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| | | | [ ...continued ] The farther west we went, the rockier the shore became. Trickling streams appeared here and there in the small bays, bringing nutrients that promoted various vines, flowers, and shrubs. We began to foray into the woods to check out pockets of light, and near the NW corner we came across an almost-dry one-acre pond whose grasses and reeds were occupied by several kinds of birds. The NW point itself was very rocky, as was the north part of the west side. We found a plethora of brightly flowering bushes at the edges of many of the little bays, and much driftwood --including a load of bleached-out 4 x 4's washed overboard from some passing ship.
On the west side the beach is generally wider, with intriguing treeless plateaus running back a hundred feet from the shore, and sometimes more. We began to encounter huge boulders, both on shore and out in the water, and long, spit-shaped points that might touch to trap placid pools at very low tides. |
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| | | | The beach below Lookout Mountain and its associated dunes is one sweeping mile-long bay, with a stub of land near its middle. Our arrival was heralded by an eagle, which must have been a fan of Northern Exposure: it did a perfect imitation of the soundtrack It flew off as we approached, landing in a dead pine a thousand feet away.
Ever on the lookout for interesting flotsam, we found a PFD device, still fully inflated, designed to let someone lean back with a drink in their pool --plus three sealed empty barrels and a heavy-duty racing-kayak paddle.
Having walked for almost three hours, we took a break before climbing Lookout Mountain, the highest point in the archipelago. The path is not marked, although the footprints of past hikers were visible in the sand. Still, we took a wrong turn, and wound up on a narrow ridge that gave us two options: fight the tangled brush to continue, or backtrack. Crows were taunting us from a grove of red pines, and our frustration increased when we noticed the tru e path across a steep gorge. [ Continued - Click Here ]
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