Some kind of funky tree growth

Lunch

blake Isl Trail map

aaron on the fly

Paddling gear laid out to dry during our run

Coming around the SE corner of the island after the run from alki

Another hard day in the books. Today Aaron and I hooked up to paddle to Blake island in the middle of Puget sound and then run its trails for 2-3 hours. We were both late to our Alki meeting point and if one of us had offered to bag, the other would have gladly agreed. We were both tired from yesterday and just getting there was the battle.

We headed out with a North wind and 2 foot swells giving us a fast ride to the SW. We were both cold on the start but once paddling we warmed up quickly. We swung around the south side of the island and beached on the NW tip at the marine campground. The place was deserted except for what seemed to be a lonely lady ranger who wouldn't stop talking even as I took off my wetsuit to reveal my wet undies as I changed.

This is a great place that I am definetly returning with the family to camp either by kayak (nanooke style) or on the sailboat.

We began our run and Aaron just lit it up. We were both sore and tired from yesterday but he just wanted to hit it. After about 4 miles, he finally stabilized and we ran together. Except for his funny nuance of speeding up whenever he gets excited. Variable speed running. If you need some speed, just ask him about one of his passions. 15.5 miles later after hitting every train in both directions we stopped for lunch sore and tired.

we waided into the frigid waters to lossen our legs and then warmed in the sun as we ate a feast. We were so warm and sheltered that I convinced Aaron that we should leave our paddle jackets in the boat for the return.

This was a mistake as we got out into the main channel only to find the winds were stronger but the swell was much less with some confused chop. It was a grunt back to Alki. As we approached, there was some crazy guy cheering on the beach. My eyes are so bad that I didn't recognize RVG but I did notice that he had a nice looking Arc'Teryx jacket on.

When we got in, he said he saw us coming across and told Jen that it had to be us because nobody else was stupid enough to paddle the sound in winter with no top.