For a variety of reasons today was a perfect candidate for a morning canoe trip. We car-topped the Wenonah to Enatai Beach Park in Bellevue. The beach launch and paddle along the shore of Lake Washington to the entrance to the Mercer Slough went quickly. Paddling under I-90 was a little disconcerting because there was an oily sheen on the water and a chemical smell in the air, but once the freeway was behind us the smell and sheen were too.
The views were mostly of our immediate surroundings but we did get a peek-a-boo view of Mt Rainier and saw the Bellevue skyline contrasted against the natural foreground. The Bellevue skyline isn't really that impressive as far a urban skylines go but it seemed sort of ominous above the lily pads and dense riparian trees.
Another paddler told us about a pair of river otters "just around the bend on the left bank" but we never saw them. In addition to the many birds we saw (herons, geese, ducks, red-tailed hawk, red-wing blackbirds, and a lot more we couldn't identify), we saw a lot of turtles sunning themselves on logs.
One of the things that fascinated me most about the Mercer Slough is the varied water conditions. In some places it's muddy brown, in other places it's tea colored, and there are even a few spots where it's relatively clear. The vegetation in the water was equally varied. Some places the channel was wide open. In other places it was choked with lily pads, and in some places there was a lot of slimy-mossy-leafy type vegetation. It all added up to a general atmosphere of "don't fall out of the boat"
There's a hiking trail that explores the wetland around the slough. A family that was hanging out near the water was gracious enough to snap a pick of us in our trusty craft.
And if you really want to know what it was like to be there... here's a 40-second snippet that captures the true excitement of flat-water family canoeing.
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5 comments:
Looks amazing! Almost makes me wish we had a canoe. No offense but the linked Youtube video of the girls driving into the Mercer slough because of Bad GPS Instructions (worse than driving into the Bus Terminal, huh Chele?) was a little more exciting than your video.
Yeah way worst than my scrape with the Bus Terminal. The video says they had "dinner" but we know they must have had drinks :)
Believe it or not, we shot a couple videos and this was the most exciting one. After we watched the videos and were deciding which to post we were joking about how, despite the activity being overall pretty fun, a 40 second real-time snippet of it was pretty boring. I decided to post it anyway. Perhaps this is a perfect example of why one should never violate the 20-second rule.
That last comment was me, Mr Smitty, not Chele.
hey, I really wasn't trying to say your video was boring. it made it look really fun--i just thought driving into the Mercer Slough was funnier.
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