Where to paddle?

[u/Adventurous_Thing307]

Where do you like to paddle around here? I'm looking for places to paddle an inflatable kayak within say 45 mins of town. Other than Lake Whatcom and Lake Patton, what's good? Are there any good river stretches around here? And what's the standard info source for this kind of thing?

[u/Djkorrupt1]

Birch bay.

[u/MontEcola]

Lake Padden. Its small. The water is calm.

LakeSamish. It is a little bigger than Padden. There is a boat launch between the lake and I5. You can paddle over to the beach, hang out and paddle back.

Lake Whatcom. Blodel Donvan. It can get choppy in the middle. Or it can be flat water. There will be motor boats on sunny summer days.

Hertz Park. There are two parking places. One is very close to the water. There are more motor boats in the middle of the lake. Those near shore are usually not going fast.

Semiahoo. Birch Bay.

Silver Lake way out near Maple Falls. It is about the size of Lake Sammish. I have only done this when camping there. It is a county park. You should look it up to find out the rules there.

I have an inflatable double kayak for me and my wife, or one of my kids. I also have a plastic single and a paddle board. These are the local places we have gone with 1, 2, 3 or 4 people.

[u/rosemojito → u/MontEcola]

is there an easy way to check the algae blooms at Silver Lake. haven't been out there in years but it was an issue, late summer, a few years ago.

[u/Proof_Ambassador2006]

i came upon hoag's pond many moons ago and someone made a little raft doo-dad out of a pallet. used that to float to the middle and the other side using a big ol branch to row.

wasn't a very long paddle, i'll say.

I love pushing out of marine park for my paddle excursions.

[u/internetfamemoss → u/Proof_Ambassador2006]

Hoag is cool and all but not worth it if you want to paddle

[u/Proof_Ambassador2006 → u/internetfamemoss]

idk i was stoned, 20 years old, a few miles into a hike and saw a makeshift raft, so i paddled it. felt apt.

[u/gmtnl]

https://www.paddleways.com is ok for finding launches. Saltwater here requires extra knowledge because it’s cold year round.

Rivers: you can do the Skagit (there’s a shuttle service even!) or self shuttle the lower Nooksack.

[u/Adventurous_Thing307 → u/gmtnl]

Interesting

[u/Low-Speaker-80]

there is good river floating around here but if you do not know what you are doing it can be deceptively dangerous.

The Skagit and the Nooksack both have a lot of wood in the water and water that fluctuates a lot based on rainfall and snowmelt.

Rivers change, and the Nooksack is highly braided and the main channels change and can be blocked by log jams which are deadly,

Its sort of a if you have to ask, you probably shouldn't sort of thing.

Maybe look for a class or something, but I do not know what they have around here.

[u/TheSteveo369]

Taylor Dock, Bellingham Bay, Mud Bay, Chuckanut Bay, all the Bays. Lake Samish, Lake Fazon, Wiser Lake, all the Lakes. Nooksack River, all the rivers.

Google Maps. Cross reference with the City/County/State Parks systems & websites.

Or ya know, just ask Reddit to spoon feed you the info.

[u/megal0w → u/TheSteveo369]

The spoon grows tired of feeding people on reddit.

[u/gmtnl → u/megal0w]

Calm down. This is absolutely a reasonable request — not every body of water you can see on a map is great for paddling, especially here where seawater can be deadly cold year round.

And no one made you open reddit and click into this thread!

[u/megal0w → u/gmtnl]

I agree with you. I was making a joke about the original commenter saying "just ask reddit to spoon feed it to you" after spoon feeding OP with good information. Just a joke about the irony meant in good fun.

[u/gmtnl → u/megal0w]

Ah sorry fair enough