My photographer and I just hit five years as Washington citizens but through some failure of imagination had never managed to visit the San Juan Islands. So we booked a post Labor Day campsite on Orcas Island. You can see the little man was excited to learn he was island bound for the last camping trip before starting school (early bloomer).
We started the formal program with a loop of Cascade Lake. The deer are so thick that they have munched everything green that is not moss up to about shoulder height. So I spent the loop trying to take artistic moss pictures. It's just embarrassing that I haven't figured it out yet and I suspect my computer's recycle bin snickers a little every time I drop in another round of failures.
The Cascade walk was a pleasant warm up for the main event - a loop up and around Mt Constitution and four more lakes! At 7.5 miles with side trips and 1,500' of gain this was the first big hike for the whole family since the back surgery.
If you get a chance, viewing the San Juans from 2,400' is an excellent way to spend a Wednesday.
On the way down there was more moss... grrr. You will just have to trust me that the green fuzz was very scenic.
Orcas was so pleasant the we contemplated balancing the scales by never coming home but that felt a little extreme. Instead, we booked a return trip for October to explore Lopez Island.
