Bioluminescence Kayak Tour

You guys, I am still in awe over here. Patrick and I just had the most amazing experience and I wanted to share it. I decided a couple months ago to buy tickets for a bioluminescence kayak tour up at Port Gamble. 

[A brief description of bioluminescence: In the most basic sense, bioluminescence is the light emitted by a living organism through a chemical reaction happening in their bodies. Bioluminescence often happens in the ocean and in the water as this is where the most bioluminescent organisms are found. This is a great article that also has some really cool pictures of bioluminescence].

Something to note here: Patrick and I have never kayaked before. And our first experience was going to be at night - and a very dark night - because a new moon is the best time to see Bio, and Port Gamble was a place with very little light pollution. It was really good timing over all because we were just coming off of a pretty intense heat wave, which is great for bio tours in general, plus it was still going to be quite warm that night. We had no idea what to expect, and I was, as per usual, freaking out about it. I tend to do that when I'm walking into unknowns. Plus, I wanted to take my camera in hopes that I could capture some amazing photos [which, sad to say, I did not], and I was freaking out about capsizing and losing my camera. That was actually my biggest worry. The camera actually remained in the dry bag the entire time we were out on the water because steering and maintaining stability on the kayak was hard enough and the last thing I needed to do was fumble with an expensive piece of (not waterproof) equipment.

Instead, we just decided to enjoy the experience, which I really don't do enough of. For me, pictures are great reminders of past experience. I can look at a photo I took and remember all the circumstances surrounding it. I do go back and look at my photos and fondly remember things. Living in the moment for me can be kind of difficult when I'm busy trying to capture it for later.

So anyway, we had four guides, and their 30 second "this is how to paddle a kayak" info was really not enough to go off of. There were roughly 40 people on the tour, and probably only a handful of them have never been on a kayak before, so... yeah. Their kayaks were the double sit on top kind (yay? lol), and we were first in the water. Eep. 

We sat in the water as everyone got pushed out into the bay, where we were playing bumper boats like, the whole time while waiting. The boat kept swaying and I was not at all confident that we would stay upright, but it got better with time. We were going to kayak about a mile out, staying close to shore the whole time, and then head back.

To say we were slow was an understatement. Considering neither one of us knew how to paddle, and Patrick was a much stronger paddler, it took all of our concentration just to go straight. And we failed at that. A lot. But in the end it didn't matter because what we saw when we were out there was incredible. I'm going to borrow a picture from their website to show you roughly what we saw.

I can't even adequately describe to you how beautiful it was in person. The boat itself would disrupt the phytoplankton and caused glowing waves lapping against the kayak. In some spots, it was barely visible; just pretty sparkles in the dark water, while in other spots it was bright and intense. It would disappear just as quickly as it showed - you could slap the paddle and it was gone in an instant. But that is what is so unique about choosing a kayak to see bioluminescence. Your presence in the kayak itself is enough to make them emit the light. All you have to do is move through it and enjoy.

We were in bio pretty much the entire time we were out there. It was just so amazing. The stars were so bright, the night so dark, and the glow was mesmerizing.

As we made our way back, we began to get really tired. Paddling is hard work, and neither one of us have any stamina to speak of. Plus, our paddling technique (or lack thereof) was soaking our pants. But we had a great time. Even Patrick, who had started out not very excited about this endeavor, ended up enjoying it immensely. Would I do it again? You bet I would. 110 percent. And you should too. If someone with no experience in a kayak can do it, so can you! Worth every penny.

Shout out to Olympic Outdoor Center for doing these tours. It was fun!

Olympic Wilderness Basecamp

I like to watch Evening (Magazine) for cool ideas on places to eat or visit. One that popped up recently was Olympic Wilderness Basecamp, so I decided to make a reservation.

OWB is about 1-1/2 hours away from home, but off the beaten path pretty substantially. I chose the weekend of the new moon to take advantage of the clear night and potentially get some Milky Way photos in. It's only about 30 minutes away from Staircase at the Olympic National Park, and about 25 minutes away from Hoodsport and Hood Canal where I would have a clear view to the south.

We left at 1pm on Sunday and I had decided to take the slightly longer route through Kitsap County instead of diving I-5 the whole way there. Turns out that was a bad idea. Thank goodness for Google Maps, because they had closed parts of Hwy 3 due to a fire, and we were being rerouted on a long detour to get around it. We sat in line waiting to turn off of Hwy 3 and luckily Google knew what was up so it was trying to reconnect us back to Hwy 3. But once we got back to the stop sign that led us back to our road, another backup had formed and we quickly learned that it was still closed. A State Trooper told us to take a different route - luckily we could still reconnect with Hwy 3 later, and Google helped us majorly in getting back on track. All in all, it only lost us about 20 minutes, so not too bad.

Review of Olympic Wilderness Basecamp

I really liked this place. What is cool about it is that it bridges the gap between camping and a hotel. It's like glamping, but I don't think it's as fancy. There's no electricity (they do provide a Jackery battery) and no running water, but you do have your very own porta potty, and it was as clean as a whistle. I was actually quite impressed. 

There was a queen bed inside a geodesic dome, raised up on a wooden platform, with two comfy chairs and a clear plastic side with a view of the campsite and the wilderness beyond. It also comes with a wood stove for cold nights, a 2 burner propane stove for cooking, and a sparkless metal firepit. The bad news was that there was a severe burn ban in effect so we weren't allowed to use it. They had called us to let us know ahead of time (and provided free propane for the stove) which was super awesome of them. 

I just love that fact that most everything was provided. It gives us urbanites the ability to camp without having to find a place to store (and pack!) tents and sleeping bags etc. They sold propane and firewood on site so you didn't have to pack that either.

They have 7 geodesic domes at the campground, and some are spaced quite far apart in order to give you plenty of privacy. It's down a very well maintained NFD (national forest development) dirt road. The place itself was very well hidden though, and a small sign pointing to the driveway would have been quite helpful as it's basically a 180 degree turn to get onto the driveway, and nothing but a small gate; you would think it was somebody's property because there's no sign. 

The only other confusing thing is that there's nowhere to like, check in. I think it would be helpful if each of the domes had a sign with their names on them (We stayed in the Chinook dome) so we knew for sure we were in the right place, since there was no check in. We just kind of pulled up and started unpacking! But to their credit, they had the propane waiting for us (and then a new bottle was waiting when we got back from Staircase), so they were definitely around. Somewhere. lol

The geodesic dome itself had no insulation, so because it was 80 degrees outside, it was probably 90 inside the dome as it retained the heat like plastic windows tend to do. Luckily that also meant that as the temperature dropped outside, it quickly dropped inside. It was about 60 during the night so that was the perfect sleeping temperature for me. The bed was memory foam and actually quite comfortable. I was very impressed with the whole set up and want to go back for sure.

As soon as we got there, we set up to cook dinner, which was a tri-tip roast from Costco that was already pre-seasoned and sealed. Once we finished dinner, we headed out to Staircase to hike the 2 mile trail that followed the river. I wasn't sure if we were going to have to pay as I couldn't find any information; The hike was inside Olympic National Park but it didn't state if there was a fee because the only access to the Park was that hike and the campground itself. It was a 30 minute drive and yes, we had to pay. I didn't want to waste an hour driving back and forth again because it was already 6pm and I didn't want to lose anymore daylight. Patrick spoke to the ranger and got his permission to come back after the hike to drop off the payment info (thank goodness! The ranger was very nice).

I got some really good pics along the hike. 

We took the hour to drive back and forth again to drop off payment and once we were done with that it was time for quick s'mores (on the propane stove, lolz) so that we could take a nap before heading out for milky way photos. 

We found 2 spots along Hwy 101 for photos and I think they turned out pretty well - it was a lot brighter than I was thinking it was going to be, as the Milky Way was positioned right above a city glow.

We got back around 230 and went straight to sleep. We made a quick breakfast the next morning and headed back home around 10. We stopped at what used to be my favorite winery - Hoodsport Winery. Unfortunately, they closed production and now just sell other people's wines. They still had a lot of fruit wines though so I'm pretty excited to try the 3 that I bought. Once we were done we went straight home. It was a good trip and I'm excited to share the photos.