San Juan Islands, WA
The dense woods and quiet coves of Matia can be explored by a loop trail that runs past the remains of a homesteaderÂ’s cabin. Elvin Smith was a brevetted Union Army captain in the Civil War who settled on the island as a squatter in 1892 with the intention of selling it off to newcomers, though the three islands were never opened to homesteading. Instead, Captain Smith spent the rest of his life there almost entirely alone, but for weekly trips in his skiff to North Beach. He drowned during a return trip in 1921, when he was 86 years old.
Puffin Island, to the east of Matia, is a bird sanctuary and should not be approached within a hundred yards. The island was a seasonal camp for the local Lummi Indians, who collected bird eggs there and wrapped them in sea lettuce for transport. The cove at the east end of the island should also be given a wide berth to avoid nesting eagles.
Patos is just over a mile to the west of Sucia, and four miles from Orcas across treacherous open water. Patos, Spanish for ducks, was named by the Spanish explorer Dionisio Alcala Galiano in 1792 for the large numbers of sea birds he observed there. The small, exposed campground is on the west end of the island at Active Cove; there are pit toilets but no water. Along the loop trail to the northwest point of the island, the trees give way to a large grassy field and spectacular views across Boundary Pass to the Gulf Islands. The lighthouse on the northwestern tip was constructed in 1908; one of the lighthouse keeperÂ’s daughters, Helene Glidden, wrote a good book about growing up on Patos called The Light on the Island.
Patos should certainly be circumnavigated by boat, but the wave-cut ledges of its coast also make it possible to walk almost the entire perimeter of the island at low tide-just be careful not to disturb nesting eagles and shorebirds. The beauty of these islands is also their curse. Summer crowds can be avoided by paddling in the off-season, but then you may have to wait out bad weather or pay for a water taxi, assuming that one is willing to come out. Remember to carry plenty of water, avoid wildlife sanctuaries (marked NWR on charts), pack out your trash, and pick up what you can of others'. Part of paddling in these paradises is learning to protect them.
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