Lake Washington, Washington

[oldfartsuperdad]

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.

[Windwarrior]

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.

[wilder]

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.