Sunday May 1, 2011      11:00AM

Montrose Dog Beach……WILSON & the Lake, just North of Montrose Harbor/Montrose Beach. 

Exit Lake Shore Drive at Montrose and turn toward the Lake. Follow the road past the harbour on the right. At the bait house, the only option is to go left (N Simonds Dr.) Continue over the small bridge to Wilson & turn right. You will see the steel walls from the old docks. The dog beach is on the other side of these walls. There is a small parking lot available, but it will likely be full. You can park anywhere along the street, but NO PARKING IS FREE, including the parking lot! There are fee boxes (they take credit cards…which I prefer because it costs the city when I use one!). Leave the ticket on the passenger dash. If the weather is nice…it will be crowded by 11:00am. You may end up parking on Simonds. We will meet on the grassy area south of the steel walls, if you need to drop a Tripawd off & park. 

There is a wooden ramp access to the beach, but only sand between the entrance and the water and firmer sand on the shore. If we suddenly get warm, dry weather and the sand is too soft for any of the dogs (other than Isabelle…she can be carried….) we can skip the water & just stay on the grassy area. The beach is fenced…the grassy area is not.

If it is cold out, we can use the pier to the regular beach & just stay there. There is no fence on the regular beach, but it's a long way to any trouble!

There is always the possibility of some event coming up (Cubs are out of town, that's a plus!) As of today there are no permits I could find for that day….but I will monitor that…I'm working on an alternate meeting place just in case. The dog parks are just too crowded on the weekends, parking would be difficult and it's too far for the dogs to walk.

http://www.mondog.org is the beach organization's website. Don't get too stressed about the permit tag. The beaches are not open & the county has no money….