The daytime low tides of spring and summer along the Puget Sound shoreline expose miles of wide stretches of sandy and cobble beaches. The shorelines then become trails in their own right and so they must be walked. My inspiration for shoreline walking derives largely from Harvey Manning’s Footsore — Walks and Hikes Around Puget Sound series of four guidebooks (1, 2, 3, and 4). For this diary, Footsore 1 includes the portion of the shoreline we* walked a couple weeks ago and which I will describe to you here.
In Harvey Manning’s words from Footsore 1:
In this edition the name is changed from “Puget Sound Trail” to the more comprehensive and anciently authentic “Whulj Trail.” The reason is that “Puget Sound,” by which Vancouver designated the water south of Point Defiance, has crept so steadily northward it threatens to annex the very Pacific Ocean. Puget Sound may extend to the south end of Whidbey Island but cannot be allowed to conquer Admiralty Inlet, Possession Sound, and the bays and straits beyond. However a need does exist for a name to encompass the entirety of the “inland sea.” Any sound judgement must veto “Puget Sound” and (ugh!) “Greater Puget Sound.” The best name is the one most Salish-speakers gave “the saltwater,” or “the saltwater we know.” The simplest Englishing of the Salish word is “Whulj,” pronounced exactly the way it’s spelled.
Harvey Manning was a true icon of Washington conservation advocacy and outdoors: Harvey Manning at HistoryLink
This third and last edition was published in May 1988. Some of the walks and hikes have changed since then and new ones have sprung up. The introduction is a great read.
Of course I have all four volumes.
When we first moved up to the Seattle area from southern California in late 1990 and bought our home in Edmonds in 1991, we became absorbed in the whole PNW vibe. Transplants as we were, we felt this was the place where we truly belonged, where destiny rightfully took us, where we raised our family. Our home, built in 1968, is located about 500 feet from the shoreline, a mere 5 minute walk to an easement that allows neighborhood access to the shore as written into the covenants recorded with the county. It’s a bit of a secret not known to many outside our neighborhood. When the real estate agent mentioned in passing that we had shore access, we were like, you’re kidding, aren’t you? The shore access is the start and finish of our Whulj Trail walks, depending on which way we go, either north or south along the shore.
For this diary, we walked the shore over two consecutive days. The first day we walked south to downtown Edmonds through bucolic Edmonds neighborhoods. Then, reaching the Edmonds ferry dock, we reversed and walked the shoreline north to our shore access at Browns Bay, a distance of 3.5 miles of shore walking along the Whulj Trail. On the second day we did a shorter walk along along the Browns Bay shore, walking north from the shore access up to Haines Wharf and back.
Yellow highlight traces our first day walk from the Edmonds ferry dock to the shore access.
Orange highlight traces our walk from the shore access to Haines Wharf (and back).
First Day
We left the house about midmorning to walk into Edmonds along quiet streets and well-kept houses. Low tide was expected around 1:30 PM, so we had time for lunch in town before starting our shore walk back home. We ate lunch at Rory’s by the ferry dock. And then we were off.
Our walk begins at Brackett’s Landing by the Edmonds ferry dock. The tide is already quite low here. A Washington State ferry is approaching to dock. Across the water is the Kitsap Peninsula, and beyond the Olympic Mountains.
From Harvey Manning’s Footsore 1:
Immediately north of Edmonds there’s no bluff and houses crowd the way. Then the wilderness wall rises again, cut by gulches and a sand canyon, offering a series of trails inland — doubtless private property and thus not public accesses to the beach.
At about 3 miles the shore bends into Browns Bay.
Train tracks run along the entire shoreline from Salmon Bay to Everett. Mostly BNSF freight trains sometimes carrying coal, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas, and hazardous chemicals. BNSF owns the tracks and right of way. The Amtrak Cascades has two daily round trip trains between Seattle and Vancouver, BC, Canada - four trains. The Amtrak Empire Builder between Seattle and Chicago runs two trains — westbound and eastbound. The Sounder commuter train runs between Everett and Seattle with four morning trains and four evening trains.
This is the Whulj Trail. Expect wet feet. Mats of nourishing eelgrass. Buried clams squirt jets of water. The views are endless.
We passed a flock of Brant, maybe numbering around a hundred, feeding on eelgrass. After two weeks have passed, I’m sure they’ve gone north by now. Across the water is Possession Point, the south end of Whidbey Island.
I’m sure we passed by at least a half dozen Great Blue Herons.
A really big colony of Aggregating Anemone (Anthopleura elegantissima).
A closer view of the colony. When the tide rolls back in and covers the colony, they’ll open up.
Ochre Sea Star (Pisaster ochraceus). We came across a few and they looked healthy. Encouraging that they may be recovering from sea star wasting disease.
Some stupid with a house on the bluff hits golf balls out to the shoreline where they remain forever. There were over a hundred golf balls here.
Finally we reach “the rock,” a glacial erratic, transported here on the advancing ice sheet and then left here when the ice melted. It’s about 10 feet high and nearly covered at high tide. To the right, in the distance, the white building is Haines Wharf, destination for the next day.
“The Rock” supports an abundance of marine life like these Painted Anemones (Urticina grebelnyi), sagging without the buoyant support of sea water.
A sandy area behind “the rock” created when the rock dissipates incoming wave energy and allows sand to accumulate on the quiet leeward side.
Finally we round the bend into Browns Bay, almost home. To the left, in the distance, the white building is Haines Wharf, destination for the next day.
Second Day
Second day was a short walk along the shoreline of Browns Bay up to the abandoned Haines Wharf. This time we took our two dogs because there is no restriction here on the neighborhood shore. Dogs are not allowed on Edmonds city beaches which is why they stayed home on the first day.
Under Haines Wharf. The pilings and the shadow seem to enhance the chances for finding some more unusual marine life like sea pens and nudibranchs.
Orange Sea Pen (Ptilosarcus gurneyi)
Striped Nudibranch (Armina californica)
Moonglow Anemone (Anthopleura artemisia)
Chain Tunicate (Botrylloides violaceus)
Ochre Sea Star (Pisaster ochraceus)
Mottled Star (Evasterias troschelii)
I have always lived close to the Pacific Ocean. If I should live too far away I’m sure that I would wither and turn to dust, blowing away on a dry desert wind.
Thanks for walking along with me. The shoreline is in constant change. We will return again and explore together.
What’s going on in your natural environment? What are you seeing?
* “we” refers to my wife and me
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