Hi Paddlewisers, Pam and I met up at a rest stop north of Marysville, WA and then drove north to Larrabee State Park (just south of Bellingham, WA) to paddle along Chuckanut Drive, and to check out the wildlife and rock formations. Chuckanut was the site of an interurban railway and then roadway which connected Belllingham to the rest of Washington in the late 1800s. Until then Bellingham was isolated and reached only by boat due to the mountainous terrain south of the city. The launch at Larrabee State Park requires a $5 fee for "watercraft"; which we assumed would include kayaks. From the launch you can paddle south to view rock formations and the remnants of the pilings used to support the original railway line or you can paddle north. We did both. North of the launch site you can paddle all the way into Canada if you like but we didn't go that far. We stayed close inshore in the -2 tide (very low water) to catch glimpses of purple stars and other critters. Several Blue Herons were annoyed by our appearance and made their feelings audible by complaining loudly as they flew off ahead of us; only to have to repeat the same procedure as many times as it took them to realize that they could fly back behind us and be safe. Bald eagles have made quite a comeback in the Pacific Northwest. When I first started paddling these waters some 30-odd years ago we seldom saw them even in the most isolated areas. Pam and I saw several; one of which laded on a branch 50 feet above my head and then ignored me completely. Take out at the ramp was considerably easier a few hours after low tide (unlike our launch which required us to roll the kayaks 100 yards on well packed sand before getting to the water. Before heading home we made our way to Lake Padden Park in Bellingham, a beautiful park surrounding a clear lake with a plethora of bikinied college coeds (if you can have an overabundance of that). Pam's tried for two years to get a roll and it took about 30 minutes to get her rolling up with a vigorous hip snap. I think a total of four completed rolls with two of them picture-perfect. Nice way to end a paddle. I was home by midnight. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jul 29 2008 - 11:05:57 PDT
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