My wife and I enjoyed hiking Spencer Island today. It wasn't sunny, but it didn't rain. There were large eagles and many beautiful ducks. The bridge across the slough at the North end of the island has not been repaired. The remainder of the trails are clear. There were quite a few people visiting the island today, even though it was breezy and cool. We plan to return in the spring and summer to compare seasons.

The elves played hookey from cleaning the workshop today and decided to walk off a few sugerplums. This is a nice winter walk to take without driving too far. Nice mountain views, lots of birds and very few people. I always manage to see a new bird here, today it was a peregrin falcon and a kingfisher. The trail splits at the large footbridge labeled Spencer Island. We took the southern loop, then walked a ways on the northern section. Be aware that hunting is allowed on the northern part. This nice trail is reached by taking I 5 to the Marine View drive exit. Come off the freeway and turn left onto Marine View DR. Follow this until you get to the drawbridge, it will have a sign for Marysville. Turn R and cross the bridge. Right after crossing the bridge, take a R. There will be a sign for Langus Park and Everett Animal Shelter. Follow these signs, pass thru Dagmars Landing(boats) and pass the animal shelter. You can park across from the shelter or keep going. The last good parking space is to your R, under the freeway. Then walk the road past the sewage treatment plant and follow in to the end. I am giving these directions because I know too many people that have somehow gotton lost getting here.

Posted signs indicate that this trail is closed until November 1, 2012. We couldn't determine the reason. Both approaches are marked as closed.

My son and I have wanted to try this one out for some time and today seemed like the perfect day. The parking lot for the trailhead is located next to the Everett wastewater treatment plant. After being treated to an aromatic bouquet, follow the short gravel road to a bridge and the trailhead. Here is a link to a map of the trails: http://www.co.snohomish.wa.us/documents/Departments/Parks/img/spencer.pdf From the trailhead you can choose to either go north(left) into Washington DFW land or go south(right) and stay on Snohomish County property. Today we chose to go south and follow the Cross Levee trail across the park. The trails in this part of the park are wide and either gravel or grass covered. There are a couple of boardwalks that lead to some viewing areas that provide views of the mountains to the north and east. Once we arrived on the east side of the park, we decided to explore the area to the north and follow the trail in that direction. The trail in this part of the park is very overgrown and not very well maintained. My six year old had a hard time navigating the trail with the brush in his way, which was about as tall as him in places. There were also a couple of blowdowns on the trail in this part of the park. We eventually turned around and headed to the southern part of the park. The trails in the southern part of the park are wide and well maintained. There are places with nice views and a few bridges along the trail that offer good viewpoints for scenery and bird watching. We saw birds of all kinds today including robins and a couple of larger birds (maybe herons or cranes). We will visit this area again, maybe when things start to green up a bit.

I took my 10 y/o daughter out for our very first hike of the year to Spencer Island. She was breaking in a new pair of boots, so we wanted an easy nature hike. The day was clear and lots of walkers were out and many had their dogs with them. The trail that we went on was in excellent condition. We took the paved trail to the south first, and it rounds back up to meet up with the gravel road that passes through the Everett water treatment plant at the Jackknife bridge. We saw lots of mallard ducks and other black and white ducks. The best sight on the hike was a seal playing around in the Snohomish River. We watched him for about 20 minutes as he surfaced and submerged several times. I strongly recommend this hike for families with small children.