Jetty Island opens: Leave your shoes behind

Published 10:45 pm Saturday, July 5, 2008

EVERETT — Emily Bleazard and her sister-in-law, Karrie Truman, lounged on white towels on the western shore of Jetty Island, looking out toward the Olympic Peninsula.

In the distance, their husbands played with Truman’s four children on the far edge of the island’s mud flats. A warm breeze swept across the beach beneath the mild, blue-and-gray sky. The first drops of rain didn’t fall until later in the afternoon.

“We’re happy we came out,” said Bleazard, 28, of Bothell. “We were going to skip it because of the rain, but we decided to try it out anyway.”

Hundreds of people took the free ferry ride to Jetty Island on Saturday, the first day the island was opened for public use for this summer season.

Children built sand castles, families waded off shore and others hiked along the soft, sandy beach. In the morning, more than 100 people took part in a treasure hunt on the island. Throughout the day, volunteers reminded visitors to pack out their garbage and be kind to the island’s environment.

It wasn’t Jetty Island’s most crowded opening day ever, but that was fine with Kraig Hansen, the island’s chief naturalist for the city of Everett.

“It’s a good way to start,” Hansen said. “It’s a nice, slow pace to start.”

For Tony Haynes, 30, Saturday’s opening day was his first trip to the popular summer hang-out spot.

Haynes, a forestry worker who moved to Everett last year from Eugene, Ore., sat on the beach with his fiance, Robin Brooks, and their two children.

He liked what he saw.

“I just love the view, the nature, the fresh air,” Haynes said. “It’s a place you can be relaxed.”

Brooks — whose legs were already caked with wet sand from playing on the beach — has lived in Everett all of her life. She looks forward to coming to Jetty Island every summer, and Saturday’s opening day didn’t disappoint, she said.

“I’d rather have it be partly sunny, partly cloudy, so you don’t have to worry about sunburn,” she said.

Farther down the beach, Marty Ferguson, 22, and several of his friends went skim-boarding in the shallow waters of the island’s mud flats. Getting a running start, they leaped onto their boards — which resemble small surf boards — and glided across the water.

After years of living in Snohomish County, Ferguson couldn’t believe that Saturday was his first trip out to Jetty Island.

“I like it,” he said. “It’s a whole different thing, I’ve never experienced this before.”

Reporter Scott Pesznecker: 425-339-3436 or spesznecker@heraldnet.com.