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Trip Report    

Sea Kayak - Leque Island Wildlife Area

A rare high tide opportunity to cross over Leque Island, featuring a spectacular sunrise over the North Cascades and just enough ice on our boats to be delightful.

Doug Palm Doug Palm
January 25, 2026
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Weather conditions matched closely with GFS, ECMWF, and HRRR CONUS and other forecast models: cold, clear and calm. Wind and seas were calm throughout the trip. Tides matched predictions per NOAA, DeepZoom and AyeTides. Roads were not bad, considering the frosty mornings we’ve been having.

    On the trip we had a mild amount of ice forming on our boats and deck gear. Nothing our hearty group could not handle.

This trip report is in progress while I work out some technical issues with the system.

IMG_2176.jpegOur eager group of six Mountaineers arrived well in advance of our scheduled 6am meetup time at English Boom Trail Park on the north end of Camano Island. Per the forecasts the weather was clear, calm, and COLD. Here folks were loading up for the 8+ nautical mile paddle, with the glow of Mount Vernon in the far distance.

IMG_2184.jpegAnd we're off about 15 minutes early! Off our rockers some would say, given the bracing temperatures in the high 20's (°F).

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Jeff dodges around me while I take some photos. Kurt and Cathie behind him. Sorry for the rotated image - an issue with the way the Mountaineers content manager handles photos.

IMG_2205.jpegWe arrived about 45 minutes early at the Leque Island parking lot and boat ramp. The benefit of everyone being ready to launch earlier than planned, plus the excellent assist we had from the current. We checked the island but it was not covered enough to get across so we decided to wait half an hour. To help kill the time a few of us checked out the dead end of the slough (pictured here) then went back to the parking lot to find the island was largely covered in water deep enough to paddle.


IMG_2212.jpegWe tested the water depth and decided to make a run for the south end.

IMG_2217.jpegLook back as we charged down the middle of the island. About 40 minutes earlier this was largely mudflat.

For the first half of the morning ice kept forming on my boat, camera, and gloves. At times we would break through small, thin sheets of ice on the surface. Places where the surface water just gave up and stopped moving. My gloves worked OK but I'm glad I stopped to pull on some poggies as well. Made all the difference for comfort. I gave up on using my Tough camera because it kept getting iced over. I used my iPhone for all these pictures.

Dan cruising up South Pass after we left the island. We continued up the Stilliquamish to Hamilton Waterfront Park and took a refueling break. Glad I brought a thermos of hot water!

After the break we followed the north fork of the Stilly to West Pass and out to Skagit Bay. We stopped several times to take in the wonderful view of the Olympics.

Trip stats. Our fastest speed was heading down Davis Slough on the flood.