The Sammamish Slough is a pretty good river for kayaking. It meanders slowly through interesting areas. Last year we traveled down its length, but we have paddled limited distances upstream.

There is a section just before Woodinville's Wilmot Park where the water runs faster downhill. We paddled to it in Feb, but we were not able to get through this section because the water level was so low that we were scraping our paddles on the river bottom!

We went back there today, and on this trip, water depth was not a problem. Speed of water flow was!

20120401_kayak_upstream0 As the river narrowed it picked up speed so that at this point we were in an all-out sprint to keep moving forward!

This was probably the hardest paddling we have ever done. And yet at that, my granddaughter could probably have crawled forward faster than we were moving!

However, we were able to keep moving forward. And shortly ...

20120401_kayak_upstream1 We were able to come to a resting place beside the park.

When we turned around and went back, we paddled hard through that fast section just for fun. My GPS app said we hit a peak speed of 8.6 mi/hr there! It really felt fast too. We almost kept up with a cyclist on the trail above us.

more trip info

These pictures were taken by a gal on the river bank that was walking by. After we talked during our rest, she generously emailed them to me. Thanks Beth!