Walked the Mercer Slough loop trails Sunday morning, or rather attempted to.  We parked at the Mercer Slough Education Center, (free parking though somewhat limited.)  There are currently no open restrooms that I know of along this route.  We’d planned to walk down the east side of Mercer Slough, make a quick excursion down EasTrail to Newcastle Beach and come back up the west side of Mercer Slough.  However, the Mercer Slough trail is blocked due to construction along the southeast corner.  There is no legal route to do the loop currently and the Sweyolocken boat launch is closed and full of construction equipment.  That said, there “may” be a hole in the DOT fence just north of the trail that “may” let you walk up along the last bit of offramp to Bellevue Way and “may” have access back to the traditional trail just south of the new lightrail station, but of course I wouldn’t know anything about that.

The trails that are not closed are in great shape - even the bit on the north end around the blueberry fields that have always been a mud pit have had a bunch of new wood chips added so no need to get your tootsies wet anymore.  The blueberry fields are currently blazing red with fall color now, pretty amazing.  Also don’t miss the neat views of downtown Bellevue skyscrapers seemingly floating off in the distance.  A beautiful little walk with lots to see, but be mindful of the current closure.  

We had a great trip at the Mercer Island Slough with our 2 and 4-year-old. The trails were very well maintained except for a section from the Slough Bridge over to Winters House. The trail was quite muddy. Our shoes sank into the mud and got really dirty as we crossed. We made it over to Winters House and enjoyed the walk along the blueberry farm and the boardwalk to the house. The mosquitos were out in full force and we came unprepared with bare legs and no bug spray, but wearing mosquito-resistant clothing and some bug spray will make them less of an annoyance. Overall it was a nice walk, not very crowded at all, and parking was easy by the education center.

Just wanted to write a quick update for this trail. Typically I run the "figure-8" loop in the middle of the slough that is all on boardwalks and bark chips. Haven't been out to the blueberry farm half of it in some time. Looks like the city is doing some construction on parts with new dikes/dams to better flood the blueberry field. The back side (side furthest from the slough) of the blueberry loop is is really bad muddy condition. I've been running here for 20+ years and this is the worst I've seen a section that I can remember (with that being said this section of the loop was only added in since the LINK construction). I got about 30% through that straightaway and had to turn back on my run today. I decided to try to cut across the blueberry fields. I scoped a few rows and picked the one that looked driest/off camber and went down it. Big mistake, my shoes got soaked lol. I think with the construction they are doing to this section + the heavy rains we've been having have made this section nearly impassible without boots. The water table of the slough is super high right now. No pics since I run without my phone.

Walked the Mercer Slough and I-90 trails for a big messy loop Friday morning in the sprinkles starting from the Environmental Education center access point off 118th Ave SE.  Parking is free and fairly plentiful here, and at the Sweolochen boat launch lot off Bellevue Way SE.  There are no restroom facilities at either lot, though there is a functional sanican at Enatai Beach park just west along the I-90 trail.  Our basic route was counterclockwise through Mercer, west on I-90 trail to look at the views off the East Channel bridge and Enatai Beach, back east along I-90 trail along the south end of Mercer then back north.  NOTE - the entire trail section in Mercer Slough on the northwest corner around the blueberry patches and near the light rail construction is currently closed with no access.  All the rest of the trails are in good shape, boardwalk areas are nicely sanded to avoid slips, woodchip areas are all relatively dry.  

One other quick related excursion - we walked down the Lake Washington Loop path from the SE corner of Mercer Slough down to where it connects with new “Eastrail” at Coal Creek Pkwy as I’d wanted to see how construction was coming along and if you could get up on the old railroad grade.  Eastrail is open all the way to Coal Creek from the south (Renton) now with the old rail bridges nicely converted but the original grade north of that point is completely fenced off and totally secure with no way other than scaling the chainlink to walk that old bit at this point.  There is ongoing construction but it looks like it will be a while before that will open.  

Quite a bit of birdlife out this morning with a number of winter birds and a bunch of different types of ducks, (Merganser, Gadwall, Ring-necked, Mallard, etc).  Lots of nice territorial and water views in Mercer Slough, plus if you add the I-90 bit the views off East Channel are really nice to the north up the lake.  A very nice walk even if a bit cold and wet.  Happy Holidays and thanks very much to everybody that makes getting out on the trails possible.

Took a trip around Mercer Slough this morning, and it wasn’t quite the peaceful meander I’d hoped for. There were soooo many mosquitoes, and while my bug spray may have deterred them a little, if I stopped for more than a few seconds, a handful would start trying to land on me. It’s a pretty place to walk, and even more when all the blueberries start to ripen. I wasn’t sure the rules about how to go about picking berries, I saw folks with buckets and also signs to stay on trail because it’s a leased farm. Trail is in great condition. I saw a lot of birds and bunnies along the way. I parked in the bellefields lot because there was maintenance happening at the education center lot, and was bummed that the bathroom was locked both as I set out around 7:45 and when I returned after 9.