Friday, August 14, 2015

Texas Man Falls To Death Hiking Pass Island In Washington's Deception Pass

Latest batch of email brought that which you see here, from Spencer Jack's dad, a clip from the Skagit Valley Herald with the news that an 18 year old Texas man died Wednesday while hiking on Pass Island in Deception Pass.

Deception Pass Bridge passes from Whidbey Island to Fidalgo Island, crossing over Pass Island between the two bigger islands.

These are authentic, real islands, not imaginary islands of the sort Fort Worth builds bridges to in slow motion over dry land.

Years ago I blogged about the Deception Pass Bridge on  my Washington blog in a blogging titled Deception Pass Bridge Connecting Whidbey Island with Fidalgo Island.

More recently, on this very blog you are reading right now, the construction of the Deception Pass Bridge was the subject on one of my bloggings in the popular series of bloggings about feats of engineering which took place in less than the four years it is scheduled for America's Biggest Boondoggle to build three simple little bridges over dry land.

That blogging is titled Washington's Deception Pass Bridge Took A Deceptively Short Time To Build.

On the plus side of America's Biggest Boondoggle's three little bridges connecting the mainland to an imaginary island, no one will ever die falling from the Boondoggle's imaginary island.

Pass Island is a bit treacherous. There is limited parking, but it is easy to walk across the bridge to get to the island. You can hike trails all over the island, some with steep drop-offs.

When there is an extreme tide differential, Deception Pass is a spectacle to behold. The water moves incredibly fast, creating what looks like rapids. Few boats are powerful enough to make headway against this force of nature.

Did the Texas hiker fall in the water? The article gave no indication that that happened. But, I don't know how one would fall 50 to 70 feet on Pass Island without ending up in the water.

I can not remember which set of nephews, be it Favorite Nephews Jason and Joey, or Favorite Nephews Chris and Jeremy, but I remember taking one of the pairs to Deception Pass and they absolutely refused, at first, to walk out on to the bridge. It took a lot of coaxing to get us to Pass Island.

I suspect it was Chris and Jeremy who balked. I always had more trouble keeping Spencer Jack's dad and uncle from doing something  than getting them to do something.

Below is a postcard look at the Deception Pass Bridge when it was under construction, back in the 1930s.


Pass Island is the island you see above that the bridge is crossing over.

Every piece of land you see above is an actual island, surrounded by actual water. That tallest chunk of land you see, on the right of the postcard, is on Whidbey Island and is known as Goose Rock.

Goose Rock was a frequent hiking destination when I lived in Washington, along with all the other trails in Deception Pass State Park, all located about 5 times further from my Washington abode than the Tandy Hills is located from my current abode, and about 100 times more scenic....

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