Investigating a swim in the Cedar River, Renton, Washington

This morning, I investigated the Cedar River, near its joining with Lake Washington, for a potential river swim. This is a snow-melt river that originates in our municipal watershed in the mountains. It is beautiful, cold, surrounded by forest and by leafy suburbs. Where it joins the lake, it’s got a small, interesting airport on one side and a Boeing factory on the other. A green sliver of parkland lets the public enjoy the river and the lake for walking, exercising, bird-watching, kayaking and paddleboarding. There’s lots to look at. We did go paddleboarding there. But I really want to swim in this clear, cold water. I’m inspired by the book Waterlog, by English swimmer Roger Deakin.

I parked in Cedar River Trail Park (by the playground and picnic shelter) and followed the river slowly upstream, on the undulating green lawn, peering over the shrubs and brush to look into the water’s depth. I wanted to (1) see where the water goes from ankle-deep (crystal-clear, riffly, colorful gravel bottom) to swim/floating depth of three or four feet (clear, green and cold) and (2) locate spots to get in and out of the water, in shallow areas and in deeper areas. If I go for a swim, I will want to know where all the escape routes are. (And I won’t go alone.)  

I spotted several places where the water was four or five feet deep at the edge, where it looked pretty easy to climb out via a couple of pieces of concrete rubble and/or roots, mud and grass. But easy places to wade in or out of ankle-deep water, which feels safer to me, were much harder to find. The park caretakers have done a “good” job of letting vegetation block access to the water for most of this part of the river. I eventually found one path down to shallow water, right at the south end of the chest-high wall alongside the paved path.

I waded in where it’s ankle deep and walked until the water was just above my knees — deep enough to float. I could see that within a few more yards, the water would be hip deep. I backtracked and got out, having achieved today’s goal. My next desire is to wade in or plop in and swim downstream, at least a few hundred yards, or as far as I’m comfortable going.

So I could swim from today’s wade-in spot or (more challenging) could plop in downstream, where the water is deep and cold at the edge. If I do that I’ll have to be sure to identify the nearest place to climb out before I get in. I could also get in at the small boat launch, which is much closer to where the river runs into the lake. Either way, I won’t go alone. My swim competence is new. One of my fitness-training friends will likely go with me. Maybe next week!