Northern Elephant Seals - Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA

For about five years in a row, I kicked off the new year with a visit to the Año Nuevo State Natural Reserve located just south of Half Moon Bay, CA (about 55 miles south of San Francisco). Año Nuevo means 'New Year' in Spanish and the state reserve is also the location of the largest mainland breeding colony of Northern Elephant Seals in the world. They typically haul out on islands located far off the mainland. About this time of the year is the peak season for birthing and breeding and it's an incredible sight to witness live. I would go several times - first, in December to watch the males come in and stake out their territory. I've seen some incredible battles between males that are about 14-16 feet long and can weigh up to 2.5 tons! Actually, the best battle I saw was down in San Simeon, which is just down the road from the Hearst Castle on the California central coast. I went down there with family and actually told them to take the tour of the castle (I seriously couldn't be bothered, anyway) while I watched the behemoths battle it out for over an hour. Exhausted and bloodied, one bull finally headed back out to the water and went to find a spot further down the beach (awww...I always root for the underdog).

At the end of December, the females (much smaller in size averaging 10-12 feet in length and weighing about 1,000 - 2,000 lbs) start to show up and haul out on shore to form harems and give birth. This peaks at around end of January. I would time my second visit of the season around or soon after the new year to check out this process. Then, typically, through the end of March, the females are nursing their young then mating with the dominant bull in their harem. Finally, the adults head back out to sea leaving the young weaners to fend for themselves and learn to swim. And, this is when I schedule another visit to gawk at the weaners who have grown and gained so much weight in a very short amount of time. Most will stay until the end of April before heading out to feed along the coasts of northern Washington and British Columbia. They will return to Año Nuevo to molt (shed all their hair and skin) during the spring and summer months.

It's an amazing sight to see and hear in person. The bulls' sounds are deep and guttural to match their immense size. So many pups are crushed by males who continue to fight off other harem-less males (again, awwwww) who try to poach on the females lying on the outer part of their harem. At the Marine Mammal Center, located further north in Sausalito in the Marin Headlands, I used to be a docent and I would stand next to a life-size statue of a fully-sized Northern Elephant Seal bull. Yeah, you don't want to be in his way when he decides to charge. And, don't be fooled by their size because they can move extremely fast on land. For this reason, you can only visit the reserve during breeding season on scheduled tours with a docent. Tickets do sell out fast so purchase them in advance. It really is worth it and an excursion that the entire family would enjoy.

Paddling Around San Juan Island - Part 3 (the end)

OMG, I can go on and on. OK, part 3 and I will try to sum up the last 2 days succinctly without forgetting some of the finer details that I think is worth sharing and remembering.

Day 4 - Sandy got us up early with french toast and more of her kick-ass coffee! We packed up our stuff and headed out of Posey Island, past Roche Harbor and down the west side of San Juan Island along Haro Strait. Again, in hopes of catching more sightings of the orcas and Haro Strait is one of their more popular routes. Our destination was Smallpox Bay county park but we first had to deal with some strong winds and swells that were between 1.5 - 2.5 feet. As we were coming out of Mosquito Bay, we ran into a group of about 7 river otters. One swam really close to Sandy and ended up hitting her boat ;-) Later on, when she told this story to someone else, it evolved to the river otter jumping into her boat. We were starting to get the idea that she embellishes her stories just a *little bit*. It all started with how she survived a snake bite ....how could she forget that she wasn't telling the story to a bunch of city folks like me, but biologists! The other thing that I found amusing about her was how she always found fault in the way we would pack our boats, start a fire, etc...it got to a point where we all wanted so much to help out but in more fear that we would do it all wrong (and, believe me, she lets us know just how wrong we are). So, we just got good at piling stuff on the beach and packing our own belongings and waited for her to show up and direct the show. I helped out a lot in the food prepping...this was my way of connecting with her and also a chance to ask her anything about guiding. It worked and she really did enjoy sharing all her guiding knowledge and food prepping secrets with me and I am very grateful for that.

OK, where were we....oh yeah, riding the swells and watching Dave (who was in the front of my boat) and Allen get wet from the waves crashing over the bow. It was a pretty dicey paddle that day and most of the paddlers that day had decided to stay on shore. We got down to Smallpox Bay in about 3 hours. It was a county park and our first step back to civilization. There were tons of people at the campsite and plenty of cars....sigh, I knew eventually we had to head back but it's always hard to get used to that again.

The one saving grace is Sandy's reputation...we got the best camp site in the area and here is a picture from inside my tent on our last morning. Not a bad view to wake up to. I kept hoping that I would hear whales in the night but that never happened. We hung out at the campsite the rest of that day waiting for the whales to come. For dinner, it was corn chowder, more garlic bread (with all the minced garlic you could possibly stand), and more of her excellent cole slaw (I am definitely making that on my trips).

Day 5 - Our last day :-( We woke up to an amazing day....not a cloud in the sky and the winds were minimal. I could wake up to that view everyday. The morning was crazy with activity....the young river otters showed up again at North Beach and we watched them feed along the coastline heading south. In the distance, we spotted a minke whale. But, later on, we found out that a humpback had come down right past our beach without us knowing it. Uh, I don't believe it because how can you miss a humpback. The hill we were on had a pretty expansive view so we would've had ample time to see it surface on either side so I'm thinking that someone mistook my minke sighting for a humpback.

After another hearty breakfast (blueberry pancakes), we broke camp and then headed down for a paddle down south to the Lime Kiln Lighthouse. Last we heard, the orcas were headed west out the Strait of Juan de Fuca so our chances of seeing them that day was close to nil. But, it was still a beautiful day for a paddle. There were a lot of day-trippers out there and the beaches were packed. I can't even imagine what the area is like during the peak summer months (July - August). I know what area I'll be avoiding and, for sure, I don't think I will consider working there. I thought about it briefly, but it's so crowded and crazy busy.

At 3:45, our trip ended and we headed back to the ferry. We had to wait for some day trippers who were running late. Sandy had us waiting for them at the beach and the minute they hit the shore, we literally dumped them out of their boats, grabbed their paddles and starting loading everything on to trailer and van. Once on the van, and heading to the ferry, one of the day-trippers seemed to snap out of her state of shock and asked me how long we were waiting for them. It turns out, we shorted them an hour of beach time....I felt bad but we had to make 5:00 ferry because the next one wasn't until 7. I figured that it was something that Sandy and Andrew (the day-tripper guide) were going to "discuss" later (gee, I wonder who was going to win that discussion) and I just did as I was told.

All-in-all, it was a fabulous trip. I had so much fun paddling with you guys (Paul, Dave, and Allen). You were all great and I learned so much from each of you....I just wish I could write faster! Dave and Allen, thank you for taking turns at the bow of my boat! Your paddling was perfect and you both made me appreciate tandem paddling again! I also had a lot of fun paddling with Sandy and I learned a lot from her. I want to head back to Smallpox Bay county park and watch her in action once she starts working as night security. Once the clock hits 'quiet time,' it won't take her long to get everyone to quiet down...LOL! Sea Quest Expeditions - check them out. Not a bad outfitter for trips around San Juan Island.

Paddling Around San Juan Island - Part 2

This is a continuation of an earlier post of a 5-day sea kayak trip I was on recently around San Juan Island. I covered the first day of the trip and spent an entire paragraph on our guide, Sandy. I hope my traveling companions will post some other 'Sandy-isms' that I may have forgotten. So, the journey continues.

Day 2 - I slept for almost 12 hours making up for the lack of sleep the night before and I woke up on Tuesday fully rested and ready to get out and look for orcas. Allen was already up and had been up for a couple of hours being that he was the one person from the east coast (N. Carolina). That night, there were 2 parties at the campground and Allen laughed at how one sound of a tent's zipper opening up at 5:00 am started a series of consecutive zipping noises from other areas of the campground as, one-by-one, people made their way to the lone latrine in the area. This campground was posh compared to what is up in the Great Bear Rainforest. While we have small huts to offer as shelter, there is no such thing as a civilized latrine, with toilet paper and hand sanitizer, nonetheless!! The sites were complete with firepits and picnic tables....I was camping in style! Anyway, one-by-one we woke up to a fantastic, clear morning with banana & walnut pancakes on the menu accompanied by big pots of french press coffee. Mmmmm....why does food always taste so much better outside? Our plan for the day was to paddle clockwise around Stuart Island.

We headed out by 9:30, I think and we leisurely paddled out the inlet and hung a left. Along the way, we saw harbor seals, oyster catchers, eagles, and pigeon guillemots that I liked watching because of their bright, red legs. But, the highlight of that day were the orcas we spotted in the distance (across Boundary Pass). We're guessing (and, it was confirmed later) that they were the Transients because we spotted maybe 4 in that group. So, I also learned that one of the biggest differences between the J/K/L pods and the Transients is that the J/K/L pods are salmon eaters while the Transients eat marine mammals. And, that members of pods have figured out to mate with members of other pods. Funny how "nature seems to figure itself out" (a common remark made by the biologists).

Unfortunately, that was our only glimpse of the orcas on our trip :-( But, I continue to track the encounters on the Center for Whale Research Site and plan to head back up soon, maybe on my bike because it turns out that there are special campsites for bikers/hikers/paddlers and they can't turn you away. Anyway, that day we paddled about 13 nautical miles around the island and the day before we had only paddled about 7 nautical miles. Nothing too daunting...we were saving that for later!

I'm looking at my notes and I wished I could recreate each night for you because it was a hoot! For example, the conversation on our second night sashayed around topics like how in the Ozarks, people serve the placentas to their kids on their first birthday. Followed by a lengthy discussion on liver, tongue, and lung soup (mmmm....my appetite was building by the moment). Then, they talked about carcasses which rolled on to a debate on mayonnaise (of course....I see the connection...huh?) and the differences (or rather similarities) between Helman's, Best, and Real. For dinner that night, we noshed on the most garlicky hummus spread I've ever had. It was great - this wasn't a picky group at all....thing were never garlicky enough or spicy enough. I could've just eaten the hummus and crackers for dinner and be good but, dinner was actually vegetable curry served over brown rice. Yeah, for the second night in a row, I had eaten myself into a food coma. Do you see why I had to go on a bike ride the moment I got back home? Sandy continued on with her one-woman show and always had to have the last word in. That night, we enjoyed watching the ospreys hanging out by our site, and I think some hummingbirds came out later. Yes, I think it was Dave, who knew exactly what type of hummingbird it was before it quickly zipped out of view. I just observed in amazement....I'm lucky enough to have remembered their names by the end of the first night (hahaha). Later on, we had some bats fly around our campsite.

Allen struggled to stay up past 9:00 that night. His tent was placed perfectly at the site so that he could lay down but still be part of the conversation when it was around a topic that he was interested in. I forgot to mention how on the first night, we thought he had gone to bed and then Paul and Dave started talking about some obscure topic. Zip, zip, zip....all of sudden, Allen pokes his head out of a small opening of his tent to give his $0.02 on the topic. If any of you guys remember what that topic was, please let me know! It was just hilarious: a) first it was such an obscure topic to begin with, and; b) all that we could see was Allen's head....it was like the floating head on one of those late night shows...I think it's Late Night with Conan O'Brien where he has a skit with the floating head of knowledge which is what came to mind when that happened. Guess you had to be there, but it was seriously funny that first night.

Day 3 - That day, we paddled clockwise around John's Island and then had lunch on Gossip Island. Originally we were going to spend one more night on Stuart Island, but, quite frankly, I was done paddling in and out of Reid Harbor. It was a good 5 mile paddle round-trip and it felt like it was getting longer. The weather that afternoon looked great after lunch, we decided to pack up our campsite, load up the boats, and paddle across to Posey Island for the night before continuing down the west side of San Juan Island the following day.

By the time we packed up and started paddling, the wind had significantly picked up and we seriously hauled-ass to get across. That was pretty tough and it took us a over an hour to paddle the 6 miles. Posey Island was all of maybe 2 acres and we had it all to ourselves. This is also the night where Sandy told us about the most famous guide in the area (she's second). Testosterone Tim (of San Juan Kayak Expeditions). I'm not even going to bother and hyperlink the name of his company because I've heard nothing but bad things about him. I guess he doesn't make his customer wear PFDs and will sometimes leave his group on Posey Island while he heads out to Roche Harbor for some drinks. I heard about him before the trip and I guess all those rumors are true. And, yet, he continues to run his business. Go figure.

That night on Posey Island, we also heard the cheesy music, followed by a cannon shot, and more cheesy music. A tradition proudly carried on by the 'yachties.' I imagined Ted Knight's character in Caddyshack all decked out in his navy blue blazer and ceremoniously lighting the cannon each night. However, the sunset was amazing that night. This was a picture I took after dinner and was totally intrigued by the cottonball shaped clouds. For dinner, we had vegetarian chili with jalapenoes on the side so we can make our chili as spicy as we wanted. It was the perfect dinner for that night because the winds had picked up and it was probably the coldest night on our trip. OK....to be continued on the final post.

Paddling around San Juan Island - Part 1

When I first heard the stories about the return of Southern Resident orca pods to the area, I wanted to head out to the San Juans to get a glimpse of them in person. I was also getting restless and wanted to get out and do some paddling so I signed up with a local outfitter, Sea Quest Expeditions, for a 5-day trip around San Juan Island (the westernmost island in the San Juans). It was also a pragmatic solution because it was an opportunity for me to gather information for my own knowledge bank around the finer details of guiding and cooking for a group of people on multi-day trips for my own gig as an assistant guide for Tantalus Adventures.

Day 1 - My alarm went off at 2:30 am on Monday morning - the first day of my trip. I grabbed my dry sacks and drove up to Anacortes to catch the ferry to Friday Harbor and meet the rest of the group. On the two-hour drive up, I wondered who my traveling companions would be and why didn't I spend the previous night in Anacortes? What a dim bulb! I almost talked my friend from the Bay Area, Karen, into taking the trip with me but she didn't think she could make it through 5-days of paddling. So, it was a solo trip for me which was fine and I generally get along with anybody so I wasn't too worried. But, damnit, I forgot my little traveling companion, Pescado :-( (a little, greem, plastic fish that I take on trips with me).

Got to the terminal in plenty of time to catch the 6:20 am sailing - no traffic, no lines. Hell, it was so early the concession stands weren't even open. I threw my sacks up on the bench and closed my eyes. Later, I saw three men walk in, each holding a large garbage back filled with smaller bags. I surveyed their clothes and chances were good that they, too, were on their way to a multi-day kayak trip. My gut was telling me that they could be my traveling companions for the week but I was sleepy and it was too early to be social. Besides, if they were going on the same trip as I was, there would be plenty of time to get to know them. We landed in Friday Harbor and I proceeded to the rendezvous point by the big elm tree. I turned around, and there were the same three men looking as perplexed as I did. After a round of cordial introductions, we determined that we were going on the same trip. Turns out that it was a surprise birthday trip for Paul, one of the men in the group, and he learned about the trip just the day before. His wife secretly planned the trip and even got one of his friends, Allen, who Paul hasn't seen in 20 years, to come all the way out from North Carolina. Paul and Dave (the third member of the party) are both biology professors at Central Washinton University, and Allen is also a biologist and works for the government. I can't remember what he does exactly but let's just say that developers aren't big fans of him and his department. Sweet! Biologists on the trip! I am going to learn a lot and chances are good that they will want to spend a lot of time out on the water.

The van pulled up and we met Sandy, our guide for the trip. So, Sandy is a one-of-a-kind. Where do I begin?!? She's a hearty 61-year old woman who has experienced a lot in her life, primarily as a tracker and a guide both in the San Juans and up in Alaska. She has built kayaks with a local company, and....has lived in the big city and was a gopher for models (huh?!?). Do you see what I mean? In any case, she was hand-picked by the company to accompany the 3 biologists on the trip which made sense because she was the most seasoned guide and probably had the most knowledge about the wildlife in the area. But, let me tell you that by the end of the trip, we figured out who ran the show around San Juan Island. I liken her to a sheriff that you don't f*@# around with....respect Sandy's rules and all is good. If you don't, well, just get the hell out of dodge which I thought I had to do on our first day. Yeah, I made a comment that she didn't like and so I quickly backed off. It became my personal goal to break through and make a connection with this woman (thank goodness for all those debates and negotiations in the corporate world because it came in handy) otherwise it was going to be a loooong week.

We loaded up our kayaks - 2 triples (filled up the middle with camping and food supplies) and Sandy's single. How I wished I had a single because my last experience in a double (in San Francisco) was not good (do I have a control issue?...hahaha). So, yeah, the guide doesn't like me and I'm stuck in a tandem boat. Oh well, as they say, 'make lemonade' which I did from the back of the boat where I could match my stroke with the person up front and control the rudder.

We headed out from Roche Harbor, around Davison Head and across Speiden Channel to Speiden Island. We landed on Speiden for lunch though Sandy later told us that the island is privately owned by the owner of Oakley sunglasses. He doesn't like kayakers stopping on his island but, hell, we were with Sandy and it was her show (damnit). After lunch, it was one last push to Stuart Island and into Reid Harbor where we would spend 2 nights camping. Sandy was paddling like a bat outta hell....and, we found out why. We saw another group paddling out in the same direction and it was basically a race to the best campsites (close to the beach) otherwise, you had to unload your boats at another point further down the inlet and haul your gear a long ways to the other camp sites. From the stories Sandy told us, it sounded like she *always* won. I must say, she is one helluva strong paddler. Damn! We were in bigger boats but could never keep up with her. Once the other group found out it was Sandy, they backed off and we were the first ones to arrive at the campsite. By then, it was around 3:00 pm so we spent the rest of the day setting up camp and having an early dinner (spaghetti and garlic bread). The guys spent that afternoon/evening rattling off the names of all the birds that visited the campsite. I couldn't keep up! It was crazy....like a Jeopardy show on ornithology....I was just an audience member watching in amazement the way they could quickly identify anything that moved. But, you know what....the "sheriff" *always* had the last word. That's it for now...I'm going to have to continue on another blog.

Return of K & L-Pods to San Juan Island (Baby Orca spotted)

(Photo: K & many of L pod off of San Juan Island. Courtesy of Center for Whale Research - 6/3/08)

I am so giddy with excitement! I just heard about the report of the return of the other two pods that make up the Southern Resident group of Orcas. There are a total of three pods: J-pod (26 members), K-pod (19 members), and the L-pod (43 members). The J-pod is the one most frequently seen in the San Juans and in Puget Sound. The K & L pods just recently returned and were spotted off of the west side of San Juan Island which is where I will be paddling for 5 days later on this month. Now do you see why I'm giddy?? I hope I'm lucky enough to see them.

(Photo: "Spyhopping" K-pod baby orca. Courtesy of Center for Whale Research - 06/03/08)

The most exciting news is that a baby was spotted in the K-pod (pictures of the baby are featured on this page). And, take a look at this video and you can see the baby swimming in the pod. What an amazing sight....I LOVE it here! Whee! So, why is the baby splotchy? Basically, it's a result of the baby orca's thin skin, and, as its blubber builds up, the baby orca will turn white. So, the splotches you see in the picture is comparable to blushing.

You can go to the Center of Whale Research for more information about our Southern Resident Orcas. And, also check out the CetaceaLab that is located on the northern coast of BC and they study all the whales that migrate up to the area.