Coghlin Island circumnavigation

Friday night the wind was picking up and we'd been told that it was supposed to rain on Saturday so we took the chance to get out on the water for the first time this season.  Beautiful sunny weather, calm water, 60 degrees and ambition led to 5.15 miles of paddling, 2 martens, 1 river otter, hundreds of sea stars, sap sucker, eagles, Bonaparte gulls, and sore arm and back muscles...

The the water was a little rough on the south east side of the island, waves crashing into the shore. We passed blue mussels and barnacles nearly the size of rolling pins and spotted the stars in the clear waters off the gravel beaches.

I laughed at the No Smoking sign on the beach. Really, No Smoking - Coghlin hosts one of the lights for the airport - it makes sense, but I was expecting No Camping.

On the northwest side of the Coghlin, two martens stared at us from the boulder beach wondering just what we were. The river otter was so surprised he leaped clear out of the water when he saw Mr. X, then disappeared.

As we paddled back to Auke Rec, the park was full of families enjoying the evening. A porpoise or two dove in front of us, and when we landed a black lab came down the beach barking to let us know how weird we looked.