[CINC] Scorpion Hike trip: Island Adv. 5/16/08

[Paul Jr. Petrich]

CINC  Volunteers,
 Fri.  at 9 a.m.  the Island  Adventure departed Ventura Harbor with 85  passengers aboard, 64 destined for Scorpion, and the rest Prisoners. The  day  was  magnificent, booth  on the  ocean and  on the  island. Beaufort bounced between 0 and 1, and the swells  between  1 and  2! Visability  25 mi. Skipper David, detoured a  bit, to everone aboard's glee, to allow  about 200 very playful long beaked Common Dolphin entertain us.  The 30 some middle school kids from Laguna Blanca School in SB where especially  appreciative. A  little farther out , about  2/3rd  of the  way  across,  we  again detoured  to get a good look at a mom Humpback, and here juvenile. Dave said he had seen this  pair off and  on feeding in the  area for 6 weeks. 
 At Scorpion, Dee Dee, a staff  member on the boat, took the school kids on a hike, and  I did  the hike  orientation, then lead a  party of 10 to Cavern Pt. Outstanding views , but  no fox sighting  for  the first time in 4 trips! However, most campers we ran into had  seen them. A smaller number  of  my  hikers went  with me  to Potato Harbor, which lead to further interp about the  Kelp forests, reserves, and seabirds. We saw many dolphin off shore, and well over 100 Pelicans circling at multi-tiered levels of a thermo-cline near Potato.Dick Bellman shadowed me and  then  another hike  leader  on an afternoon  hike.  We came back on the  other  IPO boat at  4p.m., hooking  up with a number of CINC members coming  back  from an educational outing from Prisoners.  They had been lectured for three days  by Chuck Renine about Santa Cruz Is plant life,through a class offered by the SB Batonic gardens. I could  have  used  their  help on my hike! I am just  getting comfortable at identifying various  plants "when the  are flowering", but when they start going into  the long  dormant state, I am lost!       Paul

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