Suburban Trekking

We got a slow, lazy start to the day, but finally about 10:30 we were off for our day of exploring. We started off with a walk on the Cedar River Trail. We drove over to Carkeek Park in Renton, where we parked the car. The Cedar River is a limited access stream because it is part of the Cedar River watershed, where the City of Seattle gets it's drinking water. While this portion is downstream from the watershed, it's still posted No Swimming, No Animals probably because it is also an important salmon spawning stream. This is a Sockeye Weir. It was installed to trap a portion of the fall sockeye run returning from the ocean to spawn. The trapped salmon will be used at the fish hatchery to augment the naturally spawning fish. Access to the Green River trail is over this bridge under the freeway. And the trail begins.

Near the trail access is a large off leash dog park.

Much of the trail is tree lined.

There are glimpses of the river.

Pocket parks offer recreational spots for the neighborhood and pit stops for trail users.

Sockeye salmon, after spawning in the river, travel downstream to Lake Washington. There they spent 12 to 15 months, growing. Then they work their way through the ship canal, past the locks and out into Puget Sound. As three year olds they return to the river from whence they came.

Later in the fall the river should be full of fish. We'll have to remember to come back when they are running.

Today this female Merganser had the place to herself.

Can you tell this is an old railroad right of way? The trestles make good foot bridges over the river as it changes course.

There are some big old maples along the trail that should be beautiful when they turn golden. Here young maples are growing out of an old stump.

Autumn begins officially next Monday, but the weather here is still summer-like. I did see this ornamental maple starting to turn. It was striking against the blue sky.

Tomorrow - the rest of the story.