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Trip Report    

Sea Kayak - Squaxin Island Circumnavigation

9.65 nm circumnavigation of Squaxin Island from Arcadia Point. Had about 12 knots of wind on the south side of the island blowing out of the south southwest. Some light rain off and on, and a little steady rain for a while. We had five paddlers.

Dennis Pennell Dennis Pennell
December 21, 2025
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Squaxin Island Route as Paddled.png

    See route as paddled shown above with the pinkish-purple line. We did a clockwise circumnavigation of Squaxin Island starting and ending at Arcadia Point Boat Ramp.  Wind was blowing 7-12 knots out of the south or south-southwest. Part of the time we had a tailwind, part the time a headwind, and part of the time a wind on our port side or port side rear quarter.  The sea state on the south and southwest side of Squaxin Island was quite lively as we paddled across that area about 1 PM.

Squaxin Island Circumnavigation

December 20, 2025 at 09:35 AM
Tracked with Gaia GPS for iPhone
Distance 11.1 mi
Total Time 4h 27m

  • Avg Speed 2.5 mph

  • Moving Speed 3.1 mph

  • Max Speed 5.2 mph

  • Pace 24:03 min/mi

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Parking is easy at the lot about 100 yards from the water. We had a very high tide at about 7:30 AM of over 15 feet, so when we arrived there was very little exposed beach. The wind was blowing about 7 or 8 knots generally out of the south. We launched at 9:35 AM and paddled generally downwind past the northern tip of Squaxin Island over to a somewhat isolated spot on the western edge of Harstine Island and took a brief shore break for snacks. 

Note that Squaxin Island is owned by the Squaxin Island Tribe, and landing on the island or tidelands is not allowed.

Then we launched into the wind and paddled south about 5 nm to the southern tip of Squaxin Island. Generally, we stayed close to the Squaxin Island eastern shore in order to get a little relief from the south-southwest wind. We stopped in all the coves for a brief rest.

Once we reached the southern end of Squaxin Island conditions got lively. Making headway against the wind became more difficult. When we turned the corner and headed west and then northwest, we had about a 10-12 knot wind coming at us from our port side, or slightly behind us on the port side. We had to make a conscience effort to not get pushed into shore. 

When we reached the southwest corner of Squaxin Island and turned more or less to the north, we had the wind at our backs and paddling got easier.  We chose not to go to the normal beach on the south side of Hope Island since it was taking the full force of the wind. Instead, we paddled over to the east side of Hope Island and stopped for lunch at the northeast corner of Hope Island on a nice sandy beach with large, beached trees for wind protection. From there it was a short and windy crossing back over to Arcadia Point Boat Ramp to end the trip.