The Duwamish River is a very much abused yet it still manages to cling to life. I've read two books lately which reflect upon the history of this maligned waterway. Too High and Too Steep by Michael Williams and Upstream by Langdon Cook. These reads have prompted me to do some exploring in the Puget Sound area that I might otherwise not know was there.
The Duwamish River before Europeans settled here, was fed by three rivers. The Black River, which dried up as the outlet for Lake Washington when the lake was lowered; the White River, which was diverted to Lake Washington, and the Green River which remains as the sole tributary to the Duwamish. I've now been looking at following the Green River to it's source up near Stampede Pass. All told it is somewhere near 100 miles. Today was an inaugural reconnaissance trip to piece this together as a bike trip.
As the guidebook states the first few miles of this trail is industrial with a capitol I. There are several little parks along the way that the DOT or Seattle Parks or someone has created to keep it interesting. Although worth going to in their own right, and easy enough to bike from one to another, they really don't seem particularly appealing to hike the length of them. Be forewarned that some areas (Park 107) has homeless camps and the brushier areas along the water were being used as a cruising spot.
The further out from Elliot Bay that we got the more interesting it got. The heavy traffic never really went away but the stretches of green became longer. Once in Tukwila we followed the river as far as the Foster Homestead. A small plaque in an even smaller park along the river commemorates these early (1854) homesteaders who operated ferries across the river long before it was straightened and channelized.
Stay tuned for more Urban Exploration. And further explorations of the Duwamish/Green River trail system.
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