Subject: Portage Wildlife Sanctuary
Date: Nov 15 20:55:03 1997
From: Jane Hadley - jhadle at halcyon.com


Fellow Tweetsters:

My husband, Randy Robinson, and I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours
at the Portage Wildlife Sanctuary today. It's quite a beautiful place
with a very nice mix of habitats (freshwater ponds, marsh, open fields,
wooded areas). Gene Ammon, the park ranger, guided us on our walk.

Among our sightings were a Dark-Phase Rough-legged Hawk, three or four
Marsh Hawks, a Kestrel, several Redtails, a female Hooded Merganser, a
Pintail and a Pied-billed Grebe, both Chestnut-backed and Black-capped
Chickadees, and both Kinglets.

Here are some modified directions (compared to those posted earlier on
Tweeters):

Go north on I-5 until you get to the Arlington-Silvana area.
Take the SR 530 exit. Go east just 1/4 of a mile until the first
turn-off on the right. The sign will say "Old 99."

Turn right onto "Old 99" and drive south about 1/4 of a mile, where you
take a left onto Cemetary Road. (Cemetary Road is apparently also known
as 204 SE and "Old 99" is apparently also known as Smokey Point Blvd.)
Take this road eastwards through dairy fields for about a mile. The road
turns sharply to the right -- follow it. Continue as the road goes up a
hill turning to the left.

Continue on eastwards for about 1/4 of a mile, where you will notice a
housing development ("High Clover") on your left. Continue a short
distance past the housing development and look very carefully on your
left for a gravel road heading down the hill. A small brown sign says
"Future Centennial Trail" and also "Portage Wildlife Area." Head down
this road (slowly) and you're there.

It appears that another way to reach this wildlife area is to take the
SR 531 exit from I-5 (one exit south of the SR 530 exit), go east to
Smokey Point Blvd and go north until you reach Cemetary Road. However,
we did not actually drive this route.

--
Jane Hadley
jhadle at halcyon.com
Seattle, WA