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The San Juan Islands
On April 12, 2004, I set out on a journey with my 8th grade Adventure Education class that I will always remember. The 28 teenagers and 7 chaperones in our group traveled to three San Juan Islands in Puget Sound, Washington. Adventure Education is a class in my Whidbey Island school that teaches students about marine life, teamwork, preparing for a week long trip, navigation, boating and communication skills. Most of the mentioned lessons I would not have obtained or fully understood in a normal classroom setting.
The trip lasted 5 days, in which we traveled from island to island by way of sail boat, tug boat, or kayak. We camped on each island preparing our own meals, exploring our habitat, hiking, and learning about the world around us.
The first island we traveled to was James Island. It was a small island covered with many different species of brush and shrubs. It had amazing views of the ocean in every direction and a large beach with huge rock formations covering part of it. We spent the night among towering trees and awoke to an environment like none I had ever before seen. The island was named by the Wilkes Expedition in 1841, in honor of a brave, heroic, American sailor who risked his own life for the captain of the ship.
The next island we spent the night on was Stuart Island. This island is only four miles northwest of San Juan Island. It had a somewhat hilly terrain, but once everyone found a comfortable spot for our tents we set off exploring wildlife, taking hikes, sitting around the campfire, and some of us even went swimming. The island was also named by the Wilkes Expedition in 1841, in honor of Frederick D. Stuart, the captain’s clerk on the expedition.
Sucia Island was the very last island we visited, which was also the largest island. We spent two nights there instead of just one. In Spanish, Sucia means dirty or foul. It was named so because the shore was deemed unclean and littered with reef. I found that Sucia was actually my favorite island of all we visited and, unlike its name, it was beautiful with over 6 miles of gorgeous hiking trails, clamming, crabbing, and huge Chinaman Caves to explore. On Sucia Island a group from Ocean Inquiry, a non profit corporation, came to teach us how to measure salinity, take water samples, and capture zoo and phytoplankton.
The of skills I acquired on that trip are uncountable. When I look back on everything I learned and experienced I don’t think I have ever done anything like it before. The San Juan Islands are truly some of the most exquisite pieces of land and almost completely untouched by the changes of time.
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