Seattle Street Ends - Alternative Water Access

With limited water access with Seattle city parks being closed due to Covid-19, you can still access the water using Street Ends.

Street Ends are not traditional parks and are often overlooked.  In the past few years, the city has been improving a few street ends, such as E Allison Street and 28th Ave in Ballard.

Some are just turn-a-rounds, others don't have good water access, or lack easy parking. Scout out street ends near where you want to paddle.

Here's the list of Seattle Street Ends

Photo: 28th Ave NW street end (behind Nordic Museum). Has 3 2hr parking spots. Or park behind the Habitude building (former Fenpro building).

In Photo: Ballard Elks Paddling Club outing, Jan 2020. 

Two Darrell Kirk Paddling Videos of Everett's Waterways - Trip 21

My neighbor and student Darrell Kirk does amazing videos of his explorations around Puget Sound and the West Coast.  From the Saltine Sea to Ebey's Slough, here's two exploring the Everett, Wa waterfront.

Trip 22 - 

Ship Graveyard.  Many of these ships date to the 19th century and line the Snohomish River mouth in  to Puget Sound.
http://vimeo.com/85328730

Adventure on Ebey & Steamboat Slough. Note to check tides here to avoid being caught high and dry in mud on lower tides.
http://vimeo.com/89457365

SUP Trip to Hat (Gedney Island) with Darrell Kirk

My student Darrell Kirk gets around and he creates fun mini documentaries of his SUP explorations.
Here, Darrell explores Hat (Gedney Island) off Everett and SE Whidbey Island.  I believe he got a boat trip back to the mainland from one of the island residents.

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

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.

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

Blake Island, Trip #12

Located in the heart of middle Puget Sound, Blake Island State Park is easily accessible from several put-ins.  Paddlers can choose between super easy short paddling distances to much longer trips depending on their skill level or time available for a trip.  

During the first weekend in September (2012), my partner Christy and I had little time to escape work thus chose the shortest paddle to the island from the Southworth ferry terminal.   While it did require taking the Vashon-Southworth ferry from Seattle, the paddle to the island from Southworth was about a mile.  

Other access points to Blake:

- Southworth Ferry Terminal, 1 mile.  

- Vashon Island ferry terminal, 1.5 miles.

- Manchester, about 2 miles. 

- Fort Ward Park on Bainbridge, approx 2-3 miles.

- Fauntelroy (West Seattle) ferry dock, approx 4 miles.

- Ballard (neighborhood in Seattle), 8 miles.  

Blake can feel like it's isolated and far away from the city on one trip, while on the other you may feel like you're camping in a city park.  During the trip above, it was a hot weekend so we had a regular stream of island hikers walking through or by our site and canoeists and boaters drifting by.  One guy even tried to buy a cup of coffee from me for $10. I thought he was kidding but later found out he was serious!  The best way to avoid crowds is to go on weekdays in summer or 'off seasons'. 

Raccoons can be problematic but the State Park recently installed metal raccoon boxes to store your food which we found quite useful.  

There's three campsites for paddlers on the island.  The WWTA Cascadia Marine Trail site is on the NW side, the 'primitive' site on the south side (our favorite), and in Tilikum Village on the northeast side. There's a great surf break there south of the marina for freighter and wind waves.  I surfed it one day for 1 hour scoring on waist high peelers. 

'Primitive' Site on the south side.

Shot with an Oregon Scientific ATC9K.