Trails Closed?? They must not mean me...

Well, to continue with my adventures this week, I hiked a couple of miles over at Cougar Mountain. When I arrived at the trailhead, there was a notice about bear sitings. People had been seeing a momma bear and her 2 cubs almost everyday during the month of July along the Redtown and Quarry trails! Wow! I might get to see a bear. So at first I am hiking along quietly and looking every which way hoping to see a bear. But what if I surprise the momma bear and she gets angry? So, then I start talking to myself and singing little songs just to let the bear know that a human is walking here! Needless to say, I never saw a bear, don't know if a bear saw me. Not many of my photos turned out worth anything. It was kind of cloudy and underneath the canopy of the trees it was pretty dark. I was headed back to the trailhead along the Wildside Trail and I was taking a walk on the wildside this morning!

The next day, I decided to head out to Farrel-McWhirter Park in Redmond, WA. It is mainly a horseback riding farm and park, but they have a couple of hiking trails around the place too. There were some cute new baby goats at the barn and the trails all had nice new signs since the last time I had hiked around here.

Now today I was trying to get in a hike before I had to fly off for work and I always hike the Des Moines Creek Trail every year for hike-a-thon. It is convenient to the airport and it is a nice level paved trail. So I drive up and what do I see?? A Trail Closed Sign! Oh dear, what am I going to do now?? I happened to know that there are a couple more access points for this trail in the neighborhood and I thought I would go just check them out and see if they were closed off also. So when I drove around, there was nothing back there on the southern end of the trail telling me it was closed, so I hiked it anyway. I didn't get to do the entire trail because of the construction at the beginning, but I was able to get in one mile along pretty little Des Moines Creek.

Carless Hiking?? Not for me!

Well, when you last heard from me, car trouble had cut short my hiking adventures on the Olympic Peninsula. The next day I was wondering how I was going to get any hiking in for Hike-a-thon. Luckily, there is a terrific website that lists all kinds of hiking you can get to using the Seattle Metro System

http://www.eskimo.com/~pinyon/bushike/index.html

As I was perusing the internet, checking out all my options, who should walk in the door, but the Green Tortuga himself! Fresh (well, kinda stinky actually) from his Volunteer Vacation at Mt. Adams. Terrific! I grabbed his car keys and left for my hike! Just a short jaunt down the Longfellow Creek Legacy Trail for only 2 miles today. The Longfellow Trail is relatively new and is quite close to my home in West Seattle. At the beginning of the trail is a really neat Dragonfly Pavilion and then a Fish Bone Bridge. I hiked a mile to the Greg Davis Park and then returned to the car.

The next day, I hopped into Ryan's car again (they won't even be able to check out my broken VW until Monday!!) and drove down to Maple Valley, WA to hike a couple of miles on the Green to Cedar Rivers Trail. I hiked from the Lake Wilderness Arboretum to SR 516 (aka Kent-Kangley Road) and back for 5 miles total. There was a terrific letterbox series hidden along this trail and so that made it a lot of fun to hike!

Today, I was able to drive out to Tradition Lake and hike 4 miles around the lake. I was worried for a moment, because there were signs about Bridges Out and Trail Work in Progress, but the smell of new lumber was in the air and I can happily report that the trails were in terrific shape! Two new bridges on the Around the Lake and Bus Trails! Logs and trees cleared from the trail by chainsaws. Even the drive up to the trailhead, which is usually strewn with potholes had been regraveled and scraped smooth. Not a pothole in sight!! These local parks were not immune to damage during last winter's storms and folks have really been out here working overtime to get them in shape for the summer hiking season. Bus Trail? Did someone say Bus Trail? You might ask, why do they call it the Bus Trail? So I have included one last picture. My question is, "How did it get here?"

The last 3 days have netted me 11 more miles and 8 more letterbox finds!

Hike-a-thon is off to a rousing start!

My sister, Alisa flew up from Folsom, CA to go camping with me on the Olympic Peninsula. I got in late, late, late on Tuesday night from flying a trip to Amsterdam and met up with her at my apartment. We only got a few hours sleep before we gathered our gear together and headed off for adventure.
First stop was a yummy and filling breakfast at Endolyne Joe’s here in West Seattle. It is located right near the Fauntleroy ferry terminal and I just love their theme food. This season it is Brazil!

http://www.chowfoods.com/endolyne/index.aspx

We got on the Fauntleroy Ferry to Southworth over on the Kitsap Peninsula and began our journey. Once on the other side of the water, we stopped in Belfair, WA for a little hiking at the Theler WetlandsTrails. We hiked 3 miles on the River Estuary Trail and I was able to find one letterbox.

http://www.thelercenter.org/wetlands/index2.php

Next we drove up to the Staircase area for a hike in Olympic National Park. We immediately discovered evidence of the destruction of the storms of last fall. I had wanted to do a loop hike incorporating two trails, Staircase Rapids Trail and the North Fork Skokomish Trail, but the bridge was out due to the storms last fall. So we just did an out and back hike on the Staircase Rapids Trail for 2 miles total.
The day was beginning to dwindle down, so we drove over to Elwha Valley to find a campsite for the evening. Because we got there so late in the day, the Altaire campground by the river was already full, so we settled for the Elwha campground across the road. It would become our home away from home for the next two nights. A campfire and roasted marshmallows finished out the day.
Bright and early on Thursday morning, we got up and started hiking to Hume Ranch. This hike has many names in the different guidebooks I consulted. It is called the Hume Ranch Loop, The Elwha River Valley Loop and The Geyser Valley Loop. There are also many different mileage reports given for the hike depending on which side trails you take and how far down the river you travel. Alisa and I only hiked as far as the Hume Ranch cabin, looping down to the river and Krause Bottom and taking a side trail to see the Goblins Gate. We estimate that we hiked 6 miles total. We hiked along the ridge to Michael’s Cabin and on to Hume Ranch, then descended to the river bottom and hiked back towards the trailhead. Along the way, we met lots of hikers coming in the opposite direction. We discovered why when we had to hike up from Rica Canyon and it was straight up for a half a mile! It would have been much easier to do the loop in the opposite direction.

We were done with the Hume Ranch hike before lunch and we decided to drive into town for more urban hiking along the Olympic Discovery Trail.

http://www.peninsulatrailcoalition.com/

This would also allow us the opportunity to eat lunch at a fancy seafood restaurant and perhaps after our urban hike we could take in a movie at the Deer Park movie theaters on Hwy 101. Green Guillemot had hidden some letterboxes along the Olympic Discovery Trail and we were able to find them as we walked the rails to trails corridor. Along the water we had wonderful views of Port Angeles and even Canada only 17 miles across the strait. A friendly burro was grazing in a field near the trailhead. After the movie, we returned to the campground and were able to enjoy another evening by the fire.

The next morning we broke up our camp and headed back to Seattle. The plan was to do a lot of little hikes along the way to the Bremerton Ferry terminal. We stopped in Silverdale, WA and hiked 2 miles along the Clear Creek Trail, and found another letterbox.

http://www.clearcreektrail.org/

We were on our way to Anderson Landing Preserve when disaster struck! My car had been having symptoms of problems all month. It was slow to accelerate and it did not have any power on hills. I had been having a hard time climbing the hill on my street in Seattle and I would often just avoid hills with a lot of grade. We had even vetoed a trip up to Hurricane Ridge yesterday because I did not think my car could make it.

On the way to Anderson Landing, we found ourselves on a very steep hill and my car just could not make the climb. The rpm’s kept rising and the speed kept dwindling until we were stopped and the smell of the burning clutch filled the air. With only 2 bars on the cell phone, we were finally able to reach AAA and a tow truck was soon dispatched our way. Unfortunately, there would be no more hiking or letterboxing today! On the ferry ride back to Seattle, we were able to see some aerobatics airplanes practicing for SeaFair over the city. All in all, I found 8 letterboxes, hiked 16 miles and I have pledges for $765 from 20 people! I am still $235 away from my goal.

Patches

I really love travel souvenirs and I have been traveling all my life. In the past, I have collected postcards and shot glasses, hankies and Christmas ornaments. And of course, patches. Once I began to letterbox as a hobby, I enjoyed getting patches from all the places where I had been hiking and letterboxing. Each time that Ryan and I would go on a trip, I would get a patch to commemorate the event. I filled up my first backpack in record time. The LBNA (Letterboxing North America) patch is proudly displayed on the front of the pack, along with patches from many National Parks and our trips to Central America. I also have smaller patches to fill in space. Some of these are trail patches from the National Parks representing different trails. Some of them are Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts patches that I bought at antique shops or on Ebay. And the little orange patches with F100 and P100 represent "merit badges" from letterboxing. They mean that I have Found 100 letterboxes and Planted 100 letterboxes.

The second backpack that I covered with patches has my Dartmoor 100 club patch displayed front and center! It was quite an accomplishment to find 100 letterboxes in Dartmoor, England last year and I am very proud of that patch. This backpack also has patches from many of my international travels: Ireland, Holland and Scotland. It also sports my letterboxing Pacific Northwest, Letterboxing Southeast and Letterboxing Mid-Atlantic patches. Again I used smaller Girl Scout patches and Letterboxing Merit Badges to fill in space on the backpack.

The third backpack that I just finished sewing patches onto has the Atlas Quest patch front and center. This patch represents my boyfriend, Ryan's letterboxing website. The bag also has patches from our most recent letterboxing trips to Hawaii, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. I still have a drawer filled with patches that I will start sewing onto a fourth backpack. There are several states and countries that I hope to visit in the future for more hiking and letterboxing adventures and patches!
Hike-a-thon pledges are up to $720 from 17 people! With the letterboxers still outshining the flight attendants. Thanks so much to everyone!

Mooving on Up!

Most of you who have seen my boyfriend, Ryan stamped into a letterbox know that he signs his little Turtle with a Moo voice balloon. So that is behind the "Mooving on Up" of the title of this post. Silly, I know, but we have had a busy two days moving Ryan's gear from Portland, OR to Seattle, WA. From Storage to Storage. and I might be a little punchy.


It all started yesterday morning with a 3 hour drive down to Portland in my little VW. We stopped in Centralia for a Burgerville hamburger and shake. I love this restaurant chain and the closest one to Seattle is an hour and a half drive away in Centralia. They use all local ingredients in their products. So I had Walla Walla sweet onions on my burger (and fried up as onion rings too) And the cheese on the cheese burger is local Tillamook Cheese. The fruit for the shakes right now is Oregon Raspberry. This changes throughout the year with whatever is in season. Yum.


We arrived in Portland and Ryan picked up his rental truck. The 10 footer. "Perfect for Moving" it says on the side of the truck. I was envious, because Ryan would now have air-conditioning for the drive back to Seattle. Ryan had been storing his belongings in the basement of a friend's house in Portland, so we drove over to start moving his stuff out. It only took a couple of hours to get the stuff moved and then his friend Nancy made us dinner. She grilled steaks. After all, it was also a birthday celebration! Today, July 14th is Ryan's Birthday.

We left Nancy's house just as it was getting dark and drove back to Seattle. One of Ryan's birthday presents was a set of Walkie-Talkies for us to use when we are hiking. As most of you know, Ryan walks at a much faster clip than I do and often leaves me in the dust. This way we can keep in touch on the trail! We brought them along for the return road trip since we would be driving seperate vehicles. It was fun to keep in touch. I felt like I was in the movie Smokey and the Bandit. Running ahead of the UHaul in my little VW to distract the "Bears" from Ryan's Truckload of .....Stuff. :-)

The next morning bright and early we joined the rest of West Seattle and set up for a little yard sale. But in this yard sale we had more things for FREE than for sale! :-) It is amazing, but people sometimes don't want to believe that you are giving away something of value for free. There must be something wrong with it or some sort of catch. One lady took several free items and then insisted on giving me a dollar. "for my time" she said!

Mainly we had to get rid of stuff because we had to take a full 10 foot truck and squeeze everything into a 5x6 storage space. Ryan and I had lots of duplicate items. You really don't need two microwaves in a one bedroom apartment. Or even two spice racks. Also there were several pieces of furniture that we just did not have room for...some tables and chairs and bookcases. Other household items like blankets and even a lamp or two. We sold enough to buy ourselves lunch at the Charlestown Street Cafe a couple of blocks away. And the rest went into the 5x6 storage unit. There were still a few items left at the end of the afternoon, but hopefully Goodwill will take them. Many thanks to some of our letterboxing friends who came down to take some stuff off our hands!

For those folks looking for some hike-a-thon information in this blog, I have $350 in pledges from 11 people so far! Last year the flight attendants pledged more than the letterboxers, but this year I think the letterboxers are set to make up for it! I have had almost all the pledges from letterboxers so far. Hurrah.

Worldwide Hiking??!!

I was just reading the 2007 Hike-a-thon guidelines on the WTA website and I noticed that they have changed one of the criteria for the hikes. They now say that you can hike anywhere in the world, as long as it is a trail with a name. Well, this makes getting mileage logged a little simpler for me. Since I have to work during the month of August and my work takes me away from Seattle, it was a little more difficult to rack up the miles when I was restricted to only trails in Washington State. But if I can count hikes done on my layovers in other cities, then I can certainly hike 50 miles or more during the month of August.

My August schedule also includes trips to Brussels and Glasgow! I will be doing some research to see if I can find any named hiking trails that can count towards hike-a-thon near those cities!

Last year I was hiking around Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina for a week and the year before that I was in Connecticut for a week hiking during August! Adding those miles to my total would have really bumped up my numbers. So it looks like I will have no problems making a goal of 50 miles during the month of August this year.

Books available for Pledges!

I will be happy to give a book to everyone who pledges money for the WTA hike-a-thon. I am weeding out my library and getting rid of all my John Sandford and Nevada Barr books this year.


All my John Sandford books are from the Prey series:

http://www.johnsandford.org/index-books.html

The titles that I have available are:
Night Prey, Mind Prey, Secret Prey, Certain Prey, Easy Prey, Chosen Prey, Naked Prey, Hidden Prey, and Broken Prey.



All of my Nevada Barr books are from her Anna Pigeon series:

http://www.nevadabarr.com/

The titles I have available are:
Superior Death, Firestorm, Blind Descent, Deep South, Blood Lure, Flashback, and High Country.

Gearing up for Hikeathon 2007!

Thanks to everyone who supported me last year for the Washington Trails Association hike-a-thon. I raised over $1000 for Washington Trails! This year I want to try and at least match that again. For those of you who don’t live in Washington State, we had a lot of storm damage last fall to our wilderness areas. Statewide the damage estimates top $70 million and are expected to grow as the high country snow melts and more instances of damage and wash-outs are uncovered. Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks were hit very badly. Many roads, bridges and trails have been washed away and damage from trees down has closed access to many trails this summer. Instead of participating in Hike-a-thon this year, my boyfriend Ryan is actually getting his hands dirty and volunteering for WTA repairing trails. For two weeks in August, he will be working to repair sections of the Pacific Crest Trail in the Cascades Mountains. I have a day job, so I will be hiking on my days off for Hike-a-thon 2007 and collecting pledges to support Washington Trails. All the dollars pledged go directly to protecting and maintaining trails here in Washington State. They really need your help this year more than ever!


I am seeking pledges for my hiking. You can pledge a flat donation, such as $50 or an amount per mile, such as $1 per mile. Any contributions over $35 will be eligible for Washington Trails Association Membership. (With membership you receive a Washington Trails Magazine) This is a great little magazine and has many interesting articles on the trails in Washington and also general articles on topics such as backpacking with children and reviewing camping gear etc. All donations are tax deductible. And every little bit helps! Last year I had pledges as low as 10 cents per mile or a flat $5. It all adds up.

Last year pledges of $10 or more got VHS and DVD movies that were set in Washington State. This year I am pruning my book collection. Specifically, I have books from two of my favorite authors, John Sandford and Nevada Barr, to give away to each person who pledges money for WTA. I plan to give out the books randomly, but if you are looking for a specific title from one of these authors, let me know when you pledge! I will have a blog up on the internet detailing my hiking and pledges.

http://samanark.blogspot.com


I will need to collect all money from my pledges by September 3, 2007. Checks can be made out to WTA (Washington Trails Association)

Thanks,
Amanda Arkebauer
206-579-7094

Wrapping up Hike-a-thon

Well, I kept trying to wait until I had a story to tell, but my last couple of hikes were very uneventful. My black eye has faded away. Gorgeous Seattle weather, simple drive to the trailhead, walk, walk, walk, nothing outrageous to note.

I hiked 45 miles total and I raised $1181.25 for Washington Trails Association!

Thanks to everyone who contributed. I was really motivated to get out there and hike those last 5 miles for you guys.

Beach Logs Can Kill!

Olympic Peninsula Day Two:

I woke up bright and early to hike some waterfalls. I started with Marymere Falls here near Lake Crescent. Friends, Don and Gwen from Kernville, CA, had been here just a few weeks ago. I then headed to the Sol Duc Hot Springs area. I had never visited this part of the Olympic National Park before and I was curious to see the Hot Springs and there was supposed to be a spectacular waterfall. I suppose I knew in the back of my mind that this was a very popular destination. At one time, Sol Duc Hot Springs was one of the most elaborate health resorts in the country. A half-million dollars was spent constructing the spa, which featured a four-story, 165-room hotel that opened in 1912. In 1916, the roof of the main building caught fire. Strong winds scattered the sparks and within hours the resort burned to the ground. Today's resort is a small operation in comparison. Legend has it that the hot springs are the tears of dragons! Two dragons had a duel over a boundary dispute and it ended in a draw. They crawled back to their caves and cried tears of mortification.

I was not prepared for the crowds of people who were at the Hot Springs at 10 am on a TUESDAY! I can only imagine how it is during the weekends! The two huge tour buses in the trailhead parking lot should have clued me in. As well as the long line for the ladies pit toilet at the beginning of the hike. It was a traffic jam on the bridge over the waterfall. This trailhead is also a jumping off point for backpacking trips into the interior of the Olympic National Park, so you had Japanese Tourists rubbing shoulders with stinky backpackers just back from 7 days in the woods. It was something else! I had originally planned to camp at the campground at Sol Duc, but the crowds scared me away and I decided to drive on out to the coast to find somewhere a little less hectic.

When I got out to the beach, it was dreary and cloudy on this side of the Peninsula. But that did not stop me from hiking out to Hole in the Wall. It is about a 3 mile hike round trip and I had timed it perfectly. The tide was low enough to allow plenty of beach to walk on. When I got back to the trailhead, I had to climb over the huge driftwood logs that line the beach. There are always signs warning that “Driftwood Logs Can Kill!” And I always thought that this was highly amusing. Until now! I stepped on a log and it shifted underneath my feet and I fell. I hit my head and thank goodness I did not knock myself out! But I was pretty banged up, and I was definitely going to have a black eye.

I decided to call it a day. I went to a new campground that I had never been to before. The Klahowya Campground was very nice along the Sol Duc River and Snider Creek. There was hardly anyone there which was nice after the crowds at Sol Duc Hot Springs. I spent most of the evening with ice on my face hoping that I wouldn’t look too horrible in the morning.
Originally, I was going to spend another night over here, but after my fall, I just wanted to go home. When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I figured that I would start heading back to Seattle. I drove back along Hwy 101 towards Port Angeles. When I got to Port Angeles, Hurricane Ridge seemed to call to me. I had never been up there. Once a long time ago, when my sister, Alisa was here for a visit we tried to drive up there, but there was still snow on the ground then and they required you to have chains to attempt it. We had given up on the idea that time. This was my chance to drive up there. I could even do a short hike up Hurricane Hill for hike-a-thon. It is a lovely drive to the top and very popular, lots of folks up here. And lots of bicyclists! It is about 17 miles up from Port Angeles and pretty much a 7 percent grade the whole way.

I enjoyed the views from the top and then made my way back down towards Seattle. I had a decision to make. Should I take the ferry back to Edmonds, or drive further south along the Kitsap Peninsula and take the ferry directly back to West Seattle? Well, if I went to Edmonds I would be in 5 o’clock traffic through downtown Seattle. Nope, not going to do THAT! So a direct hop to West Seattle looked like the best thing to do. I hiked 6 miles on Tuesday and 3 miles on Wednesday to bring my hike-a-thon total to 40 miles! I hope to get in about 5 more miles before the end of the month.

Lake Crescent

On Monday, I got back to Seattle from working the redeye. I was lucky to get a passenger seat and not the jumpseat, so I was able to sleep for 5 hours on the flight back to Seattle. So I was ready to get in the car and drive over to the Olympic Peninsula for some camping and hiking.

First thing was to take the Ferry over. There are about a half a dozen ways to get to the Olympic Peninsula from Seattle. You can drive around the south and not get on a ferry at all. And what fun would that be?? You can take the ferry from West Seattle, you can take the ferries from downtown Seattle to Bainbridge Island or Bremerton. You can take two ferries, one from Everett to Whidbey Island and another from Whidbey Island to Port Townsend. Or you can do what I did and take the Edmonds ferry to Kingston. I had never taken that particular ferry before, so it was a new experience!

And I am still not on the Olympic Peninsula. I am only on the Kitsap Peninsula. I still have to cross the Hood Canal floating bridge. But first stop for me once over on the other side was Port Gamble. I had never been through the town of Port Gamble and it is just too cute.

http://www.portgamble.com/


The town is a National Historic Landmark with picturesque, turn-of-the-century buildings filled with antiques, an historic church, and New England style homes on tree-lined streets. There was a little tearoom and a used bookstore! I stopped for a quick bite to eat from a Clam and Oyster vendor on the town square! Yummy steamed oysters!

Onward to the Olympic Peninsula, I sped through the towns of Sequim and Port Angeles on my way to Lake Crescent. I adore Lake Crescent. It is such a gorgeous lake. It is fjord-like with mountains rising up around it and the color of the water is deep, deep royal blue. It looks bottomless. And was thought to be bottomless by the local indians. The Klallams would never cross it by canoe. They believed that there were evil spirits that would drown anyone who tried to fish there. It actually is more than 600 feet deep at its deepest point.

I had come here to hike the Spruce Railroad Trail. It winds around the north shore of the lake. It was originally a railroad that was built during WWI to haul wood to Port Angeles build airplanes for the war effort. Ironically, the railroad tracks were finished after Armistice Day and nothing was shipped on it during the war. It was used for commercial logging until the 1950’s and the Park Service created a trail out of it in 1981. There are two tunnels along the trail, but they are collapsed and you can’t walk through them. I only hiked out to just past the first tunnel. It was getting late and the lake can seem kind of spooky.

There is a ghost story associated with the lake. “Lady of the Lake” is about a woman who was murdered in 1937. Her body had turned to soap! The lake is fed continuously by the Olympic Mountains snowmelt. When you're six hundred feet down in frigid water, you don't rot. You're preserved and saponification sets in. She was down there for three years at 38 degrees Fahrenheit and after the cold stopped the decay, salts in her system changed all her fatty tissues little by little, and she turned to soap. The depths of Lake Crescent contain a unique mixture of calcium and alkili that cause this saponification to take place. Investigators were able to identify this woman as the missing Hallie Illingsworth and eventually her estranged husband was extradited from California and in a sensational trial was convicted of her murder.

I camped Monday Night at the Fairholm Campground by Lake Crescent. Previously I hiked two miles in Seattle on my layover and on Monday, I had hiked 4 miles for a total of 31 miles for hike-a-thon!

An Uneventful Alki Walk

Ryan left early in the morning for Oregon and backpacking the Pacific Crest Trail. Since I was already up and awake, I thought I would go for a walk on Alki and get some mileage under my belt. We hike along Alki because it is easy. It is basically in my backyard. When you leave my apartment and walk straight down the hill towards the water, you hit the beach at Constellation Park. Nice flat beach to walk on for an easy 4 miles for me today!

At Constellation Park, there is a really neat "tidepool" sculpture set in the sidewalk and access to the rocky beach. At lowtide, you can walk along the beach all the way around the point to the Alki Point Lighthouse. At hightide, it is better to walk along the sidewalk. But there is plenty to see along the sidewalk. Hollywood has their walk of stars and this is Seattle's walk of stars. However, ours are of the heavenly variety! They don't call it Constellation Park for nothing. Embedded in the sidewalk are diagrams of a dozen or more constellations. From the Big Dipper and Leo to Orion and Scorpius. It's an astronomy lesson at your feet.

Once you round the bend, you reach Alki Beach proper. Sand and firepits, picnic tables and volleyball nets. And a long line of restaurants, bars and coffeeshops. Sunfish: Fish and Chips is my Dad's favorite. Pegasus Pizza is another favorite of ours. Celtic Swell is the local Irish Pub! And Dukes Chowderhouse is where my sister, Alisa, and I had Thanksgiving dinner once.

A monument marks the spot where the first white settlers landed here at Alki in the winter of 1851. They soon left and built their city across Elliott Bay on the less exposed shores of Seattle’s current waterfront.

The first Settlers named this area New York-Alki. New York because I think some of them were from New York and Alki was a native word meaning by and by. Hopefully, this area would be like New York by and by??!! Well, we do have a Statue of Liberty. It is usually standing around here somewhere, but she keeps getting her torch stolen. She is currently off for repairs in Tacoma. After the 9/11 attacks, the statue was a place that people would leave flowers, flags and momentos as a kind of memorial. Hopefully, she will be back soon.



On down the beach is the site of Luna Park. Built in 1907, Luna Park was a seaside pleasure resort like the famous Luna Park on Coney Island in New York. There was a swimming pool, a dancing pavilion and a skating rink. They boasted of having the longest bar on the bay! And there was a thing called the Joy Wheel, The Joy Wheel looks alot like the swings in modern day amusement parks and fairs. There are viewfinders along the walk where Luna Park used to be located. Inside the viewfinder, is an image of the Joy Wheel. So you are looking out over Elliott Bay and you can see the ferry boats go by with the image of the Joy Wheel from 1907 in your eyes. Luna Park closed in 1913 and burned down in the 1930's, but if there is a very low tide, you can still see some of the pilings from when the pavilion was here. The last time that happened there was a huge traffic jam around West Seattle as folks drove over to get a glimpse of the pilings!

All along the walk at Alki there are images embedded in the sidewalk about the native americans, the first settlers and the flora and fauna of the area. And then there are the views of the boats and islands and Seattle with the Space Needle in all its glory. It all combines to make the Alki walk alot of fun. Plus stopping for a Starbucks or a Guiness at Celtic Swell isn't so bad either!

I hiked 4 miles on Alki and then another mile at Lincoln Park. This brings my total for the hike-a-thon up to 25 miles.

A History Lesson

The other day, I drove out to Cougar Mountain to hike the Coal Creek Trail. I really enjoy hiking at Cougar Mountain. I hiked this trail last year for hike-a-thon. One of the reasons that I like the Red Town Trailhead so much is the history.

The Cougar Mountain area: Newcastle and Red Town, was once a thriving coal mining operation. Millions of tons of coal from this area was sent by railroad to Seattle and used for energy. It was also shipped from Seattle to San Francisco. The town had a telegraph office and daily mail service, two churches, a hotel, and a general store. The coal mines were so important to this area that when President Rutherford B. Hayes visited the Seattle area in October of 1880, he made speeches at Newcastle.

Today there is not much left to see of this ghost town. Because it was a company town, when they were through mining, they packed up and took everything with them. Any homes or buildings that remained were then scavenged during the Great Depression. The Coal Creek Trail follows the rail line that carted the coal to Seattle. There is a concrete foundation from the boiler of the hotel at the beginning of the hike. You can see an old mine shaft and by the waterfall is the site of the old locomotive turntable. Odd little hills and hummocks are the remains of the debris piles that were left from the mining operation.

One of my favorite remnants of the coal mining era is down the Primrose trail. There is a coal car wheel attached to a tree. And what might be the rusted shell of a coal car near the junction of the Primrose Trail and the Coal Creek Trail.

I hiked the Coal Creek and Primrose Trails for 4 miles. This brings my total mileage for hike-a-thon to 20 miles. And I am only $20 away from having $1000 in pledge money!! Thanks so much to everyone who has been supporting me during the hike-a-thon.

A Tale of Two Mountains

Well, they aren’t really huge mountains, but I hiked both of them this week: Little Mount Si and Mount Peak. Little Mount Si is the little brother of Mount Si. Mount Si is an 8 mile hike straight up, Little Mount Si is a 5 mile hike that meanders through the forest and goes up to a nice little bald (elevation 1576) with views of I-90. Real hikers snub their noses at Little Mount Si, but it is just right for my hiking abilities.

Mount Si and Little Mount Si were formed millions of years ago by an upthrust along a fault line. The Mountains got their name from an early settler named Josiah (Uncle Si) Merritt. He lived at the western base of the mountains near the site of present day North Bend, WA. Supposedly Mount Si was never logged, but in 1910 a fire engulfed the whole mountain. The growth on the mountain today is a result of that burn in the early 1900’s.

When I got to the parking lot at Little Mount Si yesterday morning, it was already full. There were only 2 spots left and I took one of them. There were two vans, which should have warned me that the trail would be crowded with kids! I have never seen the trail so busy and especially on a week day! But it was a gorgeous sunny day in Seattle with highs in the 70’s and everyone was taking advantage of the weather.


Today, the weather was still cool, but cloudy. I drove down to Enumclaw to tackle Mount Peak. I have always known this little mountain as Mount Peak, but it has a bunch of different names. Mount Pete and Pinnacle Peak are two of them. It is also the site of the Cal Magnusson Trail. Supposedly the mountain was called Mount Pete, for a Yugoslav named Pete Chorak who emigrated to Enumclaw, WA in 1911 and donated the land for the park. The trail to the top was named for Cal Magnusson, a local Boeing Employee, who had hiked and maintained the trail for the past several decades. I don’t know why it is called Mount Peak or Pinnacle Peak!

Mount Peak is a volcanic knob that was encased by the later deposits of the Osceola Mudflow. The Osceola Mudflow was when part of Mount Rainier sloughed off about 5,600 years ago and sent a slurry of rock and glacier into the river valleys. Mount Peak tops out at 1800 feet and used to have a Forest Service Fire Lookout at the top. It is long gone and all that is left is the evidence of the foundations.

Unlike Little Mount Si the day before, Mount Peak was practically deserted. There were only two other cars at the trailhead and I passed their owners as they were making their way down the hill. Mount Peak is a 2 mile hike, mostly straight uphill, but it is over quickly! It was cloudy today and there were only peek-a-boo views through the trees along the climb to the top.


All my mountain climbing resulted in 7 more miles for the hike-a-thon. For a total of 16 miles!

WTA Magazine

Today I hiked around Tradition Lake near Issaquah, WA. I did 3 1/2 miles for the hike-a-thon for a grand total of 9 miles over all.

Also we have hit the $900 dollar mark with pledges. But I don't want anyone to get the idea that it is okay to stop there. $1000 would be really great!! And it is not that far away. Also remember if you haven't already paid me, I need your money by the end of August.


Nothing exciting happened on my hike today, so I thought I would talk about the Washington Trails Magazine. If you pledge at least $35 you get a membership to the WTA and a subscription to the Washington Trails Magazine. This is a great little magazine. It comes to your home 10 times during the year and it has some great articles about hiking around Washington State, and there are general articles too! Like "Backpacking with Kids" and Gear Reviews.

Heck, just the photos alone will make you drool over all the great hiking we have here in the Pacific Northwest!

Getting a Slow Start

I didn't rack up much mileage today, but I had a wonderful time hiking a couple of miles.
As many of you know, I am an avid letterboxer. I have been letterboxing for 5 years and that is how I met my boyfriend, Ryan. Letterboxing is an intriguing hobby combining artistic ability with delightful "treasure-hunts" in beautiful, scenic places. Participants seek out hidden letterboxes by following clues (that are available online), and then record their discovery in their personal journal with the help of a rubber stamp that's part of the letterbox. In addition, letterboxers have their own personal “signature” stamps that they use to stamp into the letterbox's logbook.

http://www.atlasquest.com

Today, two letterboxers from New Mexico were arriving into SeaTac Airport and were interested in meeting us to exchange signature stamps. I suggested that we meet at Des Moines Creek Park to hike the trail there and hunt for letterboxes. We met around noon and had a lovely time hiking the trail. It is a wonderful flat, paved biking and hiking path near SeaTac Airport. The airplanes were taking off over the park today and we got some close-up views of the bellies of several 737’s, DC-9’s and a couple of 747’s! Also the blackberries were out in force. They were everywhere and ripe for picking.

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/des-moines-creek-trail

After an appetizer of blackberries, we went to the Red Robin at Southcenter Mall for lunch. We had a delightful visit with Lion’s Mane and his friend from New Mexico! I got in 2 miles today for a total of 5 ½ miles overall for the hike-a-thon.

Hike-a-thon Begins!

Today is August 1st and the official beginning of the WTA Hike-a-thon. Since I was home from work, I had to get out and get in a few miles today. I went to St. Edwards State Park in Kirkland, WA. The land on which Saint Edward State Park sits was once owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and was used as a seminary until 1977. When the seminary closed, the land was sold to the State of Washington and the park was created. There are several miles of trails for hiking and mountain biking and at least one mile of trail along the Lake Washington Shoreline. The park was pretty busy today with lots of families with children around the playground and a youth group having a cookout at the picnic area. There was even trail maintenance going on along the drive and I got to see them cut down a dead tree!
I hiked a figure eight loop for a total of 3 1/2 miles today.