Seattle Urban Hikes — Monday, Feb. 14, 2011

Seeing a break in the weather today, I enjoyed a long urban hike from View Ridge to Ballard. I think that even many Seattle natives, in their rush to get to the glamorous trails in the mountains, do not realize how much fun it is to do long walks in the city. The dense network of streets, numerous parks, diverse neighborhoods, and the long history of the area provide a huge variety of walking routes and things to see. One would think that rural areas would be the best place to take a walk. But if you are simply walking the roads, you quickly discover that they often lack shoulders and traffic speed is alarmingly fast. You spend all of your time nervously looking over your shoulder for speeding cars and can hardly enjoy the scenery. How about the suburbs? Unlike rural roads, suburbs have sidewalks, but newer, post WW II suburbs are built for the convenience of automobiles. Local streets within super-blocks lack connection (often by design, to deter through-traffic) and walkers are often forced out onto noisy arterial streets to get anywhere. The scenery is bland: sterile office parks, chain stores. Everything is far apart. In addition to the great walking in town, Seattle often has better weather due the calming effect of the nearby sound and some rain-shadowing from the Olympic Mountains. And Seattle has one thing that rural and suburban areas totally lack, namely a good bus system. You can do long one-way hikes then return via bus. Take that, Cle Elum! From my house, I set off south on 39th NE, lined with quirky old 1940's houses. Traffic is almost nil and the walking is quiet and pleasant. South of 60th I was surprised to hear a gurgle of water, and noticed that a rare urban stream ran between the houses and sidewalk...the sort of thing you don't notice when driving. Homeowners had spanned the little stream with cute bridges and landscaped its banks. At length I arrived at the Burke-Gilman trail and headed west toward Ballard. Near Mary Gates Boulevard I deviated from the Burke-Gilman and walked the soft dirt paths of the Union Bay natural area, a nice little swampy patch of wildness in the city much beloved by birds. At Husky Stadium, I rejoined the B-G, here crowded with students going everywhere. The trail led me though the busy U-District, underneath the massive girders of the I-5 Ship Canal bridge, along the shore of boat-infested Lake Union, and past vistas of downtown skyscrapers. I continued past Gasworks Park, and on towards quirky Fremont. I was getting a bit hungry at this point and started thinking that a latte would be nice. And just at this momment, I spotted the Solsticia coffee shop conveniently located right next to the Burke-Gilman trail. Nothing like this in the 'burbs! Refreshed by a single tall latte, I continued trekking past the Fremont Bridge and along a peaceful stretch of trail next to the Ship Canal. Here a dog walker was letting his canine swim in the water. The Burke-Gilman Trail finally came to an end next to the huge new Ballard Fred-Meyer. The bike route continued along a scruffy street (Shilshole Ave) in a hard-working industrial area...not pretty but lots of rusty steel stuff to look at. I eventually veered over to Ballard Ave with its assortment of quaint shops, where I checked out the fireplace inserts at Sutter Home and Hearth and the used outdoor goods at Second Ascent. Finally, I arrived in downtown Ballard, end of the hike. In just a few minutes Bus #75 arrived and after a slow winding trip through N. Seattle, took me all the way back to my house. The View Ridge to Ballard hike was about 8 miles with 300 feet of elevation gain. There was no snow and the various roads and trails were generally free of blowdowns and mud.