To celebrate the last day of summer weather for 2017 it was time to get the kayaks out for a non-fishing adventure. The Sammamish river was the best target as salmon fishing is banned so I couldn't be tempted to bring along any gear. Ok, I was still tempted but not quite desperate enough to start a poaching career.
River is a generous title for what was essentially a slow moving swamp that connected Lake Sammamish to Lake Washington. Until August of 1916 the Sammamish river had a whopping elevation drop of 8 feet across its 14 miles. Then over several months the level of Lake Washington was dropped another 8 feet as the final touches were put on the Ballard Locks project and suddenly the Sammamish River doubled its elevation drop. That just happened to be enough of a boost to convince us that the trip was doable without any training.
1. Dumped the kayaks in at Marymoor Park and was stoked to see a king salmon meandering upstream. The Sammamish runs "fastest" and shallowest at its source but is often full of weeds. This concentrated the salmon in a few holes but as they moved upstream they were within a foot of the surface. The first mile had hundreds of kings mixed with fully transitioned sockeye salmon. I had never seen the iconic red body/green heads in the wild before. Tried to get some underwater shots but they really didn't trust me to follow the rules and were scrambling. In places they were so thick that they would bump into the kayaks.
2. In this stretch someone took a pen and said the river will go north (a remnant of the river's channeling for badge traffic and flood control). Basically 1.5 miles to make sure nobody was following us... Also a good time to harass the wildlife above the surface. In addition to herons there were kingfishers, turtles and swarms of ducks.
3. Lunch time! Found a park in Woodinville to layout in the grass and practice moaning and groaning. Not the best scene for flattering pictures.
4. Passed through the pearly gates into the Redneck Yacht Club.
The first stretch of river that boats can travel safely was an interesting mix of mobile home parks and fancy homes that shared a taste for inflatables and sketchy looking dock construction. It wasn't until about mile 9 that we started to see other humans on the water.
5. Victory! Made it to Lake Washington and the Kenmore Air Harbor. It was a great float to check off the bucket list although next time I'd probably hang out with the salmon for a few hours and call it quits in Woodinville.