For those of you who don’t know, it’s Winter. I’m not sure if grammar has us capitalizing seasons, but Winter deserves honor. If it weren’t for Winter, I would be outside; if it weren’t for Winter, I wouldn’t have a cold. If it weren’t for Winter, I would be able to reach various hiking destinations but, due to Winter, I cannot make it there. I don’t have snow chains on my purple convertible, therefore, I stick close to home and that is Eastside Seattle.
On the Washington Trails Association, there is a series of write-ups about parks within city limits, entitled, “Suburban Safari.” I got into it. I decided to follow suit, and visit a lakeside park close to home that offers exercise trails, as well as pretty views. I visited the new Sammamish Landing Park that borders the northeast area of the 11-mile lake.
This newly manicured park offers lakeside, wooded trails that skirt the water and a sufficient amount of grassy lawn for a dog to get in some exercise. The lakeside trails are fairly muddy at this time of year, but the old train track-turned-gravel exercise trail that borders the whole of the east side of the lake is readily available for marsh-side walks, bicycle rides, and cold-air runs.
As the gray fog settles in across the lake and hides the tips of the western-side trees, and as snowy sheets dust the higher elevations of the neighboring Issaquah Alps to the south, there is much to see. Although the lake’s deciduous trees are barren at this time of the year, there is still protected marsh-land bordering much of the trail and lots of wildlife such as blue herons, mallard ducks, and believe it or not, double-crested cormorants. For the first time in my life, this year I caught a glimpse of 2 cormorants (on separate occasions, 1 being on Thanksgiving) on the inland eastside (I had only seen them in Alaska on the beach prior to these sightings. It thrilled me … they are beautiful birds!) Just sayin’, with a last name like crane, it makes you notice these things! My dad is a bird-watcher, go figure!
For those of you in Washington looking to admire nature and get in some exercise, I hope this article explains how you can do that in your beautiful backyard! Enjoy!
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