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.
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