We started the morning by saying our goodbyes to Dave, Sheila and Jake…

…and a quick game of the mariners version of corn hole - throwing a knot at the end of a rope into the life ring - Sheila won.

We knew this time was coming, but it was still sad. When all was ready and the hugs were had all around, we pushed them off … we were then down to three.

Time for a hike! One of the favorite events on Stuart Island is to hike over the hill to the Turn Point Light House and then on to the hidden totem pole. So the remaining six of us packed a quick lunch and took off to conquer both.

We were about 20 minutes into the walk when we heard rustling in the trees. One of the guys looked over and saw what turned out to be a very large herd of goats just staring at us through the trees. They were hard to see so he called out to the rest of us “Goats!” We could all hear the rustling but couldn’t really see anything … but Sue thought he said “Ghosts!” and she screamed like a little girl. We all started laughing, and she wasn’t! They took off running and then she could see they were goats, not ghosts. It still makes me chuckle to think about it. Look closely at the picture and you can see there were a lot of them, we estimated maybe 100.

As we climb the hill we realize, we just crossed this strait less than 24 hours earlier, bringing us back into the US. It looked a bit different from this vantage point.

Our last stop, this little known treasure just a short hike along the water from the lighthouse.