We love kayaking in Seattle and have been going to agua verde paddle club for many years. Last year I was the mayor of Agua Verde on Foursquare. We almost always go towards Lake Union because we like the views and really like getting close to all the houseboats around the water.
Last week we decided to go the other direction towards Lake Washington near the arboretum. We asked the attendant, “How far is it ok to go into Lake Washington?”. To that he replied, “As far as you want. As long as you are back here before we close at 6:00pm”.
We decided we will keep going until we reach Kirkland. It ended up being 11 miles round trip.
It took us about 2hrs with a short break in between to get to Kirkland. It was a beautiful day and the water was just gorgeous.
We moored on the other side and had a small picnic in Kirkland at the Houghton Beach Park.
It took us another 2hrs to get back. We were hoping for some tail-wind but the water was just very choppy and it was a little effort to keep going.
The views along the way were just awesome. We saw things from unique vantage points. And being on a kayak, we were slow and were able to experience a lot more detail than we usually do.
When we got back to Agua Verde, the guy told us that he didn’t know anyone else who had ever kayaked all the way across the lake to the other side. Which is interesting because their website does suggest this as one of the trips you can take. We enjoyed it and we highly recommend it to anyone who is either visiting Seattle or lives here. It’s such a unique way to see the Lake and things around.
Thanks for your informative write-up and nice photos. We’re thinking of doing the same thing so wanted an idea of the time it takes. Thx