This blog covers trips from the book and other favorites.

11/29/13

Paddling Puget Sound - Discover Road Ends for Launching into Puget Sound

When updating the 60 Trips book, I found a lot of road ends which appeared to be great places to launch into Puget Sound. Our region has tons of these, many are hard to find or of local knowledge only and some are in obvious places.

32nd Ave West, Magnolia, Seattle.
Of the two below, the top location in Seattle is 32nd Ave West in the Magnolia neighborhood. It is listed as a hand carry boat launch and is a City of Seattle park. There's no facilities just a lower and upper parking lot.  I tend to tread lightly in the lower lot to not take off much space especially when doing a class or tour.  Immediately to the right are walk in beach homes, a unique feature for the area. My normal paddle here is to Four Mile Rock about 1 mile west (great freighter waves) or into the Elliott Bay Marina for wind protection if with students.
Link here, http://www.seattle.gov/parks/park_detail.asp?ID=1000001

Agate Street N.E.47.719891,-122.553558 / Bainbridge Island.
The second location below is on the northwest corner of Bainbridge Island at the end of Agate St NE.   Providing great access through a residential neighborhood into the north end of Agate Passage, this one has very limited parking, maybe one car if I recall.  Once you arrive on the beach, the beautiful view of Agate Pass and it's bridge are disrupted by No Trespassing signs on both your right and left.  While many feel our beaches are public below the high tide line, in truth 60-70 percent of our state's beaches are private.  As Mountaineers author Harvey Manning explained in his "Walking the Beach to Bellingham" guide, if you see a beach trespassing sign, most likely it's BS.  But check, just in case as it may actually be private.  Due to the signs in this image, I chose to not include it in the book, too stressful to put in a public guidebook.  You can launch there but go straight out and tread lightly.  Right across the waterway is Suquamish's Old Man House park. To the right on the Bainbridge side is a petroglyph on available at low tide.

To get more info on Bainbridge Island's road ends check out these links:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bainbridge-Island-Road-Ends/135688463275004?ref=stream
http://www.bainbridgeisland.com/things-to-do/road-ends

To research Washington State beaches and regulations check out these links:
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/pugetsound/tour/pub_access.html
http://www.coastaltraining-wa.org/Course-Catalog/4.aspx
- Find Public Beaches: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/coastalatlas/tools/PublicAccess.aspx (great site!)
- "Walking the Beach to Bellingham", Harvey Manning, Mountaineers Books.  http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Beach-Bellingham-Northwest-Reprints/dp/087071547X



Learn more
 about my book Kayaking Puget Sound and the San Juans, 60 Trips. I also offer SUP and Kayak lessons available throughout the year at Salmon Bay Paddle. Questions about paddling on the Salish Sea, give me a holler anytime at salmonbaypaddle@gmail.com or 206-465-7167

Support the Washington Water Trails Association and the Cascadia Marine Trail. The wwta works to create and protect access for paddlers on Puget Sound as well as provide an extensive network of over 60 paddle-in camping sites - www.wwta.org




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