![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mwenda.com\/seacreatures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/BlakelyPark-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
There are two plausible\u00a0put-in spots, and I started from the one further back in the bay, which allowed the use of wheels to get the kayak from the road nearly as far as the beach. (I donned\u00a0drysuit and boots to carry the boat across\u00a0a swampy little pool, and loaded it on gravel beside deeper water.)<\/p>\n
Not only have most signs of industry faded, but some lavish residences have appeared. The dock in the picture above is just the first of several along the north shore, one of them with\u00a0a boat house big enough to shelter a matching one-and-a-half-story houseboat inside.<\/p>\n
The south shore of the bay is in some ways even grander. \u00a0I knew from the map that it was bordered by Country Club Road, so\u00a0I looked\u00a0for a building to match. This one seemed like a good candidate, but the small windows and adjacent rail fences suggest that it may be just the stables. Later research showed that this area is in fact called The Country Club at\u00a0Seattle, a nine-hole golf course wrapping around the point and shared by the owners of the eighteen houses built there, and mostly handed down within families, since the nineteenth century.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Around the point, I had a good view of Manchester but soon tired of the southerly breeze and decided to save this part of the trip for\u00a0another day, starting next time at Fort Ward. \u00a0On my way back progress was easier, but when I arrived at\u00a0the park I found my earlier launch site thronged by youngsters, so I landed at\u00a0the official boat launch, the one shown in the first picture. So far so good; but that meant moving the boat artisanally up the dozen or so fairly steep steps to the road. On such a nice, leisurely November afternoon, it seemed nearly a pleasure.<\/p>\n This was not my first trip to Port Blakely. I had paddled here from Eagle Harbor about a month before and explored its inner lagoon, but had trouble\u00a0then understanding how road access might work. A map like the one posted on the kiosk near the beach seems no longer available on the web. On the other hand, there is a detailed\u00a0history of the area<\/a>, with plenty of old photographs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Blakely Harbor is a pretty quiet place today, but in the 1800s this was the site of the world’s most productive\u00a0sawmill. The original\u00a0car ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island had its terminal here. Now there’s a park instead,\u00a0its uplands unmanicured … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n