A Paddler's Guide to the Salish Sea.: November 2013

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

11/26/13

Paddling Across Puget Sound - Seattle to Bainbridge Island

In 2005, my neighbor Paul Edmondson called saying he was on Blake Island and out of beer. I poked out the window to make sure he wasn't outside my house as usual. Two hours later I launched at Constellation Park near Alki Beach for my first solo crossing of Puget Sound.

It was late summer, a hot day, and the water was flat calm. Mid way a freighter checked in on the VHF reporting seeing a hundred indian canoes in Admiralty Inlet. I remember thinking how cool! The canoes were from the annual Tribal Journeys trip probably headed to a nearby landing. I made the 4 mile crossing in about 2 hours landing on Blake with fresh beer for Paul (and myself).

I had since made that trip several times, including doing it twice from Ballard to Blake to cut out the Alki commute from our neighborhood of Ballard.

1 mile to Bainbridge.

Today neighbor Todd Switzer called "Wanna do a quick trip to Bainbridge?" A frequent kayak fisherman, he's been longing for a longer trip and more exercise. 45 minutes later, we launched from the Elks Beach in Ballard.

We stopped at West Point to add on a few layers as the wind was picking up. We crossed to Skiff Point on Bainbridge within an hour, took a few pics, then headed back. Aided by current and a S wind both directions, we made the entire trip in 2.5hrs.

In all my paddling on Shilshole Bay, I hadn't crossed directly to Bainbridge. It was easier than I thought and will be doing it again soon, hoping to explore the shoreline more once on the other side.

Nearing shore.

Skiff Point. Looks like a great point break for waves.

Rob Casey is author of Kayaking Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands, 60 Trips and Stand Up Paddling Flat Water to Surf and Rivers, both by Mountaineers Books. He owns Salmon Bay Paddle a SUP school in Seattle.

11/11/13

Surfing Puget Sound - High Wind Day 11/3/13

46kts of wind in Seattle on Nov 3, brought many experienced paddlers out to test their skills while downwinding Puget Sound. 9 outriggers launched from Golden Gardens while an hour later 6 of the region's top SUP'ers launced from the Elks Beach to the south. All were headed to Edmonds or Richmond Beach. The wind turned 180 degrees from southwest to north for each group half way to their destinations. The outriggers finished their run against the wind while the SUPs, not as far along turned it around to paddle back to the Elks.

Below are two fun shots showing the effects of the wind. The top is surfing somewhere near Alki, the second a webcam shot of West Point at the peak of the storm.

Paddling the Elwha River Mouth, 11/11/13

The Elwha's changing fast, or really morphing. in December of 2012 an expansive sandbar developed off the mouth several hundred feet. In September of 2013, another large section again developed off the mouth further extending the river delta. Sea birds have been taking advantage of the various offshore sandbars in large numbers.

I've been exploring the river mouth every few weeks during the pre, during and now post dam removal. Here's a few more pics of paddle there today. I found the small surfable standing waves in the river mouth on a no swell day in the Strait.

Looking north towards the Strait.

Looking upstream over smalls standing waves.

Dam release sediment line in Freshwater Bay.