Standup Zone Forum
Stand Up Paddle => Flatwater and Touring => Topic started by: deepmud on June 29, 2018, 11:52:57 PM
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I went to Seattle for a week for my eldest daughter's graduation (Marine Biologist) - brought my Blue Planet iSup along. Lots of lugging for about an hour and half on the water - but I found a cool wetlands kind of in the middle of the freeways. Just down from the Japanese Garden in the UW district. Beautiful - if noisy with rush hour traffic zooming by on all sides. Spotted a few heron, an otter (really brief flash but I recognized the furry body) and some big fish in the lily pads startled me good :D
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I met a local coming out as I was unloading - but only a couple of rented canoes on the water. It was a weekday and rush hour...so that was part of it :D
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That’s a great place to paddle and walk. Lots of ospreys and eagles there. There are many great places to paddle near Seattle, and summers are amazing. Winters, not so much.
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When I visit in Seattle winter it's kind of like August here :D
Part of what fascinated me was how urban this landscape was - highways swooping all around me while in "wilderness" - while here, there is a lot of wilderness and very little urban.
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I lived in Seattle (for the third time) for the last year. It’s great in so many ways, but WAY too crowded and expensive. There are amazing pockets of beauty there, though. There’s a good chance I’ll go back.
Where is “here”?
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My high school buddies and I would jump off those viaducts in the summer to cool off after running through the Arboretum and Foster Island. It was about 30' high, so you'd plunge way down. First you'd sink down over your head into the underwater weeds, then down to about your waist in ooze, then you'd pop back up. Great times.
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Nice looking flat water paddling place. From looking at the pictures, I would have brought a fly rod, reel, fly lures/poppers along.
Thanks for the session report and of course, taking the time to post all of your pictures.
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I lived in Seattle (for the third time) for the last year. It’s great in so many ways, but WAY too crowded and expensive. There are amazing pockets of beauty there, though. There’s a good chance I’ll go back.
Where is “here”?
Palmer Alaska. I paddle untill the water gets too hard :D
alaska pics
https://photos.app.goo.gl/gvlBY0aUdfTWktus2
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Cool and nice shots. I wasn't in that part of Seattle when I was there and congrats on your daughters graduation. Pretty sweet that you had that all to yourself right in the city.
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I lived in Seattle (for the third time) for the last year. It’s great in so many ways, but WAY too crowded and expensive. There are amazing pockets of beauty there, though. There’s a good chance I’ll go back.
Where is “here”?
Palmer Alaska. I paddle untill the water gets too hard :D
alaska pics
https://photos.app.goo.gl/gvlBY0aUdfTWktus2
Beautiful! But wow, very different from what I’m used to!
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Bi-ways under highways.... most excellent!
Love these pictures!
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Thanks for all the views and comments :D
PDXMike - my aunt used to jump off those unused highways too - a LONG time ago :D
Creek I am alway pleased when you like them - I enjoy yours so much it's cool to give back. I wish I had titled the thread Byways under Highways :D
Nightwing, I think you must be the most polite person - you always comment nicely on threads. I'm glad you enjoy them.
Here's a link to the Google album - higher resolution, and 132 pics - sometimes I go a bit nuts....
Sony RX100II in a waterproof case takes NICE images.... https://photos.app.goo.gl/g8VMxDiTSCAAdejz7
SpiritforEarth - I'm glad you enjoyed those - it's not always winter - I have been out in the cold stuff a few times for work so got a neat collection of pics. Most of those were from 2002 on an old Olympus 2 megapixel camera.
For fun - More Alaska Photos :D https://photos.app.goo.gl/QyagM1u9F4dPcnzq5
Robon - thanks! She's refocusing her life as she nears 30 I guess - finally going for what she really wants to be doing. You are never too old and it's never too late.
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Those are great photographs! I couldn’t quite tell what the animal was in that short video in the Alaska pictures?? That was a cool overlay of Alaska on Europe.
Washington and Alaska share grey skies and natural beauty. Nice. I had a hard time last winter with the grey. It’s so low and oppressive. I’m still looking for my stopping place!
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Alaska is worth a visit or 3 :)
If you are not able to live with clouds and loooong winters you won't be landing here but it's truly amazing ehen it's good. We have a lot of summer only people snd taxes are great for retirement.
The critter is a moose. They didn't like to give way that trip. I had to wave my paddle and smack the water like some kind of mutant beaver :)
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Moose scare me. No so much bears or sharks, but a moose will run you down. Those are some great pictures DM. I had that 2 mp Olympus as well. It took amazing photos. I'm glad I had it when our kids were little, it really did capture so incredible shots.
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The arboretum is a great place to paddle....little bit of wilderness right in the city. There used to be “gates” hung from the overpass that we kayakers would play with. The Montlake cut nearby gets the big motor yachts coming through and on a busy day you can hang out with a sup and jump on their wake for a quick surf...loads of fun. Yes Seattle has changed a bunch...thank Amazon and others....but still a cool place to live and play.
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Arboretum is a great place to paddle!!
You should check out the Mercer Slough(short paddle but worth it) if you haven't. It's just South of I90 at the marina.
Another place that's even more fun is paddling between Lake Sammamish and Lake Washington along the Sammamish River at the North end of Lake Washington.
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Great spot, I often paddle across the lake from the Eastside (kirkland) to the arboretum, do a lap there and head back. Great training grounds, and when the wind is up, the backwash off the floating bridge is challenging to say the least.
Been SUP'n for several years and this will be my 4th year of paddling all winter. This winter has been especially great with all the snow we've had through February, makes for a beautiful backdrop on the river.
I used to jump off the old overpasses too. At one point, someone installed rock climbing holds all the way from the water 30' up to the top of one of them. It was a pretty gnarly climb too and the bails where always entertaining.