New Central Whidbey State Parks Island Transit Route

Island Transit, the free public transportation service on Whidbey and Camino Islands recently added a route that I think is absolutely brilliant. The route only runs from June through Labor Day and it goes to the State Parks around Coupeville. If you want to play tourist for a day this is an amazing way to do it and avoid paying any parking fees. On a budget, or trying to beat the high gas prices? Give this route a try.

Highlights of the route are Fort Casey State Park, Coupeville waterfront and museum, Ebey's Landing State Park and Fort Ebey. It would be very easy to take a full day or two and visit some of the best hiking and scenery on Whidbey Island. 

I take public transportation at times and have never had a negative experience on Island Transit. You do have to pay attention to the times though, since the buses on this route only go from about 8:30am to 4:00pm. Find the route here.

There are multiple awesome hiking places along this route where you can be let off the bus. On Engle Road is the trailhead to Walking Ebey and Admiralty Inlet. The hike at Ebey's Landing is absolutely stellar and you can see the historic Jacob Ebey House which usually is open to the public Thursday through Sunday. 

Get off at the corner of Libbey Road and Hwy 20 and you can hike the Kettles Trail area for miles. Download a map here before you go since it is easy to get turned around on the trails. Take the bus back to Coupeville and enjoy an ice cream cone at Kapaw's Iskreme on Main Street or an adult beverage at Toby's or Penn Cove Brewery.

Recently I flagged down this new bus in front of my house. Stand out by the street and wave your arm at the bus as it approaches and it will stop and pick you up, but along Hwy 20 you have to use the bus stops for safety reasons. I rode it to Fort Ebey State Park, where the driver kindly dropped me at the front gate, and I then hiked the two miles back to my house through the park and along the Kettles Trails.

The smells of the forest and the sight of the greenery soothed my soul as I ambled along. I avoided the stinging nettles but if one was to brush up against them and get stung, just look for a fern, crush up a couple leaves, rub it on the spot and it lessens the sting. 

Beware of stinging nettles

 Ferns and nettles are complimentary plants and grow close to each other

I plan to utilize this service this summer to revisit some of my favorite hiking places on Whidbey. I hope lots of others will join as well. Whidbey is wonderful (there is a reason I live here) but the roads can be crowded with tourists during the summer. What a great way to showcase central Whidbey with less cars! Come visit, but give public transportation a try!

Central Whidbey State Parks bus route and time table

A Beauty Search at Ebey's Landing

It is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and I am on a beauty search.

At 6:00 am when I take the dog outside it is pouring rain, and even though Sadie politely pees quickly, in two minutes my hair is soaked in the deluge. Hmm, I think. This would be a great morning to try out my new backpacking poncho.

At 7:30 it is just starting to get light and I load my pack, poncho and dog in the car and head to Sunnyside Cemetery to hike the Ebey Landing Bluff. The deluge has stopped and my windshield wipers are on intermittent speed and by the time I park it isn't even raining. Nevertheless, I put on my new rain poncho that I started making before Christmas and have been unable to finish because my sewing machine,which is older than I am and belonged to my mother originally, stopped cooperating. I still need to hem it and sew the pocket on the front. Thus far I have borrowed three other sewing machines, which have also all refused to cooperate with me. Now I wonder if perhaps I should try the poncho and see if there are any final adjustments I need to make. Maybe there is a reason I haven't been able to finish it.

We start hiking to the Jacob Ebey House and I like how I can snug the hood around my head, but I can see that where I planned to put the pocket will be too low and that I will need to move it up at least three inches. I also debate the wisdom of shortening the length as much as I had planned. Right now it is long enough that I wouldn't need my separate rain skirt. I decide that until I have hiked with it more that I will leave the length where it is. I can always shorten it later but it is harder to add length.

By now Sadie has done her business and I am carrying a bag of stinky dog poop. The skies are a light early morning blue and I realize that the rain is not going to happen and when I reach the ocean bluff and see the sandy beach below I decide to go left so I can drop the dog poop in the garbage can at the Ebey parking lot and then do the full beach and bluff loop.

Across the channel I can see the smoke of the Port Townsend paper mill and beyond that the early morning light catches the snow capped tops of the Olympic Mountains. I carefully maneuver down the rain slick wooden stairway that takes me to the parking lot, drop my bag in the garbage and head to the beach. Normally I don't like to walk the beach. I like to stay high for the views and I despise walking on soft sand. But today the sand is rain hardened and mine are the first footprints through it.

I stay on the beach the whole way, gazing in wonder at the glistening Olympics. Then I switch my view to rainwashed rocks littering the beach, enjoying the myriad colors and the gleam of white agates. Sadie pleads with me to let her explore the driftwood piles but we've played this game before and she remains firmly leashed, limited to the 12 foot extension that she runs back and forth on.

 

Up ahead a white seagull sits on the end of a jutting driftwood log and I snap a picture just before it bounds into flight. Twenty feet off the shore loons bob in the water. I have reached the end of the beach loop and now need to start the switchbacks up to the bluff trail. I pause to give Sadie and myself a drink, and I take off my poncho and coat and stuff them in my backpack. 

I can see a rock cairn on top of the trail marker and I select a small flat stone and leave it on the top as I pass by, building on other people's previous work. To my right a Blue Heron swoops across Perego Lake, wings spread wide and skinny legs dangling behind and I shorten my stride and lean in to the hill as I ascend the first switchback. Below me I can see a jogger on the beach and I suspect that he will probably pass me somewhere on the hill. At the top of the second switchback I pause to allow him to pass. He is much grayer than I and now he will break the trail and that is as it should be.

The ocean spreads out before me, blue ocean meeting blue sky at a point of infinity. A large white ship travels through the shipping channel. Above, an eagle glides past. The sun is tucked tidily behind a cloud but even so, the reflection on the water causes me to squint. My sunglasses and cap are in the car. I was expecting rain.

I round a corner on the bluff trail and the sun breaks out from the cloud and I gasp as the entire hillside shimmers, each individual water drop reflecting the glory of the sun in an Edward Cullen like blaze of iridescence. I pause in wonder for a few moments before continuing on to ascend the final hill. Below to the left I see rows of cabbage growing. 

Another eagle soars past me. It looks smaller than the other eagle. I descend back to the Jacob Ebey House trail and I hear the shrill shriek of the eagle and I search for it in the green fir tops as I walk past tilled fields. I think I see it and then I see that both eagles are sitting side by side on the same tree branch, their white heads shining in the sun. I snap some pictures with my phone.

I no longer have the trail to myself and I tell the people I meet to be sure to look for the eagles. I return to my car, my heart full of beauty.

Ebey's Landing

Normally I try to avoid a popular hiking place like Ebey's Landing on a Saturday. But today I'm thirsty, frantic, for ocean views and there is no other place like the views you can get from the top of Ebey's Landing.

Snow capped Olympics across the Strait of Juan de Fuca

The parking lot is full and I snag a place along the road, trying hard to keep my wheels off the white line. A park ranger is down in the parking lot checking for Discovery Passes in vehicles and although I don't need one parked on the road, I hang mine from the rear view mirror anyways. I'm a little worried my left rear tire is straddling the white line. Maybe seeing that I'm a good Discovery Pass payer will get me a little grace.

I see several men with huge backpacks sitting and eating lunch at one of the picnic tables and I stop to ask them how far they're hiking. They're training for upcoming hikes and are going from Fort Ebey to Fort Casey to camp. I wish them good hiking and continue up the stairs and up the hill.


Wildflowers bloom on the edge of an Ebey barley field with Mt. Baker in the distance

Heading up. Go high for the views.

I continue up to the top of the bluff, pausing a couple times to catch my breath and drink in the views. The hillsides are a riotous blend of purple and yellow wildflowers and the blue water far below glistens in the sun. Across the sound I can see the snow capped Olympic Mountains.

Purple covered hills

Before I know it I'm at the end of the trail and heading down the switchbacks. I take the longer gentler switchbacks to save my knees and pause at the bottom to give Sadie a drink. She is panting, tongue lolling out, and drains the bowl of water quickly, lapping it up in great gulps. Normally I skip as much of the beach walk as I can by taking the trail along Perego Lake, but today I'm Sadie-thirsty for the ocean and I don't care if I have to hike in the soft sand. I need the blue ocean and I drink in the views greedily as I continue down the beach, gulping in the sand and the waves and the kelp and the soothing lap of the waves on the shore.


Heading down the switchbacks. Perego Lake in front.

The Earth laughs in flowers - Ralph Waldo Emerson "Hamatreya"

I pass a few other hikers and watch as some boys try to skip rocks in the water. Sadie acts like she's going to drink the ocean water and I stop and give her another drink. Thirsty, we are both so thirsty.

Kelp decorates the beach

In the distance a black sailed sailboat cruises across the sea

My thirst slacks a bit as I continue on the beach. By the time I return to my car my thirst has been satisfied. For today.