I am wondering if anyone has used Shaw Island as a base camp for a paddling trip.

I have a group of friends with whom I am planning a trip in late August and would love to hear feedback from anyone who has paddled this area before.

Our current plans is to bring in our boats, Auto and gear via ferry and camp at one of the campsites. I realize that this is not exactly an ambitious act in the destination paddling arena. However, we have have a couple novice paddlers and I want to make sure we have a safety fallback in the event of weather and/or other issues.

I'd love to hear any recommendation on how to make this a great trip.

Greetings Paul:

What kind of information are you looking for?

Jay

Paul,

Shaw Island would give you access to some of the most protected water in the San Juans. I'm assuming you'll be staying at the county campground on the south end of the island. From there Upright Channel is pretty protected and heading west will take you into the heart of the islands. As with any trip you'll want to pay attention to weather forcasts, currents and boat traffic. The waters around Shaw all have heavy pleasure boat traffic in the summer as well as being ferry routes. I'd be happy to answer specific questions.

Michael

Wow... Feedback, I thought my question was going to be ignored.

:-)
Jay, I was wondering on recommendations anyone familiar with the area might have on day paddles and destinations while we are there.

Michael, Thanks, your post is greatly appreciated. This has been a big concern for me. As the person with the most experience in this group, I feel I have a responsibility to be the most prepared person. Where can I find accurate tide charts for this area?

Paul:

Let me give it some thought, ask around, and I'll get back to you soon.

Jay

Paul:

If you are interested in tide and current info check out
http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/sites_uswest.html and follow the links to the area of interest. Let me know if you need anything more specific and maybe I can e-mail it to you. I'm getting a list of day trips together for you to consider.

Paul:

Instead of just giving you the names of places to take your group paddling, I can send you some excerpts from guide books dealing with the Shaw Island area. That should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect regarding places,distances, hazards plus possible useful info that I might overlook if I just name names. I can send you what I have so far in a pdf format. Let me know at orcapod2@msn.com.

Just a follow up to this Post.

We arrived back yesterday and had an absolute blast.

The campsites at Shaw provided for a great Base Camp. As we were able to ferry over our cars, we were able to factor in the luxury of car camping, coolers, etc

For the uninitiated, Shaw is a very undeveloped island in the San Juan's, the only commercial interest is a general store that appears to have not been modified since the 1930's.

We are able to get in a trip around Shaw one Day, At trip to Brown island another and plenty of playing and discovery.

I would recommend this trip and plan on going back.

Beautiful islands. Paddled there years ago.