Beth and I had spent a couple days visiting Mt. St. Helens; unfortunately the weather was a bit cloudy and unsettled and we never got a really clear view of the famous mountain that blew up back in 1980. From there we drove up through Seattle and worked our way to the town of Anacortes, with plans to take the ferry the next day out to the San Juan Islands. The national Highpointers Convention was being held in Puyallup, south of Seattle, in a couple days and there had been some discussion by the county highpoint crowd as to what to do in the days beforehand. Although no one event was agreed upon by everyone, the consensus leaned toward visiting the highpoints of the two island counties of Washington - San Juan County, and (appropriately) Island County. When I mentioned this plan to Beth, she expressed doubt that both could be visited in one day due to the logistics of the ferries and secondly, that Island County's highpoints were brambly, nettley bushwhacks of little scenic interest. So I let Beth talk me into just concentrating on the San Juan County highpoint. Of course, I was easily convinced and as it turned out, the weather got real dry and pleasant and we had a wonderful afternoon out on the islands.

San Juan County is composed of four large islands - Orcas, Shaw, Lopez and San Juan - and many dozens of littler islands bunched together in the Puget Sound. These islands are set apart from the Washington mainland and are (geographically) more sensibly grouped in with the big island of Victoria, which belongs to Canada. I wondered aloud how the international boundary between Canada and the United States was figured, since there seemed to be any number of options to split the island groups. We read a fascinating story that the boundary was eventually established in the 1870s after tensions between American and British/Canadian settlers escalated after a pig belonging to one Brit/Canadian settler rooted through the garden of an American settler. The American shot the poor pig, and this caused anger and resentment. Forces from both sides were brought in, but it seemed to be more of a staring contest than anything. The border agreement that gave the islands to the United States was negotiated over a period of years and formally established in 1871. For a short but informative story, check this National Park Service link or this dedicated Pig War link.

Anacortes is a pleasant little town on the end of a promontory about 60 miles of driving north of Seattle via Interstate-5 and WA-20. We arrived around 6 in the evening and stayed at a simple hotel near the downtown. The hotel itself was kind of frayed around the edges, but we were getting an early start the next morning so it really didn't matter a whole lot, all things considered. We got into our car with plans to get the 5:35 a.m. ferry to Orcas, the island on which Mount Constitution is located. We got lucky as they were getting ready to disembark just as we pulled up; we were the last passenger vehicle allowed on. This was my first time on a large ferry. We got out of the car and walked up to the seating area. I got a newspaper and we both just relaxed for the one-hour ride to the Orcas disembarkation point. The ferry itself was pretty big with three levels and lots of seats. Nothing too fancy - everything was functional, and nothing more. We pulled up to Orcas about 7 a.m. sharp and got rolling. We drove about 10 miles north along the main road and stopped in a small bakery/cafe in the town of East Sound, then drove a few more miles east and southish to the Moran State Park entrance near the Rosario Resort. We paid the day-use fee and drove to the Mountain Lake Campground and Trailhead area, rolling up a bit after 8 a.m. in gorgeous cool, dry weather.

There are many trails that criss-cross Moran State Park and about three viable routes to the top (not counting the road, which can be driven all the way up). Combined with other trails, numerous loop possibilities exist. We chose to start at the Mountain Lake Trailhead beside Mountain Lake, elevation 917 feet. The trail heads north along the lake and stays level for the first 1.4 mile, then comes to a junction where we turned left up towards Twin Lakes, 0.8 mile away and 200 feet higher (staying straight at this junction would have kept us circumnavigating the lake, which is apparently a popular hike itself). Because the route was mostly flat, we'd covered the 2.2 miles to Twin Lakes in just over a half-hour ... and barely had broken a sweat in the process. We were hiking in thick old-growth forest, and at one point along the trail we came upon a huge root-ball of a long-ago fallen tree. The root ball was about 10 feet in diameter and looked like a medusa-head of snaking root veins. Fascinating. We took a gbreak at Twin Lakes. From here we took a left and followed the signs to the top. The summit was just about 1.5 mile ahead but almost 1,300 feet up. The trail was consistently steep - never too bad but never very lenient either. We marched and took a couple of breaks, and actually made faster progress than we originally thought. Finally the trail, which had stayed mostly on Constitution's east face, swung north then west, coming up and meeting the paved road just a short bit below the summit. We walked the road the final few feet to the top, a broad, rocky bald area topped by a 30-foot tall stone lookout tower constructed in the 1930s.

From the summit, the dry air allowed for completely unobstructed views in all directions: Mount Baker was plainly visible about 70 miles to the east, while Mount Rainier's huge mass was visible way off in the southeast horizon - a good 120 miles away. The Olympics were close enough to our southwest to see detail of the ridges. The views down over the water were great, with gobs of islands in view. We stayed for about an hour, and during that time numerous people had driven up. Two little boys about 7 years old had squirmed their way past the rock wall at the viewpoint and were literally playing on the cliff's edge until I went over to tell them it probably wasn't a good idea (I was closest to them). Where were their folks? No idea. A whole group of girls about 13 or so showed up and did some impromptu cheers. It was an interesting crowd, but we quickly got moving nevertheless. It was nice, however, to have restrooms and trash bins at the summit- we lightened our loads by tossing away our garbage rather than carry it all down.

Coming down we decided to follow the Little Summit Trail that heads south of the true summit and stays high on the ridge. In many areas we had unobstructed views over the islands below as we walked. The Little Summit trail goes for just about 2.2 miles to "Little Summit", but only loses about 200 feet, so it was mostly level. Actually, we left this trail about 0.1 mile before Little Summit and followed a steep trail directly south back to our car at the trailhead. This trail was not shown on the topo map and seemed to be slightly rougher than the other trails, but it was easy to follow and descended pretty fast; in less than an half-hour we'd dropped over 1,000 feet, coming out to the camping area about a quarter-mile from our car, to which was an easy walk. Our loop had covered about 7 miles with just under 1,500 feet of net gain. The views were tremendous and the forest beautiful. We rested a short bit back at the car then drove back out, driving to a little restaurant in West Sound where we had an enjoyable lunch. At about 2 p.m. we got our car in line for the 4 o'clock ferry back to Anacortes at Orcas; we just used those couple of hours to walk around the tiny community of Orcas and rest on the grassy slopes of a nearby park. We were back in Anacortes by 6 p.m.

The San Juan Islands would seem to have numerous places to explore and if we had the time we probably would have stayed. Even so, we thoroughly enjoyed our day on Orcas Island and the hike of the peak. I would highly recommend to go slow and make a day out of any trip to the islands - the vagaries of the ferries are going to slow you down anyway, may as well roll with the punches. Truly one of the more unique highpoints I have ever done.

I maintain the summitpost webpage for Mount Constitution. Click on this link for links to the ferry rates and schedules, and other links related to the San Juan Islands and Moran State Park.