Every point continued to have a row of rocks offshore with caves and arches. We had our pick of which arch to go through. No, the first one is too rough, this one is too shallow but that one is Just Right! We went around a large point with rough water named Hoe Head and found a little pocket beach with just enough protection from the swell to land. Our lunch beach was almost due north from Destruction Island, our goal for the evening. The coast was supposed to be interesting here and I had seen one beautiful beach (Ruby Beach) from the road on the drive north. But we were unsure we could actually find space to camp on Destruction Island. So we decided to paddle straight there. This would give us time to paddle three miles back to the mainland and search out another spot if necessary.
Approaching Destruction Island from the north made it a 7 mile crossing instead of the shortest three mile distance to the mainland. The water was mild until we arrived near the north end of the island where there was a field of boomers, shallow spots with waves breaking infrequently over them. A few sea otters came out to greet us. The north tip of the island had a gravel spit that we could have camped on but there was a huge group of harbor seals hauled out there. As we traveled down the southeast side of the island we saw several small beaches we figured we could camp on so we relaxed about finding a spot. Soon we paddled in a channel to the location of the old Coast Guard beach and dock. Here we found a beautiful beach to camp amid the ruins of several old landing beaches, docks and walkways. We didn’t land yet but continued exploring around to the southwest end of the island looking into the coves between several rows of reefs. When we made it around to where the northwest swell pounded on the island we turned back to land and set up camp above the calm water of the old Coast Guard beach.
While doing research for this trip I found an article on the WEB about some guys from Azimuth Expeditions who paddled out to this island on a day trip. They were unable to get to the center of the island because of thick “devils club” choking out access to the interior. Because of this I had packed a machete in my kayak for hacking through brush. Then I actually met Ken Campbell, one of the protagonists of that story, when we were camping at Hobuck Beach the day before we started this trip. He shook his head and said the report on the WEB was wrong, it was not devils club, but some other plant that he didn’t think a machete was up to. But when I had finished setting up camp on Destruction Island I took out my Big Knife and headed for the walkway.
There used to be a dock built across several rocks with a railroad track running into the island. The dock is mostly missing now and only the track remains. On the side of the rails there was a wooden walkway with a handrail. This railroad trestle runs from the tallest rock up to the edge of the bluff and made getting to the top of the island easy, if you were willing to risk it. At the highest point it was about 25 feet above the beach. Unfortunately, the ocean was undermining one of the foundations so one section is tipping over, offsetting the walkway by 3 feet or so at the top. The rails of the track were bent to follow the new course and may actually be all that is keeping it from falling over. I gingerly walked across this section with an uneven gait to avoid setting up resonance, listening for alarming noises and getting ready to bolt. The walkway felt very solid, didn’t sway, didn’t make noises, the wood was not rotten and I made it OK.
The brush that was choking out the island was definitely NOT devils club. It was something less thorny but much woodier. The stalks were so woody in fact that it would have taken a week to hack through the thick of this stuff with only a machete and we never would have made it. Fortunately, someone else had already cleared the brush away from the railroad track all the way to the lighthouse! My guess is that the Coast Guard flew someone out there with a weed whacker to clear the walkway from the helipad to the lighthouse, and they cleared the track to the cove out of boredom. If this had not been done, I suppose we could have padded around the island until we found a bluff clear of the brush and climbed up, but I thank whoever went before me for clearing the way!
The railroad track came out of the brush and ran across a manicured lawn past the lighthouse and on to the fog horn building. Who are the groundskeepers that maintain these beautiful lawns on the island? The guy with the weed whacker? Actually the lawn was also liberally sprinkled with fertilizer pellets and I figured there were goats or some other animal. Finally I caught site of some large cute black rabbits that were very shy and disappeared into the brush before I could get very close to them. Looking into the windows I saw cots and bottled water inside the fog horn building so this is where the Coast Guard stays when they are maintaining the light. That building also had a fairly new rolled steel roof with a collection system to an above-ground water tank. The tank was full to overflowing and when I cracked a valve at the bottom I was rewarded with a gush of clear water. I took note of this for replenishing our water supply later.
As I explored the island I came across the lids of cisterns dotted all over. I saw at least 4 large buried cisterns, one huge raised tank, and the small (by comparison) new above-ground tank. The lid was already off one of the cisterns (I disturbed nothing on the island and didn’t try any lids or doors myself) so I looked in to see the curved wall of an older, smaller, cistern that the present one had been built around. I assume there were other buried cisterns lost in the brush that I didn’t see. There is enough water storage on this island to supply a large town! One of the older cisterns had a wooden lid with bricks stacked on it that are about to break the rotting lid open. It might be wise to stick to the main paths on this island.
The island is crisscrossed with concrete pathways and railroad tracks. The groundskeepers have kept the brush back and manicured the lawns around some sections of these pathways. (Or is the correct word “bunnicured the lawns”?) In many places the pathways disappear into the brush or appear out of no-where. The paths run in front of stair steps to houses that long ago have collapsed into their basements. There is an old concrete pad and a huge iron helipad near the middle of the island. It was a fascinating place to explore, like a ghost town with a few systems still functioning. Systems like the bunnicured lawns, the light and the one cistern.
We retired to our campground (risking the walkway a second time to get back down to the beach) and had a lovely evening writing in our journals, playing cards, reading, cooking dinner and admiring the beach views. It would have been easy to spend several days here.