kim-musings...: back to the channel islands... way, way, way back

After seriously spraining my ankle earlier this year hiking on an island, you'd think I'd be hesitant to go hiking again on another, farther away island. I would've thought that too.... except Island Packers only goes to San Miguel Island once or twice a year. So I wasn't going to pass up this trip in October!

Neither was my friend James, who sprained his ankle a week before and was wearing an ankle boot to protect his injury. He was a total trooper considering there is no dock on San Miguel Island... you get to the island via one of two tiny motor boats loaded on the back of the big boat.

Yet, halfway into the literal 3-hour cruise to San Miguel, I started wishing I had passed up the trip for a while... that was the roughest boat ride I'd ever been on. Seeing two pods of dolphins didn't make up for getting as close to puking off the side of a boat as I've ever been. Ginger candy didn't work. My motion sickness bracelets didn't work. And five other people puking off the side of the boat next to me definitely did NOT help. It was bad. (Adventure organizer Linda has given me motion sickness patches to try on the next trip :p)

However, once we finally got out to the island, and my stomach settled, the fun of the adventure set in. We made it to the shore without getting drenched (although on the return trip to the boat we were not so lucky, as a wave washed over us while we were loading).

You can only hike with Island Park Rangers because San Miguel Island was used for military tests in the past. (We had to sign a waiver saying we wouldn't sue Island Packers or the government if we stepped on a bomb.. I'm not kidding.) So Linda and I joined the hike that was supposed to go to the Caliche Forest (James stayed on the beach with his ankle boot and a book). But after hiking through the sand and up stairs built into the side of the hill....

.... and then up the path and around the bend, our volunteer Ranger guide missed the turn-off for the forest and didn't realize it until we'd gone about 30 minutes in the wrong direction. We tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and followed him for a while longer in the correct direction. But when it became clear we would never get to the Caliche Forest in the limited time left before the boat had to leave, we turned back and visited the Cabrillo Monument on our own and look photos of all the vegetation. It was quite a contrast to the pretty green-ness we saw on Santa Cruz Island in March.... everything was dried out from the hot summer and fall. But it was still cool to visit one of the first islands explorers discovered when arriving on the west coast.