Beautiful Renton Washington

A beautiful fall day for a paddle on the south end of Lake Washington. A group from the Washington Kayak Club launched at Coulon Park in Renton, paddled over to and long the south shore of Mercer Island then over to Seward Park in Seattle for a quick lunch break. Along the way we had the opportunity to admire the Seahawks new practice facility, very nice digs! Today it's 55 degrees, off and on rain, a bit of fog and a big beautiful lake all to ourselves. One ski boat and a few seagulls for company along our 7 nm trip and that was it... I had a chance to meet and paddle with three fellow paddlers for the first time, a real pleasure it was.

West side of Orcas Island

September paddling in the beautiful northwest, bright sunshine, 70 degrees, light northerly breeze and tourists nowhere to be found! An old paddling bud who moved to the "islands" several years ago and I paddled from Cormorant Bay up to North Beach roughly a total of 7 nm. Noticed an abandoned lime kiln just south of the now quiet Camp Orkila. The buzzards are busy today circling high in the azure blue skies. We stopped for a quick lunch and rest at Point Doughty which a beautiful state park. One can only get to the park by hiking or paddling to it, I will revisit this site. You can see the Canadian Gulf islands as well as Patos and Succia Islands. Also good to note are the jobbly, swirling water off the end of Point Doughty, fun stuff! Noticed several snoozing seals on the rocky outcrop on the north side of the park. We arrived at North Beach three hours after we started our leasurely paddle. That evening we met up with a bunch of friends at the Lower for a beer and burger. Leon took some serious abuse over hitting the big 5- O, something about receiving his AARP card had him in denial.