Here in the dark, rainy, cold Northwest we have nothing better to do than sit inside and plan for the summer (ok, it's not really that bad...but gloomy anyway). I've been looking at some books I checked out from the public library, searching for some super cool paddling opportunities in Washington state (or Oregon). 
   I'm gonna start this spring/summer/fall by focusing mainly on Washington flat water, tidal flat water, and class 1 rivers (and lakes). Here's the list so far. Any suggestions?
   ~Paul   ETC

North Puget Sound:
Dakota Creek/California Creek
Lummi River
Skagit River
Stillaguamish River

South Puget Sound:
Snohomish River Sloughs
Snohomish River
Snoqualmie River (parts)
Sammamish River (did it last year but accidentally deleted all of the pics)
Issaquah Creek
Duwamish River/Waterway
Green River (parts)
Nisqually River Delta/McAlister Creek

Olympic Peninsula:
Hoquiam River: East and West Forks
Little Hoquiam River
Wishkah River
Chehalis River (parts)/Sloughs
Black River
Quillayute R/Lower Dickey R
Strait of Juan de Fuca (parts)

Southwest Washington:
Willapa River and Sloughs
Palix R/North R/Smith Creek
Grays River/Seal Slough

Northern Cascades:
Ross Lake
White River
Diablo Lake

Eastern Washington:
Lake Lenore
Yakima River Canyon
Winchester Wasteway
Hutchinson and Shiner Lakes
Columbia River (parts)
Walla Walla River
Palouse River
Bonnie Lake
Fishtrap Lake
Spokane River (parts)
Little Spokane River
Horseshoe Lake
Little Pend Orieille River
Kettle River (parts)

Originally posted by Everyone's Travel Club March 16th, 2010.

3/16/10
Ahoy!  Everyone's Travel Club returns to Seattle! Last Saturday I took a quick trip from one Seattle park on the Puget Sound (salt water and tides) to another - Golden Gardens to Carkeek. It was cold. It was windy. I found a great way to save money while owning a sailboat!

Golden Gardens...not too Golden today...Brrrr.

What do we have here?

Almost sunken ship!

Here's a great little kayak entrance to Carkeek...Time to deflate...I made it! The trip took about 45 mins with the wind was at my back [and who knows what the tide was doing].

The Olympic Mountains from Golden Gardens the next day.  No wind.  Warm.  Low tide...Maybe I should have waited...

See, you can save money and own a sailboat:) [except the cost of removal...which goes to the owner...oops]
~Paul  E.T.C.

P.S. - 

   We're still moving a few posts from our old site over here...this one was from way back - originally posted on March 6th, 2010. This was right when we got our first kayak and way before we moved aboard Kingsley. Did we know what we were talking about? Barely! It's fun to look back even a couple of years and see how far we've paddled and how much we've learned!
   ~Paul   ETC

3/6/2010 
Good Saturday to everyone,
   This morning Amber had a dentist appointment...her dentist just happens to be on the waterfront, just minutes from a popular Seattle beach on the Puget Sound - Golden Gardens.  This also turned out to be a great place to launch the kayak for a couple hours of paddling...which turned into a couple hours of just sitting and watching all of the boats.  
   According to a dude on the beach, every Saturday morning there is a sweet sailboat race going on out in the Sound.  Lots of folks come to the beach to sit and watch the sailboats rounding the green buoy, turning back South towards downtown and the Elliot Bay marina (I'm guessing where another other buoy is).  Hmmm...does the Yacht Club of Seattle put this on?  Here is a link just in case: http://www.seattleyachtclub.org.
   The best part about the inflatable kayaks we have is that it is so easy to pack them up and throw them into the trunk of a car.  I've got my setup down to about 10 minutes - it's really about inflating the thing, putting the four-part oar together, and putting the leftover gear in the backpack.
   So, off I went, heading out towards the green buoy, snapping photos like crazy.

   I took a little kayak-sail the other day, just after most of the snow had cleared. It has taken me a few runs to figure the sail out - it seems the days I go out with the sail the wind is blowing from the wrong direction (which is pretty much normal in the Pacific Northwest!). This sail is a downwind only spinnaker so you go where the wind goes...in this case it was directly at Shilshole Marina. 

As I type this post aboard Kingsley right now (9 pm Pacific) the winds are gusting to 40 knots...not the best kayak-sailing weather...actually not the best of anything weather as we get tossed back and forth up against the dock!
   ~Paul   ETC

   When I went to bed last night I thought I'd brave the Seattle snow and take the kayak out. Well, the wind chill of 19 degrees pretty much made me reconsider. Maybe tomorrow. I did take a walk to scout it out and snapped a few photos...along with the ones I shot earlier at the boat.
   ~Paul   ETC

   While it was supposedly snowing all around the city yesterday it looked like this at Golden Gardens in Seattle. Very, very, golden.
   ~Paul, Amber   ETC

   Well, we had the kayaks packed and ready to paddle Rattlesnake lake but ended up just hiking up to the ledge. If you haven't hiked it before it is a nice trail, in North Bend which is pretty close to Seattle (click here for Google Map), dogs are allowed, you're up and back in 2 hours tops, great view, and nice lake at the bottom for folks to hang around if they don't want to make the trek. We played around at the bottom first - 

   Up we go.

   (above) Mount Si across the valley.

   Boom, done (or, rather, halfway done since we've got to hike back down!).   
   ~Paul, Micah, Joe   ETC

   It turns out that the Northwest polar bear plunger is not as elusive as the Northwest sea caroler. We could see smoke signals and hear them from s/v Kingsley on New year's morning...so off I paddled to check it out.

   It was actually the perfect kayaking day - fairly warm (50) with no wind on the Sound.

It begins! It (quickly) ends.  ~Paul   ETC

   In another less aquatic in-city adventure, we took to Discovery Park in Seattle (in the city limits? really?). We've paddled all around here before and thought we had hiked through most of it.  Totally wrong. If you haven't checked out the Fort Lawton Historic District (just look for signs to the South Meadow), you're missing out! 
   ~Paul & Amber   ETC

Everyone's Travel Club left the city and took a little trip up North, mainly just to drive around aimlessly on a sunny winter day. We followed the sun (seriously - we looked west from Bellingham and saw that it was sunny, so we went that way) to little Samish Island (map).  

The island really isn't an island, more like a peninsula. It's small and pretty quiet with a few camps that operate in nicer weather, a few churches, one B & B, some vacation rentals, and a small whiskey distillery. I can't say there is even a restaurant, coffee shop, and definitely not a gas station...but...beautiful.

We'll definitely be back, with kayaks...
   ~Paul & Amber   ETC