After a coolish spring and summer, the Outdoor Odysseys garden located on the outskirts of Friday Harbor, San Juan Island is finally coming into full bloom! We continue to have organic zucchini, squash, rhubarb, basil, and several varieties of lettuce to send out on our overnight trips, and just a few days ago we harvested a number of cherry tomatoes and the first of our cucumbers. The larger tomatoes and lemon cucumbers are looking quite promising as well. All should be ripe within the next week! Join us for one of our sea kayaking trips and sample some of our…
Butterflies on San Juan Island
For such small and relatively isolated islands, the San Juans boast a variety of unique historical, geographical, and biological features. As I near the end of my first summer on San Juan Island, I continue to be amazed by the new things I learn about the San Juan Islands everyday. Aside from the Orca whales, bald eagles, and other unique types of birds and marine life that inhabit this area, San Juan Island is home to another rare species: the Island Marble butterfly, thought to have gone extinct for nearly 100 years before turning up in American Camp, a National…
Baby Names
August is here, meaning it’s time to name some baby Orcas! Four calves from the three pods of resident Orca whales that reside in the water off the west coast of San Juan Island will be given names this month by the San Juan Island Whale Museum. Read more about the four calves and vote for your favorite names between now and the end of August! Better yet, come join us on one of our sea kayaking tours in Orca whale habitat. http://www.whale-museum.org/programs/orcadoption/Name_the_Babies_11.html
Island Hopping in the San Juans
This past week, I had a friend in town who was visiting the San Juan Islands for the first time. Wanting to show her as much of the islands as possible (and wanting to do a bit of exploring myself!) I decided to take the opportunity to visit a couple of the other islands in the San Juans. The Washington State Ferry, which runs between Anacortes and Friday Harbor, also provides service to three other islands in the San Juan archipelago: Orcas, Lopez, and Shaw. Of the four islands served by the ferry, San Juan is the most populated, Orcas…
Tucker the Poop-Sniffing Dog
Last week on one of our “Eagles and Orcas” one-day sea kayak tours, guests were treated to a visit by an extra-special San Juan Islander. “A whale?” you might wonder. Well, guess again. His name is Tucker, and he is not a whale or a person but a black Labrador retriever whose job it is to sniff out whale poop off the coast of San Juan Island. For the past several years, Tucker has worked tirelessly with a team of researchers from the University of Washington’s Center for Conservation Biology. Their goal? To find and collect samples of whale dung…
“Island Exploration” Tour
Beginning this summer, Outdoor Odysseys will be offering a brand new “Island Exploration” day tour on San Juan Island, where guests will have the opportunity to sample some of the best things that the island has to offer. We’ll spend the day exploring our favorite local spots, including Mount Finlayson, Lime Kiln Point State Park, and the Pelindaba Lavender Farm, and we’ll finish the day with wine tasting at San Juan Vinyards or cider and gin tasting at Westcott Bay Cider.
Summertime on San Juan
As June draws to a close on San Juan Island, summer continues to pick up speed. Last week brought some sunny weather to the island and live music at The Doctor’s Office (a coffee shop—not an actual medical center), the Rumor Mill, and the San Juan County Fairgrounds. Cask & Schooner, a restaurant and pub in town, celebrated its grand re-opening after a multi-year hiatus, and downtown Friday Harbor was abuzz this weekend with visitors who’d come over on the ferry. We here at Outdoor Odysseys are just as excited as the visitors that the season has begun. This Saturday…
Island Visitors
Article about San Juan wildlife from the Seattle Times, brought to you by the folks at Outdoor Odysseys Kayak Tours.
A Day with the Whales: An Interview with an Outdoor Odysseys Guide
This afternoon I sat down with second-year guide Will Bingaman to talk with him about a trip he led earlier this week. Like most of our one-day trips at Outdoor Odysseys, the trip launched from San Juan County Park on the west side of the island, went south to Deadman’s Bay where the group stopped for lunch, and back north to the county park. Will met his four guests at the Friday Harbor ferry terminal on the morning of the trip. Two were from Australia, two from Chicago, and all had been sea kayaking before, though never in the San Juan Islands.
Southern Resident Orca Whales
The Orca, also known as the “killer whale”, is the largest species of the oceanic dolphin family (Family Delphinidae). This toothed predator is one of the most widely distributed sea mammals on earth, and can be found in all of the world’s oceans. Fortunately, Outdoor Odysseys offers eco-friendly kayak tours in one of the world’s best orca whale watching areas