Quick walk around the Redmond Watershed trails in the drippy mist this morning. Parking at either the north or southern main lot are free and relatively plentiful, full restrooms only at the south lot. Note - no pets allowed except horses. The route was a messy clockwise loop from the north lot with side trips to frog pond, the trout interpretive loop and the old dam site and pond. The trails were in really nice shape, the park folks had even raked all the leaves off the paved wheel chair/power chair/stroller accessible frog pond loop, super nice.
This set of trails is a nice one to do on a wet day as trails are typically mostly mud free and much of the distance is in forest cover. All the leaves are off the trees now so the forest is back to a vibrant green from the ferns, evergreens andl the moss all over everything. Not much wildlife out today, one smaller buck in the parking lot that quickly jumped away, some squirrels, a big flock of chickadee and some other small forest bird, plus heard though did not see a raven and a bunch of tree frogs. One other neat anecdote - stopped and talked with an older couple, Keith and Marion, for a couple minutes and it turned out that they had recently donated a wooden bench for the trail and it had now been installed. Keith mentioned it is made from timbers reclaimed from Lake Sammamish. It was not a memorial, rather they had lived in the area for many years and regularly enjoyed and loved this little stretch of forest so the inscription on the bench simply reads, “Enjoy the Forest!” - super nice. If you are interested in trying it out, the bench is along the short trout interpretive loop a bit behind the main restroom building. A nice little walk if you are in the area, now with a beautiful new bench to stop and cool your heels for a while. Happy Thanksgiving.
Comments