Gone for a Walk, 12/28/11

Okay, I'm trying something new – I've discovered that some of the “Catalog” computers at the library are available for word processing, which should allow me to write posts without using up my internet access time limit.

I'm going to change the use of this blog a bit. Originally I started it as a way of getting feedback on the book I wanted to read and therefore found myself writing! Life has shifted quite a lot in the last six months, and this blog is going to shift as well to serve some other functions. Primarily, to explore more of the walking I've been doing!

So – what exactly have I been doing, you wonder? (Even if you haven't wondered, I'll tell you anyway. Reading this blog is your choice after all!) To be perfectly honest, I'm trying to figure that out myself!

The executive summary is that I have moved from Maine to Washington. Inland, in both cases, so not *quite* all the way across the continent! I am house-sitting for a friend until March, and considering several different options for the time after his return. Right now, the leading idea is to head into the woods. Literally.

This area (the Inland Northwest seems to be usual designation) is blessed with an abundance of wild lands: National Forests, National Parks, wilderness areas, State preserves of assorted varieties, as well as BLM land. There are more hiking trails than you can shake a trekking pole at, but I'm tempted to try! But until at least March, I'm based in Spokane, which has been very fun to explore.

I started with the Centennial Trail, which is a multi-use path that largely follows the Spokane River through town. It terminates at Riverside State Park in the west, and goes to the Idaho border in the east, where it continues on through Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The place I'm house-sitting is spectacularly located near the center of town just a few blocks from access to the Centennial Trail. The first couple weeks I pretty much spent on the trail! While I did not get all the way into the State Park (it's 9 miles one way from the bus stop to the end of the trail), I have taken it into Idaho to about 4 miles from its eastern terminus (and then caught a Greyhound back to Spokane). I believe the trail is about 60 miles all told, about 2/3 in WA (this is where not have internet access while writing is annoying). As a multi-use trail, it is paved for bicycles, but with wide mowed shoulders that runners have made foot paths along as they seem to do. Although not so much on the last 5 miles before the Idaho border – demonstrating where running use is minimal. It's pretty flat, which makes it great for getting back into hiking, something I never did enough of while living near the White Mountains.

Now I'm ready for some hills again. Spokane isn't the prettiest city around, but they are awesome about sidewalks, which I have been dutifully pounding! Last week I took my first foray up South Hill. Sadly my camera batteries were dead, so I'll have to go back and see if I can get some pics looking up Freya Street – it's a pretty impressive rise! The city's bus service is as awesome as their sidewalks, so I do a lot of initial exploration by bus and scout out interesting places to walk, or just how to get from A to B, as in the case of grocery shopping!

Today's plan was to explore Manito Park, which looked quite promising from the bus window. Sadly, Manito wasn't nearly as neat-o as it might have been, but on my walk there I went through tiny Pioneer Park, which was awesome! Can you say Geology?! I actually did a bit of rock scrambling up one of the paths, since the weekend's melted snow made the trail mud pretty slick. Eager for more, I checked my city street map, and plotted a route over to High Bridge Park, another one I had passed on the bus. I think I found where all the doctors live, just north of the Hospital district – some really cool houses in that area. But getting down to High Bridge park wasn't straightforward – I thought it was named for the railroad bridge that really is UP there, but the roads are pretty far up as well. The park follows Hangman Creek (another use for high bridges?) that flows into the Spokane River, but there's no real access to the park other than from Riverside Ave near the water junction. But hark, there's a *huge* green area slightly west of there, Palisades Park! And that does promise to be a rewarding venture on a day that I get there more than a half-hour before sunset. For today, I did just a quick out-and-back on one of the apparently many trails threading that park.

The weather has been extremely mild – I have no idea if this is usual or not. It did snow on Saturday, big fluffy flakes that stuck around for those wanting a white holiday Sunday, but today it was 50*F+! In December! My Minnesota-raised mind boggles. This feels more like southern Indiana, but with shorter days. I'm actually about 5* latitude further north than I was in Maine, and am acutely aware of the short daylight hours.

So yeah, what I've been doing is “gone for a walk”! Which is pretty darn awesome. So the blog will now come with random trip reports as well as sustainability experiments and minimalism explorations. All part of my search for a satisfying life. Enjoy!