a hearty lunch on Craft we continued up the southern distributary to the mouth of the North Fork of the Skagit River. There we set an aggressive northeasterly offset angle and ferried across the 2+ knot river current to the northern distributary arm in order to get a current assist back to the dike. It was a bit more of a challenge than in times past but not overly taxing. This photo was taken later, on the northern distributary and before we reached the dike. Evergreen covered Bald Island in the center. 

We reached the root of the dike on the McGlinn Island side and I showed Marie and Jeff the portage there in case they ever needed it in the future. This turned out to be prophetic! 

Marie checks out the portage before we paddled down to the dike for what we thought would be smooth sailing through the fishway. 

What horror! We arrived to find the fishway freshly blocked by a long snag. The current running over it has tuned it into a dangerous strainer. 

Jeff and Marie surveying the dilemma. 

Fortunately, we had just been checking out the portage so we headed back to that. By this time the glacier covered Mount Baker stratocone was clearly visible.

Marie arranged some branches to use as glides to ease our boats into the water without scraping the rocks. 

Easy does it... 

The water was so clear and green! 

Jeff slides his rotomolded boat in. 

We arrived at the south end of the Swinomish Slough while the current was still flooding to the north. There was a bit of the usual swirliness here and a little beyond, typical of transition times when the water gets ready to reverse direction. Nevertheless, once we were past that we had a nice current assist from the northbound flow.

"The Guardian of the Hole in the Wall laughs at your folly!"

After a nice 3.5 knot run up the channel we arrived at our starting point. A great time was had by all!

We arrived at the kayak beach precisely at the last moment when it is practical to exit on the pickleweed there without scraping on the rocks lurking in the mud! In other words 8.2 ft. Within minutes the water receded enough to have made for an unpleasant and very rocky and muddy landing.

Trip stats. We reached 5.8 knots on the way down the channel early this morning, taking advantage of the nice southerly current assist prevailing at that time.

Skagit River height and flow prediction for today. We’ve had a rather long dry spell recently. That said, the river level and flow rate was manageable today but I would not choose to do this paddle if the river was running any faster.

Our lovely weather window before things started to return to seasonally stormy conditions.

Map