Spring Craziness

Every spring, usually in early April and sometimes even as early as March, I start to get an itch to get out of town and go camping. It's like the stuffy air of a fall/winter spent inside starts to get me a little nutty and I crave fresh air and forests. The problem is that the damp season here in Western Washington lasts from about September through the end of June. I mean, we get some beautiful days during that time, don't get me wrong, but the chance of those beautiful days falling over a weekend are rare until late June. The photo below, taken from Deception Pass at the north end of Whidbey Island, was taken over just such a weekend - a glorious sunny stretch in October a couple of years ago.



Well a couple of weeks back I decided I couldn't take it any longer and planned a weekend trip to Whidbey Island for this coming weekend. I crossed my fingers and hoped that the stars would aline and we would get a beautiful weekend.

Well, as that began to look increasingly unlikely I figured we could stay in a hotel and just spend the days outside. No such luck - a couple with a fourteen year old teen and two dogs are about as welcome to hotel managers as a couple of lepers. Anyhooo - so the weekend is supposed to be off. But now I'm totally invested. I mean - this place is a waymarking paradise: central Whidbey Island is a National Historic Reserve co-managed by the National Park Service and a group of locally elected officials. It has been kept much as it looked in the late 1800's with wide open prairies, windswept bluffs and beaches, a small town with most of its architecture from the 1800's, and not 1 but two forts that have been turned into state parks with a ton of batteries to explore. The entire reserve is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. I've downloaded walking and driving tours, trail maps and read up on the history. I have a list of good restaurants and cafes. This is killing me!!!! I must escape this suburban hell!!!

So now the question is do we stay home and take a day trip on Saturday down to Olympia or do we brave the cold (and possible snow) and head to the island anyway. Mind you, we are pretty hardcore campers so when I say "camping" I mean a three person backpacking tent in a walk-in campsite, not a motorhome with a heater, toilet and microwave. The predicted weather is highs in the mid to upper 40's and lows from the lower to mid 30's. At this point there's about a 30% chance of precipitation and the snow level is down to sea level, but central Whidbey is in the Olympic Mountains' rain shadow. How bad could it be? I don't mind cold weather camping, but I don't handle wet and cold camping well (which is why I hate snow camping.)

Our 14 year old is game, but this is a kid who wears shorts year round. Hmmm... well, stay tuned to hear if decide to embark on this mad adventure.


The photo above was taken during a past season of madness. We were backpacking in the Cascades up off of highway 2 and when we hit the last 1/2 mile we discovered that the trail (and our campsite) would be in snow. This did not stop the guys from swimming in the pristine glacial lake - or me from laughing at them after they hit the water and tried to scramble back out before their muscles seized up from the cold.