Rather than trying to put our whole July vacation on the Kitsap Peninsula into one post, I decided to break it into major events! We have:

I: Campground & Cycling
II: Bloedel Reserve (Arboretum/Botanical Garden)
III: Elandan Gardens
IV: Hiking in Port Ludlow
V: Kayaking in the Hood Canal and Agate Passageway

OLD MAN HOUSE (AGATE PASSAGEWAY)

Our original intention was to put into Poulsbo and Liberty Bay, a place I am familiar with that has lovely kayaking. However, it was difficult to find the boat ramp, and there were a lot of people and traffic. We opted to try and find another place and used the GoPaddling app to locate spots. We found the spot, Old Man House, and I thought we could paddle to Liberty Bay and back. We realized about 50 feet in that we were going to have to battle the current on our way back, so we opted for eating our packed lunch at about Lemolo and returned to the Old Man House.

Old Man House was described as the former home of Chief Seattle and Chief Kitsap in the brief description found in GoPaddling. I expected to find a house on the grounds. Below is a description of the significance of Old Man House.

(retrieved from https://qmackie.com/2010/04/04/old-man-house/, July 24, 2023)

This was the first time we had put our kayak into ocean currents since pre-COVID. On this first trip, I didn’t take my big camera but simply my cell phone to take snaps. It’s amazing what cell phones can do nowadays *old person face*. I could even snap Mt. Rainier in the distance!

Grogu was ready to go.

There were some lovely snaps of critters along the way.

We ate lunch (Bumblebee Lemon Pepper Tuna Packet & gluten-free crackers) on the shore near Lemolo and decided to turn back towards Old Man House.

I could use my iPhone as a GoPro by tucking it into my life vest!

After hauling the kayak up the hill with our brawn, I took a snap of the hill. I hope it captures the steepness! It was just unfortunate that the very helpful-looking boat ramp was chained off.

PORT GAMBLE (HOOD CANAL)

On this trip, after having such difficulty discerning where to put in, we went to a place we knew was easy to find and put in…Port Gamble! We also decided that we could paddle within the bay and avoid open sea currents. I couldn’t find a name for this particular bay. The GoPaddling map simply calls it Hood Canal. Hood Canal is very large, and this would be just a small part of it. To go north from Port Gamble would be a crossing into more open waters. We are not familiar with the currents and didn’t want to make a risky choice.

Putting in was easy here, and we were out onto the water in no time.

We rounded the corner and were able to see the small town and quaint buildings of Port Gamble from behind! Including their haunted house!

We were a bit later in the day, so the wildlife was pretty sleepy. But we did manage to annoy some birds!

The mountain was out in full view! With my big camera, I was able to get better photos than our earlier kayaking trip.

We did see one seal.

And an abandoned sailboat that was taking on water. It was lower in the water on our way back. We hypothesized that someone had tried to rescue it from being sunk and gave up. When we were closer we could see quite a bit of seaweed in areas you would not want seaweed!

We were grateful to arrive back in the inlet as our return trip was pushing against the wind the entire way!

Grogu waited for us in the truck.

Thanks for reading to the end! If you want to see all the photos, they’re over at Flickr, linked below.

Peace,

Robert & Terri

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