Short Trips: Plan will keep park lovers happy as clams

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Thursday, February 20, 2003

Short Trips: Plan will keep park lovers happy as clams

By JEFF LARSEN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER PHOTOGRAPHER

CAMANO ISLAND -- As she shuffled through some paperwork in her cluttered beachfront cabin/office, Melanie Ford admitted that some days it's hard to convince herself she's actually at work.

PHOTO GALLERY


	Jeff Larsen / P-I
A fishing boat moves out into Port Susan, which sits between the mainland and Camano Island. The mountains are the North Cascades.

See more photos from Jeff's trip to Camano Island.

Ford is the conference center program supervisor for the burgeoning Cama Beach State Park. She told me that -- in one half-hour stretch last week from just outside her office -- she experienced nature in a way even seasoned travelers to this part of the world might not in their entire lifetime.

First came the pod of orcas, she said. The whales decided to frolic and feed for a while in Saratoga Passage, 50 to 100 yards off the 6,000-foot stretch of low, pristine beach that will make up a large part of the new park on the west side of the island. Ford said a baby orca swam right up to the shore, almost close enough to touch. At the same time, a pair of bald eagles took flight from a nearby snag and swooped down low over the water to feed in the same stretch of water as the whales.

Next, she told me, a couple of kingfishers, voicing their familiar high-pitched shrill, landed on a snag nearby and waited for their turn to feed. After the orcas left, a seal glided over to the beach for a visit. Orcas sometimes eat seals, so he must have been waiting nearby for them to leave. I'm surprised Ford didn't tell me Ed McMahon stopped by in that same half-hour to give her a check for her sweepstakes winnings.

It was just another day in paradise/work for her. But what's paradise to Ford today, will become -- in the fall of 2004 -- the latest and possibly one of the greatest Washington state parks, positioned on 432 acres of a tiny island close to Everett and not that far from downtown Seattle.


		Jeff Larsen / P-I
	Tom and Leslie Brumbley enjoy a morning on the day-use beach at Camano Island State Park with their dogs, Sammy, left, and Ziggy.

Besides the amazing stretch of beach, the property that will make up the park is blessed with a 120-year-old second-growth Douglas fir forest. In the 1930s the property was developed as a fishing resort -- referred to then as an "auto court fishing resort" -- by entrepreneur Leroy Stradley. He died in 1937, a year after the resort opened, and his daughter, Muriel, and her husband ran the resort until 1989.

Today the property is a like a time capsule. Even though the resort was operated until 14 years ago, it still looks as if it is right out of the 1930s in appearance and design. Not a whole lot of modern conveniences were added over the years -- just enough to keep the facility operational and licensed as a fishing and tourist destination. The family, as it turned out, did not want the property commercially developed or subdivided, so they struck a deal with the state to turn it into what should be one of the more unusual public parks in Washington.

The $10 million plan, according to Cama Beach area manager Jeff Wheeler, is to refurbish 24 of the original rustic cabins and upgrade seven others to "deluxe" status by adding indoor plumbing. All the cabins will be available for overnight rental. For show, one of the cabins is in 1930s trim, complete with icebox and wood-burning stove.

After modernization, four other cabins will be used as meeting spaces. The park will include a day-use area with restroom facilities. State budget willing, plans are to build a 15-room retreat lodge with a two-story dining hall that can sleep 40 upstairs. Park planners also want to incorporate interpretive programs so visitors can fully appreciate the special nature of the park's environment.

According to Wheeler, state fish and wildlife biologists recently declared the park's expansive beach the healthiest in Puget Sound. Thick piles of clamshells are spread over large areas of the shoreline and are part of the beach's natural consistency.


		Jeff Larsen / P-I
	Vintage wooden rental boats at the old Cama Beach fishing resort are piled in the boathouse.

Wheeler said the beach was private for so many years that it didn't suffer as much environmental abuse as many other Puget sound beaches did during the past century. The clam population, he said, is at times probably as healthy as it was even back in the '30s.

In the fall of 2004, in a partnership with the Washington Parks Commission, the resort's original boathouse -- still stacked full of 1930s vintage rental wooden rowboats -- will become part of the Wooden Boat Center's second campus.

In the same tradition as its Lake Union facility in Seattle, the center plans to teach maritime heritage skills and will offer instruction on how to build and operate wooden boats. Ford said there even has been some discussion about hosting a salmon derby at the park -- one in which participants can use only traditional wooden boats.

Plans include building and combining a nature trail system on the property with the cross-island and Camano Island State Park trail systems. When combined, they will equal more than 15 miles of nature trails.


		Jeff Larsen / P-I
	On a mission, a pair of bald eagles leave their perch high above the boat launch area at Camano Island State Park.

The unmarked entrance to the new park is only about a mile north of Camano Island State Park. Officially the new park is posted as closed to the public. For an unofficial tour, however, just phone ahead to make sure someone will be on the premises.

Wheeler said construction this summer might limit the number of tours, but he that his staff will try to accommodate as many as possible.

Ford said that so far more than 600 folks have signed up to be notified when the park is officially open. If you want to get on her list, call 360-387-7542 or e-mail to cama.beach@parks.wa.gov.

Besides the small Cavalero county park on the Port Susan (east) side of the island, and the Usalady Bay park on the north end, the very popular 134-acre Camano Island State Park -- for now -- is really the anchor park for the island.

Situated on the southwesterly tip of the island with views facing Mount Rainier and the Olympic Mountains, the camping park has a large day-use area with picnic tables and beach access, as well as two popular boat-launch ramps. Camping is available year-round, although some of the sites are closed during the winter.

Camano Island is only 17 miles long, a mere 55 miles from downtown Seattle and just across the bridge from Stanwood, west of Interstate 5. On a clear day from the east side of the island, Mount Baker and the North Cascades dominate the view. On a clear day from the west side, the Olympic range lords over Whidbey Island.

I can't think of another island in the state, especially one as small as Camano, that will be able to boast of two state parks within a mile of each other with more than 12,000 feet of public beach covering more than 600 acres.

Depending on whom you talk to, the permanent population on the island is close to 13,000 and usually swells by at least another 3,000 or so during the summer months. So close to Everett and Seattle, the island has become popular with commuters who want to live on one side of the world and work on the other -- or so it feels like.

The island isn't a tourist destination in the strictest sense of the expression. There aren't a lot of trendy shops, boutiques and restaurants.

I stopped and talked with Jon and Kari Soth at their delightful bed-and-breakfast, Camano Island Inn, on the west side of the island, three miles north of Camano Island State Park.

Opened by the couple in 1998, the inn offers six rooms in their 1904 vintage home that once served as a nursing home. All have private decks that provide magnificent panoramic views of the waters and wildlife of Saratoga Passage. The house is decked out with Northwest art and features a comfortable living room with a river-rock fireplace and mission furniture.

For $20 an hour you can step out of your comfortable room and into an ocean kayak, or just kick back on the beach that's only a few steps away and watch life go by. Breakfast is served in your room or in the nifty but spacious dining room.

Jon and Kari are unabashed island promoters. They were more than willing to talk about how special Camano Island is to them and their guests, and they led me to a cleverly titled Web site called www.donothinghere.com that is about as well fashioned as the island itself and is an excellent resource for visitors to either Camano or Whidbey island. The two also pitched their midweek (Sunday-Thursday) $108 special rate this time of year. Call for details.

Deserving a mention is the Camano Island Studio Tour, May 9-11, Mother's Day weekend this year. The free, self-guided tour features 47 island artists and 23 working studios and is sponsored by the Camano Arts Association.

IF YOU GO

Cama Beach State Park -- 360-387-7542; www.parks.wa.gov/develop.asp

Camano Island Studio Tour -- P.O. Box 2530, Stanwood WA 98292; 360-387-7146; www.camanoarts.org.

Camano Island Inn -- 1054 S.W. Camano Drive; 360-387-0783, reservations, 888-718-0783; www.camanoislandinn.com.

Camano Island State Park -- www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Camano%20Island&pageno=1

P-I photographer Jeff Larsen can be reached at 206-448-8150. For personal e-mail contact: jefflarsen@seattlepi.com. For general releases: shorttrips@seattlepi.com.

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