I took my dog on an urban exploration that included three parks. Since the south end of Jackson Park had thwarted me a few days ago, I started from my house and walked the east part of the loop - also with lots of downed trees but we were able to crawl under one and straddle climb the other.
We crossed 145th to the north side to access Paramount Open Space from 10th Ave. NE and saw another downed tree just before the park. I also spotted a homeless person camped out in a sleeping bag. We continued north through the park and didn't spot any other downed trees. A handful of people were at each of the three parks.
From there, we continued north to 155th and west to Twin Ponds where we spent 40 minutes. Twin Ponds Park is undergoing restoration and it needs it. There's dog poop everywhere, and a tree fell onto the roof of one of the neighboring property owners. The south end is pretty much impassable. We continued to the western extent of the park and then explored a new-to-us trail near the restoration tools. I thought we could find a new path through... but it got so muddy that we ended up turning around.
There in front of us blocking our path was a coyote (this was about 11:15 a.m.) It was about the size of my dog (38-45 pounds) and it stood staring at us for a good 10-12 seconds. We were trapped. When my dog started to growl, I spoke aloud to him as we gradually approached. The coyote lost interest, turned, and disappeared soundlessly into the bushes. Add to that a ruby-crowned kinglet as our bird and mammal for the day.
Since 145th NE is closed due to light-rail construction, we had to retrace our steps to 155th NE to bypass I-5, then took a beeline south to Jackson Park Golf Course on 5th Ave. NE to see if the rest of the perimeter was accessible.
The west part of the loop has no tree blockage, but there's a ton of mud. Jackson Park Perimeter is just not a very nice place to walk right now. But we DID manage to get past the downed tree that turned us around a few days ago. A friendly neighbor was clearing some branches, and there is now a scraggly path through the debris if you don't mind branches tearing at your hair or dog's leash. I let him off leash to maneuver through the debris as there's no sense in him choking by stray branches snagging on the leash.
The highlight of our outing was the coyote and learning how I can get more involved in trail restoration so close to home. MayMyWalk had us at about 6.5-7 miles and 400' gain for a 2:20-hour walk.
Comments