Shiver weather

With the wintery wind blowing outside my window and the rain falling in sheets against the glass, next summer seems far away indeed. Other than my morning paddles, I’m not getting out all that much and when it comes to spending time in the Olympic wilderness, let’s just say I’m going through a dry spell. But I do have plans for next summer.

The Olympic Grand Circle, as I have it planned out to this point, will be a circumnavigation of the Olympic Peninsula, using several different methods of travel (canoe, SUP and sea kayak), to complete the circle. Dates and pace are tentative at this point, but the expedition is beginning to slowly take shape, gathering its own momentum as the days progress.

The start/finish will be in Olympia. I figure it will take me about five days to get through the fresh water sections of the trip, down the Black and Chehalis Rivers, to Aberdeen. At that point, I’ll switch from canoe to sea kayak for the 80 miles of southern Olympic Coast to Ruby Beach. That’s where I’m planning to transition to a SUP and meet up with a group of kayaking friends for the north coast segment to Hobuck Beach. It’s only 55 miles or so, but I expect to spend more time on this part of the trip and I am hoping to get some surfing in along the way.

From Hobuck on, it becomes a sea kayaking journey down the Straits and into Puget Sound. The whole shebang comes in at about 425 miles and although it’s hard to say exactly how long it will take to complete, I’m planning on 23 days total, including 4 rest/weather days. There are many variables, however, and I’m sure I’ve only thought of a fraction of them to this point.

There will be more to write on this, much more, and I know that the time leading up to the start date will go very quickly, but all that is so hard to believe on wet winter mornings like this one.