Lake Padden

Wednesday, April 4, 2011

Chance and I went for a walk around Lake Padden today, the first day with sun and a break from the rain. It is 2 miles from our house. It reminds me a lot of Lake Johnson in Raleigh. The gravel trail around the lake is about 3 miles long, but the nice part is there isn’t as much ups and downs with hills. There is a ban on boat motors, making it a great natural setting. Even though it was 40 degrees out, there were still plenty of people out walking, working out and bicycling.

There are several floating docks. Chance really wanted to walk out on them and check them out, but once she realized they were not that stable, she wanted to run back to solid ground.

The trees here are beautiful. Everything is so green.

Chance was very good at scaring away all the ducks and geese. It was great to see such a beautiful blue sky.

On the east side, there is a boat launch, playground, picnic shelters, baseball fields, and an off-leash dog park. I took Chance into the fenced in dog area. The larger dogs worried Chance so she clung close to me the whole time. There were concrete tubes covered by a pile of dirt that looks like a fun playground for dogs. Maybe one day Chance won’t be so timid. There is also a golf course next to the lake.

There were creeks with older trees falling down. I love seeing the bright green moss growing on the north side of the trees.

Chance was a good listener when I decided to stop and take pictures. She is getting a lot better at walking next to us. Next time we go, we’ll try out other trails further from the lake that are off-leash.

There was a large tree that fell down. The bright reddish brown wood trunk against the green moss is beautiful.  

In an hour, the weather quickly changed to overcast, getting ready to rain again shortly. In the distance is Mount Baker, the large mountain in the Cascades nearby with a ski resort.