Clyde Beach Park is rapidly becoming my go to launch location. It's a reasonably short drive, close to downtown Bellevue (so you can grab breakfast on the way out and lunch on the way back), and it's set in a nice protected bay to paddle around in. The only real issues are the small number of parking spots and the lack of a good boat launch.
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Pros: Provided you get one of the few parking spots, it's a nice short walk to carry your gear down to the water. The park is situated on a nice protected bay, so you can paddle around with a minimum of speedboats and other annoyances. Also, it's close to downtown Bellevue, so good food and drink are easy to find after your paddle.
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Cons: As mentioned, there aren't many parking spots and most of them are a bit further back from the water. It's not a big deal if you go midweek like I do, but I can see the park getting slammed on the weekends. Also, there's no actual boat launch. You have to carry your gear in through the swimming area, which might be problematic if the park is busy. There is a dock around the swimming area, but it's too high up to be of much use.
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Overall: A great place to get onto Lake Washington, provided you go midweek or off-season.
Trips
7/25/17
Went out for a bit of a paddle this morning. The weather was great and the lake was beautiful. It was the first time I've run into the ropes around the swimming area, though. I guess I've just been here too early or too late in the year to run into them before. There were a couple of sailboat classes in different parts of the lake, but they headed back to shore pretty quickly. There were also a couple of speedboats, but what are you going to do?
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I set off from the park and paddled up the North side of Meydenbauer Bay. Once I reached the mouth of the bay (or the tip of Groat Point, as I've just discovered it's called), I went across to the South shore of the bay and paddled back around to the park. I didn't go the whole way around since they're doing construction on the new park, but I paddled around near the park for a bit to make up for it.
Swimming Ropes at Clyde Beach Park
A view of Clyde Beach Park taken from the water.
There was a sailboat class out on the lake when I was out there.
The mountain was out.
You can just see Seattle poking above the ridge to the West.
They're putting in a lot of work on that new downtown park here in Bellevue.
The water was pretty darn clear for Lake Washington. Unfortunately, it was still Lake Washington, so there wasn't much to see.
6/6/17
I took my kayak out for the first time this year. I went down to Clyde Beach Park, which is rapidly becoming my favorite place to go for a midweek paddle. As expected, I managed to get one of the four parking spots right up front so unloading was a snap. As you can see from the picture, the lake was flat, although there was a light breeze that made the temperature just about perfect.
Since it was the first paddle of the year, I was bound to forget something and this time it was the suntan lotion. (I completely forgot my paddle until I was at the end of our street, which would have been both embarrassing and annoying.) Fortunately, I didn't plan on being out more than an hour anyway and I was wearing my rash-guard and a life-jacket. My face and forearms are already pretty tan from running, so I don't think I did much harm there. Really the biggest problem was when a an errant wave from a jetski hit me right as I was taking a drink of my iced coffee and I spilled it down my front. Fortunately, I was surrounded by water so the cleanup was easy.
Anyway, I paddled around the edge of Meydenbauer Bay until I reached the main part of Lake Washington, and then went a little farther along the shore. Once I was out of the protected bay the lake got slightly more choppy. Not enough to be a bother, just enough to notice. Thinking that the smoother bay was more fun for a paddle (and that this was my first paddle of the year so my arms were going to hate me tomorrow and that I didn't have any sunscreen on) I turned back and headed for the park. I had gorgeous views of Mt. Rainier and the only reason you aren't getting pictures of it is because I haven't gotten my waterproof camera yet. (I'm going to order it today or tomorrow, I'm just waiting on the return of one of my birthday presents that didn't fit.)
I'll also say that the water was super clear this morning. Like, I'm guessing over 20' of visibility (which is huge for Lake Washington--normal is more like 3'-5'). I'm really wishing I had my mask and snorkel, except that the lake is still pretty dang cold right now.
So, all and all a pretty successful first of the year paddle.
Looking out from Clyde Beach Park.
7/16/16
Went out for a paddle around Meydenbauer Bay this morning. Well, I went and got breakfast and then a cup of coffee first, because it was overcast and sort of windy when I got into downtown Bellevue. I just went to Clyde Beach Park again.
It was slightly more complicated than last time. The grounds crew was there, taking up just about every available parking spot, although they started leaving just after I arrived, so I managed to snag a good parking spot, I just had to wait a bit. Also, there wasn't a really great place to launch from. The last time I was there they hadn't put up the ropes and buoys that marked off the swimming area, which is apparently the entire accessible section of the beach. Also, the dock was much higher off the water than last time, so I couldn't really launch from it. I ended up just putting the kayak in the swimming area and then walking it over the buoys off to the side, which wasn't much of a hassle.
Oh, and as I was setting up a guy walked over to me and said that they had a 50 gallon sewage leak from the lake patrol boat house on the opposite side of the park from where I was going to launch. He said it was probably fine since what's 50 gallons compared to the volume of the lake, but he wanted to make sure people knew. Needless to say, everything is getting a thorough washing.
It was a fun paddle. I went the opposite direction from last time and ended up making a circuit around the bay. I did realize as I crossed the mouth of the bay that it was the furthest I'd ever paddled my kayak from shore. Which was weird, but I felt completely safe. That boat is stable and I'm pretty sure I could still have swam to shore if worst came to worst. Still, something of note.
Still no pictures. I was going to take one of the park, but my phone battery died before I got there. I still haven't gotten a waterproof camera, but each time I go I keep thinking that I need to get one.
5/31/16
Went out for a paddle for a couple of hours this morning. I tried a new park, this one on Lake Washington, and it's definitely one I'll keep in mind in the future. It's called Clyde Beach Park (http://www.lakewaparks.com/2011/06/clyde-beach-park/), here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
* Very short walk from the parking to the water. Like, about 100 ft. Probably because I got the best possible parking, and while there is some parking, there's not a ton. On a weekend I could see it being insane.
* Easy to get to, just a straight shot down 8th, past downtown, one turn and after a block the street turns into the parking lot for the park. Since you have to go through downtown Bellevue, I can stop and get my favorite teriyaki on the way home.
* Beautiful views. The park is in somewhat of a sheltered cove with multi-million dollar homes lining the shore as far as the eye can see. Once you get out of that cove, you have a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier to one side, some of the skyline of Seattle poking over a ridge ahead along with the Olympics, and plenty of beautiful lake and sky to the other side. Seriously, it had me thinking of investing in a water proof camera.
Cons
* Damn few cons, but the small amount of parking would be one. This is definitely a midweek paddle spot.
* Right now they don't have the swimming area set up (the lake water is still too cold for swimming) so I could cast off from a very nice set of steps into the water. Didn't even get my toes wet. Once they set that aside for swimming, the only way in and out will be from the dock, which I tried on my way in. It's a rough metal surface (for traction) which is just a little too high off the water to make things easy. Definitely doable, just not ideal.
I'll definitely be trying this place again. As far as my actual trip, I felt pretty good. I pumped up the floor on the kayak all the way this time and it performed much better. I'm still having the problem of my bow wiggling from side to side each time I take a stroke, but that could be technique, seat positioning, or a hundred other things. I'll have to do some research.
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And now I finish eating teriyaki and then nap.