Trips
Wilmot Gateway Park is right at the edge of downtown Woodinville on the Sammamish River. Closer to Lake Washington than Lake Sammamish it's, in theory, a good ending point for a float. However, the current of the river is so slow that it's really better for a paddle. Also, the landing spot can be a bit tricky to pick out until you're right on top of it.
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Pros: Not terribly far from the parking lot to the water if you get one of the spots. (There's a lot of additional parking across a fairly busy street.) In downtown Woodinville, so it's easy to hit a winery, brewery, or distillery after your paddle.
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Cons: Tricky to see the "beach." Also, not a ton of parking. There's really nowhere to go but up and down the river, and the scenery tends to get a bit repetitive after a while.
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Overall: Not the worst place to launch from, but also not a ton to recommend it.
9/27/17
I took advantage of some unseasonably warm weather to go for a little late season paddle. Despite my terrible time on the "float" down the Sammamish Slough earlier this year, I decided to give it another try. And, for the most part it turned out to be a good decision. I (obviously) started off at Wilmot Gateway Park in Woodinville and was lucky enough to get a prime parking spot. There was actually a fair amount of parking despite the weather, no doubt because it was midweek in the autumn.
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After getting my gear set up, I headed south, upstream, on the Slough. The water was as high as I have ever seen it. All the sandbars were gone and the shallowest I ever saw it get was about two feet deep. In spite of that, there was still next to no current. Even the slight breezes that came along were enough to start pushing you up stream. Which meant that it was about the same paddling upstream as down. The water seemed to vary in clarity from being basically thin mud to having around 5'-10' visibility.
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One item of note: the Slough is definitely a salmon spawning ground. I could tell by the number of large dead salmon floating in the water (hopefully) post spawning. They were in various states of decay (and no, I didn't take any pictures of them) which means that the...odors also varied in strength. Fortunately, even the worst of them only lasted for a couple of seconds as I passed. I did see a few live fish swimming around, and at one point I even saw a group of four or five of them in a shady patch. Unfortunately, by the time I got turned around and my camera in the water they were gone. I did see a turtle later, though. He (?) put his shell under the water but left his head up for me to get a picture.
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I did try something else new. I was out by myself and I knew that I probably wouldn't run into anyone else on the trip, so I thought that having a radio along would be nice. Unfortunately, I don't have a waterproof radio. So what I tried was hooking up my cell-phone to a charger, cranking up the volume all the way, and then putting them both in my dry-bag. It worked...ok. At one point the phone lost signal, so I had to open up the bag and switch to a podcast, but then it was a bit too quiet to hear easily. So, not the optimal solution. I may have to just shell out the money for a waterproof radio.
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Anyway, a lovely trip (if occasionally stinky). I ended up getting just a bit past the bridge to Redhook and the Willows Lodge and it took me about three hours for the round trip. It was nice enough that I got a light sunburn despite wearing a rash guard for the first third or so. The only real negative was that I was reminded that there is no place to pull your boat over and get off the water to stretch your legs. Next time I'll have to see what it's like going north from the park.
Wilmot Gateway Park from the water. This is all the launch they have.
This is what the launch looks like from about 100 ft away. So, keep an eye open when you come back.
It is rather pretty though.
There are a few nice shady spots to hang out if you want a break from paddling.
Obligatory heron photo.
That's Redhook in the distance. I wish they had a dock so I could stop for lunch.
The bridge to Redhook and the Willows Lodge from the north side.
I may have interrupted some sort of meeting.
Geese don't give a fuuuuuuuu...
6/21/16
So, I kayaked part of the Sammamish River (or Sammamish Slough, or a half a dozen other names) today. My initial idea was that I'd paddle from Wilmot Gateway Park in downtown Woodinville up to one of the parks in downtown Redmond and then float my way back down the river in order to see how good of a float trip it would make. As you can see from the map below, I made it about half way before turning around and heading back. (I used the bike route to mark the route I took because Google Maps doesn't have a kayak option and the bike trail runs right along side the water.)
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First, a couple words about the park. It's not ideal as a launch site, but it isn't bad either. There's a little spot cut into the shoreline that looks like it's been worn away by generations of people trying to get to the water. Fortunately, it's just about the perfect size to launch a kayak from. There isn't very much parking at all, though and it was all full even on a Tuesday morning. Fortunately, someone was leaving when I got there, but otherwise I would have had to park across a wide and busy street. As it was I had to haul my gear across the bike path, a walking path, and through some miscellaneous benches before being able to inflate the kayak on the grass, the haul the pump and bag back to the car.
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Again, not bad, just kinda annoying. The mix of good and bad points would be a theme of the day.
Anyway, the paddle. Going upstream wasn't as hard as I feared it would be. The current was only about a slow to average walking pace so I could really get a head of steam up if I put my back into it. The river has steep banks on either side, covered in plants, so you really get the feeling that you're out in the wilderness instead of being between two fairly good sized towns and surrounded by farms and condos. There were a few office buildings you could see at the beginning, but really not many.
Likewise, there was a surprising amount of wildlife. I saw at least three different herons a couple of times each, a few turtles sunning themselves, a bazillion adorable baby ducklings, countless dragonflies, and something that was probably another turtle but I'm choosing to believe was a river otter. (Seriously, on my way up I caught a glimpse of what looked like a brown furred back disappear into the water near the shore and on the way back I saw pretty much the same thing, but in the middle of the river, where you don't usually see turtles, and it was under the water way to long to be a duck.)
The water was glassy smooth the entire time and the river was pretty much a straight line for long stretches. Which is where we start getting the bad side. I started getting tired and decided to turn around at a bridge I saw in the distance. A bridge that I soon decided was a mirage because it never seemed to get any closer. The scenery on the side of the river never seemed to change and though I could tell I was progressing forward, it stubbornly refused to get nearer. Finally, after an eternity, I could tell that it might not be a mirage and I might actually reach it and the sky darkened and the wind rose as if as a divine warning. Fortunately, I'm a scientist and therefore used to spitting in the face of God and Nature and I made it to the bridge.
As I turned around the clouds parted and the wind died. I took out my thermos and poured myself a cup of mocha that I had got earlier in the day. This was the best part of the trip. Lying back in my kayak, drinking my coffee, occasionally dipping my paddle in just to correct my course a bit. After a while, I stretched out and lay back, just looking up at the clouds going by. I was very close to taking a nap at one point. Unfortunately, by the time I was done with that and ready to head for home, I'd only gone about a third to a half of the way back.
Which brings up one of the downsides to this trip, it's kinda dull. The flat, placid water and walking pace current is all well and good, but considering that the slopes on either side of the river are so high that you really can't see much, and what you can see is sort of the same thing over and over, there's not much to do. Also, there's no break in the heavily vegetated slopes. Which means that if you want to pull over and take a break or have some lunch, there's no place to do it. Once you get on the river, you have vanishingly few places to get back off. This is especially tortuous as you pass the Red Hook brewery, and all the wineries and restaurants nearby it.
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So, to sum up, I had a good time, but I don't think I'll do this stretch of the river this way again. It's kind of the bunny slope of river paddles: calm, slow, and kinda dull after a while. Maybe my opinion would be different if I had people with me, and I kinda wish I had brought a watch so I could time how long it actually took to float that distance.