San Juan Island Adventure Swims: Orcas, Matia, Sucia
DATES OF DIPS: Labor Day Weekend, 2025
This post details adventure swims on Orcas Island, Matia Island and Sucia Island, all boat-in only islands within the San Juan Island Archipelago. First, I went to a retreat on Orcas where I stayed in a yurt and ran the Mountain Lake Loop trail 2x. The next day, I swam 1 mile in the lake. Only days later, I was on a sailboat looking out at Orcas Island with my friends and Captain Paul Porter, cruising the water towards Matia Island. We explored the little magical boat-in only islands in the San Juans for the next three days.
Route
1 mile Mountain Lake
1 mile Ewing Cove, Sucia Island
Adventure swims in Rolfe Cove, Matia Island
Distance
~ 1 mile in each spot!
Water
72 degrees - Mountain Lake
57 degrees - Ewing Cove and Rolfe Cove
Support
Garmin Forerunner 955 and buoy
All photos by @paulporterpaulporter
Orcas Island - Mountain Lake
Loops Around the Little Island
Mountain Lake is my favorite trail running spot for a semi-challenging, scenic 4 mile trail run. I've visited Orcas Island now a few times for retreats and I knew on this last visit that I wanted to try to open water swim in the lake. The best part about this lake? No motorized boats allowed!
I first started off the dock by the camping area. There weren't many people around, and I felt a little nervous. I tried multiple times to swim across the water to the penninsula so I could swim around the shoreline, but couldn't get myself to swim across. The water was beautiful and warm, blue and clear. I ended up swimming for about 300 yards back and forth by the dock and then decided to go try a new spot. I saw some open water swimmers off in the distance which made me feel a little calmer!
I walked over to the boat ramp and decided it was the best place to start a swim. I saw the other swimmers and we chatted a bit. They warned me about big logs in the water - but also that it was so cool to swim through them. They told me they were in the water for 1.5 hours. This helped my confidence, and I set out to swim.
I ended up swimming 1 mile - I went out to the little island, swam around it, and then swam back to the boat ramp two times. Swimming in the lake reminded me how hard it is to swim in fresh water with no buoyancy assistance from the saltwater! The ladies were right - the water was perfectly clear. I swam through ancient tree stumps, got out victoriously on the little island, swam around it, and then did it again. It felt good to swim in this spot, it was more populated with kayakers and paddleboarders.
It's always fun to swim around a little island!
Matia Island - Rolfe Cove
A few days later, my friends and I set off for a sailing trip with Captain Paul Porter. We had plans to camp two nights at the National Wildlife Refuge Matia Island and do day trips to marine parks Sucia and Clark Islands. All of these islands are boat-in only, so it was a real treat as people without boats to be able to visit these beautiful places.
Matia Island is a 145 acre marine park and has a 1 mile loop that you can hike or run. Most of the island is closed to protect wildlife. One of the mornings I decided to run 3 miles, doing the loop three times. It was hilly and felt challenging after some cold water swims, with tight muscles. The forest is magical and you can imagine gnomes and fairies living in every tree stump and on every dew soaked fern leaf. Apparently Matia Island also was home to a man, Elvin H. Smith, who lived there for 30 years in the 1800s, named the "Hermit of Matia Island."
I did a few adventure swims in Rolfe Cove on Matia Island. The water felt warm in Rolfe Cove. I saw loads of colorful starfish!
I also put my goggles on at night in Rolfe Cove and swam a bit, there I saw the most spectacular bioluminescence I've ever seen at the shore. It was so intense that when I got out of the water, I actually had little glowing bits on my body and on my fins.
All photos by @paulporterpaulporter
Sucia Island - Ewing Cove
The next day, I swam a mile with my husband assisting on the paddleboard at Ewing Cove on Sucia Island. Sucia (814 acres total) has 10 miles of trails! We did not have time to explore them but I'd love to come back some day. Sucia ("dirty" in Spanish) was named such by Spanish because they had trouble navigating around the island with rocks and turbulent currents. Overall, we were glad that we camped on Matia vs. Sucia. It was beautiful on both islands but Sucia has 39 campsites and is a lot more populated with boaters and campers. Matia was a lot more private and secluded with less campsites.
We saw many seals and orcas along the way to Sucia! I was worried about orcas as I swam since we saw them so close, but felt safer with my husband by my side as I swam across deep water in the cove.
There was also a freediver who we spoke with briefly while I was swimming who went down to show me how deep it was. It made me feel better to see it wasn't hundreds of feet deep. I had just seen a shark on Catalina Island in California while swimming and also saw MANY spiny dogfish sharks washed up on the beach at Lummi Island before our sailing trip, so I was a bit nervous to see a shark again. I felt accomplished swimming skins for 45 minutes, it was my longest skin swim yet this summer!
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All photos by @paulporterpaulporter
Clark Island
We ended the trip with a picnic, hanging out on the beach and plunging at Clark Island, another marine park on the way back to Lummi Island. I was tired from my run and swim so I decided to take it easy.
We ate wonderfully on the entire trip thanks to our friends who did an excellent job meal planning and cooking for us. Thank you Lauren, Andrew and Paul!
If you're looking for a multi-day PNW adventure sailing trip - look no further than Sailing with Paul Porter!
All photos by @paulporterpaulporter