A lot of boats on a small beach translates into a lot of people on a small island!

This photo shows the results of when the best laid plans get waylaid. On this particular weekend, I was leading a group of clients on a loop through the San Juan Islands. Our put-in was Washington Park in Anacortes, with our first evening spent on Spencer Spit. This entailed an open water crossing of Rosario Strait which is full commercial shipping.

Despite the wonderful sunny weather we enjoyed on shore as we packed boats, mid-channel was completely socked in with an incredibly heavy fog bank. We watched a huge container ship make its way north and although the superstructure was visible above the fog the hull was completely obscured. I was hopeful that that the sun would burn off the fog but after half a day I was put into a go, no-go decision. Not wanting to disappoint the clients I decided to amend our route with our first night on Strawberry Island, a small DNR island which use to be open camping. (see: Strawberry Island Campsite Closing)

Unfortunately, getting such a late start for Strawberry which only had three sites available for camping at that time put us behind two other large groups which had already staked their claim. Suffice it to say that we had to get highly adaptable to make that evening work.

Things where further complicated by that fact that our original route had us stopping at sites that would allow for us to replenish our water supply where as our plan ‘B’ did not. Luckily for us, or neighbors where a young group finishing an Outward Bound course who were quite willing to trade water for Hershey Bars!

Improvise, adapt, overcome…