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Maire Farrington has been solo camping on Angel Island for 31 years

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If you remember wondering why Mission Local broke the news of the Angel Island ferry’s mechanical failure in September, you may have put two and two together. I was a “direct informant” stranded on Angel Island alongside seven other campers. 

The city’s ferry had suffered a sewage malfunction. According to the customer service representatives I talked to, campers had never been stranded on the island before. I would soon learn this wasn’t exactly true. 

After plugging my phone into an outlet outside the ranger’s booth, the first call I made was to my editor. “Don’t tell me your boat is sinking,” Joe Eskenazi said.  

I was supposed to be at work that afternoon. But a perk of being a journalist is that when you’re late to work because you went camping on a Monday, you can write about it. (Alternatively, pursue a more lucrative profession and call yourself a water taxi.)

So, while we waited for another public watercraft to be commandeered to pick us up, I tried to meet some people. 

There weren’t many.

Matthew, one of a handful of rangers, was in the middle of describing how the Coast Miwok first sailed to Angel Island from what is now Marin County when Maire Farrington wandered over, oblivious to the ferry debacle. 

A person wearing a large hat and backpack reads a brochure near a dock with boats. Trees and hills are in the background.
Maire Farrington identifies wildlife outside the Angel Island ranger station. Photo on Sep. 17, 2024 by Abigail Van Neely.

The 62-year-old has been camping on Angel Island every year for 31 years. On this trip, she planned to be alone on the island for a full week. 

Her inaugural outing involved a group of a dozen friends. In the years following, their group swelled as “the friends had kids and the kids came and then the kids’ friends came.”

“And then the kids grew up.” 

It became more difficult for Farrington’s friends to take time off. The party dwindled to just Farrington and a “buddy.” Then the buddy started a Ph.D and could no longer come, Farrington said with a shrug. 

“And so it’s just been me,” said Farrington as gray wisps of hair escaped the lavender hoodie pulled around her face. “I’ve been doing solo camping for the last decade.” 

Farrington has hiked every trail. She packs her Kindle, stocked with mystery novels. But most of her time is spent sitting and watching the view — the best moment, she said, is when the moon rises, the city lights come on, and the owls start hooting. When she’s “lonely for human noise,” she brings a meal down to the dock.





Source: missionlocal.org

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