![Sea Kayak - Lake Washington Ship Canal Sea Kayak - Lake Washington Ship Canal](https://www.mountaineers.org/activities/activities/sea-kayak-lake-washington-ship-canal-1/@@images/a8ab219c-1555-4fb4-84fb-e9e716960608.jpeg)
Trip
Sea Kayak - Lake Washington Ship Canal
Join us for an east-west paddle along the full length of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. This is a North Puget Sound Paddling Experience badge trip and requires a car/car-key swap with another group paddling the same route in the opposite direction. After signups are complete, we may have to re-balance paddlers between groups to ensure that the car-swap is effective.
- Sun, Feb 18, 2024
- Seattle Sea Kayaking
- Sea Kayaking
- Adults
- Easy, Sea Kayak II+
- Easy
- Mileage: 12.0 mi
- Maximum Wind: 15 kts
- Maximum Waves: 3 ft
- Maximum Currents: 3 kts
- Pace: 3
- 1 (7 capacity)
- Cancellation & Refund Policy
The paddlers from both trips will rendezvous at 8:15 am at the south end of the Lower Woodland Park Ball Fields parking lot (that is on the north west corner of N 50th Street and Green Lake Way N). Here we will swap cars and move boats. The aim of this swap is to ensure that your car is waiting for you at the end of your paddle, so you will, carefully, drive someone else's car to your starting point. There are no tide or current concerns, so we will take our time to ensure we all get to our start points with the required equipment. That being said, it takes 15 minutes to drive from the meeting location to the launches. We expect to be at the launches by about 9 am and starting our paddles by 9:30 ish.
There are no crossings on this route and it is mostly protected from wind. However, there can be strong 'currents' in the locks and significant waves/chop (up to 3 ft) can be experienced in the narrow Montlake Cut. This is a busy waterway so we will need to paddle in tight groups to minimize our interactions with other traffic.
Required Equipment
These eight essentials plus The Ten Essentials are required on all sea kayaking trips. All but the whistle and clothing should be provided with any kayak rental.
- Floatation in both ends of the kayak
- U.S. Coast Guard approved Personal Flotation Device (PFD)
- Paddle
- Spray skirt
- Bilge pump with floatation
- Self-rescue paddle float
- Waterproof whistle
- Appropriate clothing for the conditions encountered seasonally