Three Tree N.

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BASSMAN
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Three Tree N.

Post by BASSMAN »

Dive Site Name: Three Tree North

Current Sensitive: yes/no -Not if you stay towards the North end.
The farther you swim South towards the Point, you will encounter more current.

Location/Address: Burien

Directions:
From I-5N or I-405, you need to follow highway 518 to the west. Go past the airport. After you get to Burien (where the freeway ends), continue straight through the lights. You will now be on 148th. Follow 148th until you come to Ambaum. Take a left at the light on Ambaum (now heading south) for a few blocks, then turn right at the light on 152 (now heading west). Follow 152nd for about a mile, then take a left on 21st. This road will curve all over the place, so pay attention. Follow 21st and it will eventually turn into Marine View Drive, which will then turn into SW 170th, then 33rd Ave SW, and finally Maplewild Drive after a big hairpin turn. Maplewild Drive was damaged in the recent earthquake, so you can only go one-way (southwest) where Maplewild and 33rd meet. About a half mile down Maplewild, you will see a small store on your right. Immediately after this store is 170th, where you want to turn right. If you go around the point, you have missed the turn-off. Once you turn onto 170th, go straight for a very short distance until you hit the beach

From the South:

I-5 to 188th exit. Turn left and continue past International (99) Blvd,
Though the tunnel (under the Runway),
turn on to hwy 509 N.
Take the very next exit 160th, turn left (Back over hwy 509)continue to about the 3rd stop light.
Turn left on Sylvester Rd. continue (Exactly 2 miles)untill the road becomes the front yard for about a dozen homes.
("You will know what I mean, when you see it")

Continue for 1 mile.. to the dive site

At end of the "Residential Strip" you will see a concrete barrier ,(this is Three Tree South) several "No Parking" stratigically placed signs, will not allow you to park here.

Continue around curve (to the right) and look for the street sign, 170th.Turn left @ 170th, Parking and divesite entrance is then slightly to the right.

Free Parking: (yes) there is only a small parking area here and it is not well marked. The parking area is paved and by a personal residence.

Staging Area: Use your Truck tailgate

Surface Swim: Average

Nearby Facilities: None

Special Considerations: Be very Quiet on a night dive and respect adjacent shore lines (Private Property)

Maximum Depth: 75 feet to 20 feet on average.
(Rumor has it, you could get deeper 130+)


Dive Site Description:

My favorite Dive Plan here is...

Enter the water directly in front of the enterance.
Walk or swim in the shallow water to the Left (South).
Align your self with the 3rd flag pole on the shore.
Surface swim out to the Bouys (not neccessary to any one particular bouy)
Take a heading in line with the Bouys aprox 210 ( S.-towards the point).
Decend down to aproximately 45 fsw. continue straight out from shore to aprox 65 fsw. Swim the heading of about 210(I think, thats why you should check before you drop).
continue at 60 to 65 fsw and you should find the "Other Boat" at Three Tree N. It's a Small 20' or 24' Cabin Cruiser.

There is tons of macro life and the ocasinal Ling Cod here along with Rock Fish.

swim around a few times and then head back to the North 40 to 50 fsw and enjoy the rest of Three Tree.

We usually turn the dive and end with a shallow 15 to 20 fsw swim back South again to the entry.

Enjoy!

For other info see...

http://www.seaotter.com/marine/html/threetree.html


To be continued...
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Chevayea
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Post by Chevayea »

I dive this site regularly too. You'll often see octos around that boat as well. If you take a right instead you'll find all sorts of "junk", a boat on its trailer still (poor sucker), a couple stacks of corrugated pipes full of fish, a satellite dish, etc. It is a pretty broad site and easy to miss things though. <p>I have a review of it on my website at http://www.theperfectdive.com/DEF-Site.asp?sID=6. It is a fun dive site, especially at night.
Last edited by Chevayea on Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Dusty2
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Re: Three Tree N.

Post by Dusty2 »

Hey guys here is my 3 tree north map. hope it works for you. Just mouse over the picture and click on original for large size map.

http://underthesound.smugmug.com/photos ... dJvU-O.jpg
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Layner
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Good directions to 3 tree N

Post by Layner »

Wondering if anyone can give good directions to 3 Tree. I've seen the semi-dirs on perfectdive, but any turn-by-turn tips folks have on this board would really help. BTW, coming from North Seattle. Thanks in advance!
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spatman
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Re: Good directions to 3 tree N

Post by spatman »

i'm sure other folks will chime in, but here's a google map link to 3 tree north.
Image
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E_Mo
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Re: Good directions to 3 tree N

Post by E_Mo »

I use the address of a nearby house; 3769 SW 170th Place, Seattle, WA 98166. I just plug this into my navigator, in case you have a Garmin or something...
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BASSMAN
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Re: Good directions to 3 tree N

Post by BASSMAN »

I-5 to 188th steet exit. Turn right and continue past International (99) Blvd,
Though the tunnel (under the Runway),
turn on to hwy 509 N. (on ramp is on the right)
Take the very next exit 160th, turn left (Back over hwy 509)continue to about the 3rd stop light.
Turn left on Sylvester Rd. continue (Exactly 2 miles)untill the road becomes the front yard for about a dozen homes.
("You will know what I mean, when you see it")

Continue for 1 mile.. to the dive site

At end of the "Residential Strip" you will see a concrete barrier ,(this is Three Tree South) several "No Parking" stratigically placed signs, will not allow you to park here.

Continue around curve (to the right) and look for the street sign, 170th.Turn left @ 170th, Parking and divesite entrance is then slightly to the right.

This will get you there every time! :salute:
Hi, my name is Keith, and I'm a Dive Addict! :supz:
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Dusty2
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Re: Good directions to 3 tree N

Post by Dusty2 »

Here you go. there is also a nice ariel photo dive map in this directory. http://underthesound.smugmug.com/galler ... 0738_kdJvU
3treemap.jpg
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Mortuus
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Re: Three Tree N.

Post by Mortuus »

Just dove this site for the first two nights ago, and I must say, I was impressed. Me and my buddy were fortunate enough to meet up with some Marker Buoy Dive Club divers who knew the site, and let us tag along. I am very glad they did, because it is indeed spread out, but if you know where everything is, there is a lot to see. We saw about 4 GPO's and lots of other cool critters (still working on my critter names since im new to the area xD). I would not doubt "rumors" that you can go to 130+ fsw at this site. Our max depth was 75 ft, and the slope just kept on going down down down. Maybe ill get some people to go out with me some time to see if you can indeed hit 130.
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cardiver
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Three Tree N.

Post by cardiver »

Just go straight out from the entry and you'll hit 115-120 soon enough .
Any particular reason you want to hit 130 ?
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Tom Nic
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Re: Three Tree N.

Post by Tom Nic »

The slope drops quickly to 100, then it flattened out to where by the time you hit 130 you have gone out quite a ways... It is not a straight drop. As with any deep dive careful attention should always be paid to gas supply, air consumption, and enough resources to get you and your buddy to the surface if the poop hits the ventilator.
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dwashbur
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Re: Three Tree N.

Post by dwashbur »

Another critter that I see a lot here is ratfish. I've seen as many as a dozen on a single dive, and a lot of them are very tolerant of divers and let you get really close. Incidentally, the boat to the north isn't actually on its trailer any more, the trailer is a bit up slope from the boat. But the trade-off there is, the last couple of times I've been there I found a nice big octopus under the boat. One of my favorite sites; nice review!
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Wagon173
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Re: Three Tree N.

Post by Wagon173 »

Guess I should have read all of the replies before I paid boeing a visit...damn California drivers. The washingtonians were like, :angry: and I was all :pirate: Ahh good times! haha
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