Sand Point to 520 Bridge

February 9, 2002

Last Sunday afternoon I took my Escapade pedal boat out on Lake Washington with my daughter. We launched at the Sand Point/Magnuson Park boat ramp, and loaded the boat with snacks, camera and blankets. It was probably going to be a little chilly for someone not pedaling, even with the sun shining though the thin hazy clouds overhead.

David Cox met us at the dock. He heard about the impromptu outing via the hpb mailing list and came, unfortunately, without his Trimathing. He said he had been ill the previous several weeks, and unable to work on it. One of these days, however, he would have it ready and get out on the water.

My daughter and I took a short cruise to the nearby swimming platform, which appeared to be currently owned by the local waterfowl population. Repulsed by the pile of bird doo, we went back to the ramp where we met Rusty Lane.

Rusty brought his Encore side-by-side and a Wave Walker. He demoed the Wave Walker to David, while my daughter and I decided to start moseying along the shore towards the 520 floating bridge.

We soon ran into a couple of flocks of coots swimming in the water. They were traveling in the same direction as we were headed, but not quite as fast. As we got closer they started to put on speed, until finally they decided to take off, flapping their wings and splashing each other, to the delight of my daughter.

We continued along the western shore, admiring many of the beautiful houses. The styles ranged from almost run down shacks to multimillion dollar estates. There were only a couple of boats at the docks, and even fewer small watercraft pulled up on the shore. Perhaps this is not the season for power boating. :-) A lone kayaker did pass in the opposite direction, but we pretty much had the lake to ourselves.

While pedaling along the west side of the lake we could see the Cascade mountain range from Mt. Baker all the way to Mt. Rainier. We could even see the thick, black smoke from the practice fire in Kirkland set by the Redmond, Kirkland and wherever fire departments. It was a long, dark smudge on an otherwise fairly clear sky.

Rusty still had not caught up to us, so we spent some time looking at more houses. As we rounded a peninsula we came across a large mirror-like steel whirligig someone planted in their yard. In the very slight breeze of the afternoon it rotated very slowly, reflecting the sunlight in all different directions.

We crossed over the channel to the pilings of the 520 bridge. My daughter was impressed with all the pillars, and the size of the span from the last of the pilings to the floating portion of the bridge. We cruised alongside the bridge for a while until I noticed a sign saying, in effect, we were too close and should be at least 100 feet away! Hurriedly I pedaled away from the bridge, hoping that the police boats, wherever they might be, would not take notice.

We met Rusty on the return trip. As it was getting late in the day, and my daughter was getting somewhat chilled, he escorted us back to the boat ramp.

It was a beautiful day. There was almost no one else on the water, no car exhaust to breathe and very little noise to deafen my ears.

I think I'll recover from the light sunburn I received, too.

Pictures from the day can be seen here.

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