A winter island untrammeled

My wife and I were without the boys for a week, so we took the chance to get away for a few days on our space ship. This February around the Salish Sea has been colder and snowier than normal. Record snow in fact. We had well over 20" at our house. And it has remained at or below freezing at night, so even the snow that fell many days ago is still lingering in shady places. Normal highs for this time in February are 51 and we have been lucky to have a day at 40.

With no prospect of warmth, we still got away for all the usual and multitudinous reasons.

Stuart Island was a bit of a war zone. The heavy snow has dropped trees and branches over all the trails and roads. We walked out to the lighthouse on one day, and the San Juan County Road is impassable to cars over much of the length. There are quite a few trees down between Reid Harbor and the old school, and a few other places. There are a small handful of year round residents on that side of Stuart, the non-airport side, and we saw one young couple drive by on their way to the west side in their unregistered and barely functional island truck. They must have cleared trees over in that stretch of road.

Anyway, the walk is always wondrous. Everywhere we went, we were the first foot steps in the snow. Feels so good down deep in our bones to walk for miles on a quiet trail or dirt road. Once at the lighthouse, it was blowing 15-20 NE and the wind chill was quiet unfriendly. We hunkered in the lee of the outermost building and watched a small group of California Sea Lions trolled the waters right at the point. It was ebbing, and they would more or less hand out among the kelp for a while, before drifting around the corner, only to approach again. We assumed they were feeding.

The next day we hiked to another of our favorite view spots, and there were large snowfields near the top.

We sat together, that sloping hillside and me, until only the hillside remained. Amy did yoga.

We were the only boat in Reid Harbor. Once again, this was a 3 day weekend, and there are many hundreds of boats in Roche Harbor, Friday Harbor, Deer Harbor and Bellingham nearby. Reid Harbor will have 100 boats in it on a typical summer weekend. Why no one heads out in winter will always amaze and delight me.