Green lake is one of the really beautiful urban spots in seattle. The name is suggestive of the geography of the location. It's green all around and in the middle of it all is a large sized lake.
And the new place I am shifting to is right next to the lake, just a block away!
And, this place is a runner's haven and heaven!!
Rocking fun are there.
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Hiking through trails,
Walking through forests,
What do you seek?
I seek to experience the nurturing hand of nature,
The hand that shows up as soothing sounds
of gurgling water in a nearby brook,
The hand that shows up as a bird singing it's song,
The hand that shows up as the beauty of mountains, valleys, and lakes, beckoning you forward.
I seek to become aware of the jarring noise of my thoughts
in the deafening silence of nature,
I seek to internalize the peace that I find in the forest trails,
I seek to put things in perspective by realizing
the ignorance of man in living life monotonously,
while nature beckons, as always.
"Imagine yourself sitting below a tree on pristine green grass with dew drops glistening in the late afternoon sun. Imagine that you are less than a feet away from a lake that is moving rhythmically creating a beautiful sound as the gentle waves splash the shore, with ducks wading along doing some gymanastic upside down flips. Now as you look across, you see the shoreline, dotted with a few tall trees, winding along a curve and your gaze meets the sun that's sending you it's warm rays, providing comfort in the cold weather around. As you close your eyes, you take in all the beauty and sounds and let yourself become more peaceful and content for the moment..."
Now, if you are into meditations, you would say, "this is starting to sound like a nice guided meditation".
Getting back to where I left off..
Now as you become content in the moment, you start hearing some random noises and you recognize them as: A few kids running around with their uncle yelling at them to put on their jackets, two or three 30 something women walking along with their dogs, discussing their ex-boyfriends, and a couple not too far away, who just can't get enough of each other.
Now, this would go down as a Seward Park experience.
I did hike around in the old-growth forest trails in Seward park for around an hour and a half before the above experience happened. One of the trails lead me to an interesting amphi-theatre that reminded me of the open air theatre (OAT) in my undergrad college, back in India.
The Seward park has a very interesting geography as you can see in the map below. It juts out into the lake, almost making it an island. On a clear day, the Mount Rainier is also visible from the East side of the park.
Felt an impulse to go to the discovery park. It was cloudy when I started, but when I hit the discovery park, it was sunny! The last time I had been to discovery park, it was cloudy to begin with and midway through the hike it started raining!
Just registered for it..yes!!
Here's the website: Seattle Marathon
The marathon's going to be on Sunday, November 29th 2009.
So it's atleast another 10 months for the marathon. That gives me a good time for training for the marathon. I am shooting for below 4 hrs. Let's see how it goes.
Will update on my progress every month. FYI, I have stopped running completely and that is one of the reasons I registered for the marathon.. so that I get back to running shape. Have been evading the marathon for the last couple of years..Finally, I will be doing the marathon this year.
Second trip to Little Si. Little Si, is a 'small' part of Mount Si and gives good views of surrounding mountains - Mailbox Peak, Mclellan Butte, Rattlesnake ridge and maybe even Tiger mountain. Little Si on a sunny day also sees quite a few rock climbers with all the gear climbing up one of the many vertical faces near the Little Si trail.
I went off the main trail and tried one supposedly secret route to the top of Little Si.. It was quite dangerous because of the steep incline and slippery mud/stones. I didn't go all the way up..Might have gone halfway up. While coming down this route, I had my heart in my mouth.. A huge sigh of relief when I touched base. This route is between two steep climbing faces and is kind of hidden by small bushes.
On my last trip here, the wind was howling at the top. Today, with the sun shining bright, everything was peaceful at the top.
Getting there by bus
i) 271 from University district to Issaquah. 209 from Issaquah to Northbend. Get off at the Bendigo blvd and 2nd street. Find the snoqualmie valley trail by taking a left on main avenue and going forward a few streets. Follow the trail east till you get to Mt. Si road. Take a left, cross the red bridge and keep walking till you find the trailhead onto the left.
ii) 554 from Downtown to Issaquah. 209 from Issaquah to Northbend and same as above.
I find it atleast 10 minutes faster and more scenic to go downtown and catch 554 to Issaquah than catching the direct bus(271) from university district!
Discovery park is the largest among the 400 parks in Seattle. Usually, when I think of a park, I think of lush green lawns with flowers, some natural artifacts, rocks, etc.
But this park, I discovered (ahem) is more like a forest, that is close to downtown Seattle. It has lots of old-growth trees, ferns, and beautiful beaches with rocky slopes that also remind me of marine drive, mumbai.
Getting there:
As I usually do, I took the bus route. 71 from my place to downtown. And from there a 33 takes you right to discovery park - A total of 45 minutes of travel.
I hiked from the entrace to the north beach of the park. It was sunny/cloudy to begin with, but as I got into the hike, it started drizzling and then it was proper rain getting me thoroughly drenched - I had no protection whatsoever, but I didn't mind that my t-shirt was totally soaked when I finished my hike or that I was getting some curious smiles from passerby's.
Here's a video:
Some pics:
Boy, what an adventure I had a week back. I usually take the metro bus on my hikes, and that gives me a lot of room for adventure (doing funny things so as to not miss the last bus for example).But bus adventures aside, hiking is always an adventure. This time I made it to the top (not the haystack) in 1hr 50 mins, which is pretty amazing, for me atleast. I paced myself steadily over the climb - a total of 4 miles. The first 3 miles were decent, the last 1 mile was a killer. 4miles and 4000ft, that's some climb.
After getting to the 4 mile mark from where you get a good view of mountains nearby, I decided to go to the top of haystack, a very steep monolith, from where a slip could mean death. The climb to the top was itself very steep and my heavy bag of supplies didn't help me. I decided to ditch the climb, when I was half-way through to the hay-stack...this gives me another opportunity to come back to Mount Si.
Over all it was 15 miles of hiking + climbing in around 6 hrs.. phew. And the last 20 minutes, I was running at a steady 8:00 minute/mile pace so as not to miss the MT 209 bus at 8:43pm from North Bend.. talk about adventures..this was one till the very end. This hike really gave me a feel for endurance hiking. I took a lot of supplies including cookies, fruit juice, and 1.5lts of water.
I will post one or two pics maybe. My next hike would probably be next weekend to Rattle snake lake, again a long hike of around 15 miles (round trip).
A video I took near the top:
So the hiking season has begun for me. And that's because the spring quarter came to an end last week. This summer is probably going to be rocking. I am going to have a relaxed work load during sumemer - some teaching duties, some exciting research work and ofcourse outdoor stuff including running and hiking.
Intro
So yesterday's hike was my first in 2 months. It's a tough strenuous (due to the length) and close to a 9 mile hike. It took me 5hrs to do it all.
The hike basically follows this documented hike with modifications towards the end of the hike. The previous link also gives a map of the route with description and that was pretty useful since there was one place where I had to search for a trail that didn't seem to exist.
Hike description
I basically hiked to the top of Tiger mountain 1, which is 2900 ft above sea level. From there, I moved on to poo-poo point.
Below is a video taken at Hiker's hut at 2800 ft asl.
Below is a video taken at poo-poo point which is a popular spot for para-gliding.
Since this was my first hike this summer, this hike was exhausting but hikes being hikes, exhaustion is a given. I wouldn't mind getting thoroughly exhausted after a hike if the hike had some great view points along the way. Even if there aren't many viewpoints, just being out there in the green rejuvenates you.
I am intoxicated by the greenery that I encounter during my hikes and below are some pictures along my hike that might explain this phenomenon :)
Or I hope so. This year, according to many Seattleites is not a typical Seattle year.
It's been too cold and rainy for too long this past year. I hear June end is where summer starts kicking up and that's when my physical activities should start kicking up too!
I have no plans as of yet for summer. It's going to be a natural transition into lot's of hiking, running, rock-climbing, and maybe some biking.
But off the top of my mind, I wish to hike the following mountains:
1) Mount Si a.k.a the beautiful sigh.
2) Rattlesnake Ridge
3) Mount Pilchuck (Bike + Hike).
4) A kutty mountain in Enumclaw that gives an awesome view of Mount Rainier.
5) One or two back-packing trips into the wild-wild west - oops!, east.
Ofcourse there is also going to be the ramped up running (summer special). And the rock-climbing (outdoor and maybe some indoor too). Rock-climbing is amazing. It's a skill ofcourse, it's a skill you enjoy learning. It sharpens your mind too, I might say, since you need to focus on precisely which thin edge of the rock-cut to rest our hands and feet on.
Also, I am going to bring in more picture/videos into this blog. Since summer in Seattle is particularly beautiful and extremely enjoyable once you are outdoors.
My quarter ends by the end of this week. So my vacation starts next week. Totaal enthu max put its vonly.
What modes of transport do we have for travel ? - Trains, buses, cars, bicycles, motorbikes, ships,
aeroplanes, roller blades, and last but not the least 'human power - a.k.a walking or running'.
Travel has different purposes, but I am restricting this post to short distance travel (within 50 miles) for leisure or for sight seeing.
Let's consider two modes: cars vs walking. Let's say the destination is 10 miles away and you just want to travel to that point and come back. On a car, that would seem a trivial distance. No matter how beautiful the surrounding scenery is, you would be back in no time and it wouldn't seem like you spent a lot of time - unless you stop at some point in between.
Let's consider the same distance covered by walk: That's what I did today. I went to a Place called Ernie's grove by walking to that point from North Bend, WA - a round trip of 10 miles. It took me 3 hrs. And the experience was totally unlike what you would have if you were "shut-inside" a car. Here are some experiences on the walk:
- North Bend, located around 30 miles from Seattle is home to many cascade mountains - Mount Si, Little Si, RattleSnake ridge, Mailbox Peak, Mclellan Butte, Cedar's Butte, Round table mountain, etc. So when I alighted form MT 209, I could identify from that point 5 mountains in the vicinity, towering tall and presenting a majestic sight all around. Hence, you can imagine what a wonderful walk I had going to Ernie's grove 5 miles away:
- Ever seen never ending green fields full of golden yellow flowers gently caressing the foot hills of mountains?
Now Mount Si, which formed the backdrop for most of my walk is a massive mountain with an incredible slope. It's 4000 ft tall and it seems like a huge piece of rock rather than a mountain that starts somewhere and peaks elsewhere. I was essentially going around Mount Si, by walking on that road.
- Add to that rivulets which present themselves when I cross a bridge or two.
- Add to that "Llamas", animals with elongated necks:
- Add to that a glorious sunny day (kind of rare in Seattle)
- And also dogs that attempt to chase you while being within the fence.
- And the fact that it was a 3 hr long walk - I have never walked 3 hrs on a flat road before. Agreed, I have hiked for that much time or even more, but just walking and for 3 hrs? This is amazing. I mean, I can right now run for not more than 20 minutes. But walking for 3hrs? Seriously says about the yawning gap between running and walking fitness.
- Add to that the different heat and wind conditions during the walk, the tiredness towards the end, the cows staring at you all the way until you are out of sight, and the exhilration at reaching the bus stop just on time.
I am sure you wouldn't get the above experiences by taking your car out and going on a 2o minute drive from North Bend to Ernie's grove and back. Similarly, other modes yield different experiences:
Bicycling: Bicycling on a road bike on a flat stretch of road is awesome, more so when the surrounding scenery is breathtaking. Biking is also another way to combine activities and be efficient: For instance if I had my bike today, I could have biked to the end of the road and hiked a mountain nearby. But then, I wouldn't have noticed the details that I noticed during my walk. Nevertheless, biking is a more richer experience than driving a car on the same stretch of road.
Trains: Trains are again amazing. They present a different travel experience. You don't have to worry about the road, about cramped legs or fuel. You just get in, take a nap or watch the passing scenery as the train whizzes by.
Personally, I prefer a combination of biking and walking for travel to nearby places (within 50 miles). Beyond that, ofcourse I would need to use a car or I could use a train if available. Cars are also useful, when you want to conserve time because you would want to hike at the destination.
But if you have the time and want to have a wholesome experience, do a bus + bike + walk multimodal trip.
My point here is that, biking and walking provide a much richer and enjoyable travel experience than just going the same distance by car. Ofcourse, you need to put in a lot more effort physically, but the experience is worth the effort, right?
A few possible answers:
"I am going places".
"I am going to hell".
"I am going to heaven (because my punya (good deeds) is greater than my paapa (sins))".
"I am going for a run (that's me)".
"I am headed nowhere in life(grad student)"
"I am going to buy groceries (dutiful husband)"
"Going going gone".
"I am going to downtown and to the back of the bus (Multitasking)".
Now the last answer is not typical, is it? Here's the story behind it:
I was comfotably seated in MT 73 that goes to downtown Seattle one (of the many) cloudy afternoon last week. The bus has just stopped at a bus stop in the university district and the door opens.
One long-haired guy with baggage gets in and announces proudly to the driver in a sing song manner(read: Nana naNa Nana): "I am going to downtown". The driver asks him for his pass and he moves into the bus, close to where I am seated. He puts the bag onto the seat next to me, gets his dollar and 25 cents out, looks at me and says, "I am going to downtown". I am like, yes sir, you are, have a good journey - I don't say that ob, I acknowledge. He goes to the driver,
pays the fare, gets his ticket, comes back to me and says, "I am going to the back of the bus" - again in a "Nana Nana" tune. Longhaired guy looks to be in good spirits. I acknowledge again and he is gone.
I was pretty amused by this, I mean you don't get live entertainment everyday. As I reach my destination and was about to alight, I let the driver know - longhaired guy Nana Nana style: "I am getting off here". As I get off and look back, I see the driver is highly amused.
So when someone asks you where you are going, reply in a "Nana Nana style" and pass it on :)
So I was looking towards North to North-East of Seattle after my little trip to windy Little Si.
I narrowed down on Wallace Falls state park - Infact, almost all places I am hiking at this spring break is from this webpage. Mr. Pinyon has done a great job of putting together places that you could go to for hiking or backpacking with the added condition that they be accessible by the bus-system in seattle.
{\Diversion into bus-systems in Seattle}
So far, I have used the following bus-systems to go around Seattle on different hikes/road trips:
1) The good old King County Metro - Serves the heart of Seattle and also touches the outskirts of Seattle such as North Bend, Carnation, Kent, Bothell, etc.
2) The Sound Transit (named after the Puget Sound River system that form the backwaters of the Pacific): Good point to point service. For example: University district to Everett takes just 32 minutes - a distance of around 25 miles.
I have used the Sound Transit on a biking trip to Lake Kapowsin, where I travelled to Tacoma by bus and biked from there to Lake Kapowsin.
3) The Community Transit: Serves most of the northern outskirts of Seattle with a Hub at Lynwood. Can be used to get to places such as Granite falls and Gold bar.
I took CT 271 to get from Everett to Goldbar (wallace falls state park located here)
Other Transit services I have noticed:
4) Skagit Transit: Used to get around Skagit County with places including Bellingham and Mt. Vernon.
Skagit Connector: This bus (90x) connects two counties: Snohomish County (Everett) and Skagit county.
I could use this bus to access places such as Mt. Vernon or Caymon islands (through a transfer bus), both wonderful places to visit and ot hike. But the only problem is this bus is available during weekdays. This bus also has limited service from Everett Station- early mornings and late afternoons.
5) Island Transit: Can be used to get to beautiful islands North and North-West of Mt. Vernon such as Caymon Islands.
{\End Diversion}
Start: I started out at 12:30 pm from Seattle. Caught the ST 510 to get to Everett. From there I caught CT 271 to get to Goldbar, this bus takes 1.5 hrs and gives you great views of the infinite mountains that crisscross across this region. Only problem was that it was raining and I had to contend with rain drops on the window of my bus!
Once at Gold Bar, I had to walk for 30 minutes to get to Wallace falls State Park.
Below is a video that describes the walk:
Inside the state park, the first awesome view was of the roaring Wallace river that begin as Wallace falls from the heights of this park. A few rapids on the way made for a delicious and delectable scenery :d
Moving ahead, I went to hike the falls. It took me close to an hour to hike all the way upto the upper falls. I liked the middle falls best, below's a video of the middle falls:
Coming back, I got some great views of the mountains near Goldbar as the sky cleared up. Unfortuantely I screwed up my digicam settings or the camera itself got screwed, so the pics didn't come out well. Suffice to say, this was a great trip despite the persistent rain I had to endure during the trip.
So I was waiting at the bus stop at the campus for bus MT 65 that would get me to campus parkway from where I would catch another bus. I arrive at the bus-stop at 7:05pm and the bus comes at 7:09 pm as scheduled, but hold it right there.. The bus doesn't stop, it slows down, the bus driver knows I am waiting to get in to the bus, but he doesn't stop.
This is not the first time that a bus has skipped the bus stop and on both ocassions I was the only guy at the bus stop. And on both ocassions it was the same driver.
How do I know? On the first ocassion, the bus driver slows down but doesn't stop. I run after the bus and wave to him to stop. He stops after going some distance and asks me as I get in, "If I knew English" and that I am supposed to "wave my hand" to stop the bus. Wow, that's a new rule right. I mean, I am standing at the bus-stop looking towards the bus, you damn well should stop.
The second time, that is the incident that just happened, the bus slows down and speeds away. I am totally incensed, and since I know that the next bus-stop, the "HUB" is not far away, I sprint after the bus and catch the bus as it stops. And why does it stop at the bus-stop?? Because someone is getting down there. I get in and surprise surprise, it's the same guy. I give him a long stare and decide to complain against him to the King county Metro guys.
As I get down at the last bus-stop, I ask the bus-driver for his name and he ofcourse doesn't give it to me. But guess what, according to him, I could note down the bus number and go ahead and complain. You can clearly see his intentions here, "I don't give a damn about you, I am going to be the way I am". And I do just that. I report him to the King county Metro guys.
I am going to be here for a while atleast until I complete my phd. I am being peaceful here, going about my work everyday and contributing to the research and to my department. I don't see why I should tolerate such incidents and I won't.
Located North West of the university district, this place sloping down from a mini-cliff, provides for a classic weekend getaway. Not a huge place, but many scenic locations for viewing pleasure are there. I was wishing for a sort of clear sky, but as it turned out (no surprise), it was cloudy and as I reached the place, it even began to drizzle. Add to that the early morning cold and I was pulling my jacket closer home. In India, especially in Hyderabad or Chennai, if it were to get cloudy and drizzle lightly, I would more than welcome it, I would infact go a little berserk. But that’s because when it rains in hyd, the temperature drops to a pleasant 20 – 22 degrees, not a chilly and bordering unpleasant 8-10 degrees as in Seattle.
Another disadvantage to having a misty-ish cloudy weather is that, for instance, I can see the beautiful Olympia mountains in the distance from the park, out west, but try as hard as I might, I can’t capture it half-decently despite all possible tweaks to my camera settings.
The highlights of the bike ride were meeting up with real monsters and a few good frames captured…
As I was headed out of the university, I came across a squirrel playing hide and seek on the trees.
Meet Monster 1..
Location and address..
The mini cliff descent on the way to the beach
The rail road mainly serving freight traffic from the ports of Seattle and Tacoma going up north. Amtrak commuter rail runs on these tracks too.
The olympic mountains out east..
Mystique cloudy formation..
A waterhole
The mandatory bike pic
LOST.. 
Aila..
Liked this pic a lot
Alai..
From the rocks
Colour
Train pics
The railway tracks pass right through the middle of the park and I was able to take a few pics of the cars (I missed the engine).
Double stack containers..
Return of the monster..
On the ride back home..
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| Golden gardens park and beach |
I had to go to downtown seattle last weekend and the reason being the shop(R&M) that I usually buy maggi noodles from, was out of stock. So I decided to check out an Indian store called Souk, located downtown seattle at pikes' place.
Little did I know that a trivial shopping trip would turn out to be a fun-filled and exciting sight-seeing trip....
1) The pikes place market place
2) The fish market here is actually a source of entertainment
3) Souk was a small shop, but I found what I want
4) The scrapers overlooking pikes place
5) A lot of people sing around the pikes place and are pretty good at that
10) The gigantic cranes at the seattle port, amazing to look at from close quarters
15) A lot of people use the ferry to get across town..bike/drive to the vessel and bike/drive out of the vessel at the other end.
Kennenisa Bekele with the WR
El G followed closely by Bernard Lagat and Ukranian Ivan Heshko
A favorite in 1996 and 2000 olympics, El G finally realised his dream at the 2004 olympics with a double gold
