May 5, 2012 - Campbell Creek Walk-Together

Spring is arriving late this year.  The citywide Creek Cleanup Day has been postponed, so this year the Girl Scout Walk-Together event came before the cleanup.  As a result, the Campbell Creek Trail and the banks of Campbell Creek displayed the detritus of a long winter - trash, dirty snow, dead leaves, snow mold, and a coating of greyish brown dust on almost everything.  

Campbell Creek

Cache near the start of the walk

The good: wilderness in the middle of the city

The bad: a broken liquor bottle on the trail

The ugly: part of a road widening project

Still, there were green shoots here and there, and signs that woodland creatures have remained active despite the hardship of a record snowfall this winter (around 13 feet total).

Leave it to Beaver!

Moose have chewed on this tree

Deep snow left the moose hungry - their usual browse was covered up.  Evidence of their foraging was visible on many trees.  Evidence of their digestion was also visible in many places.

The patch earned by walking Girl Scouts this year

It was great to see Girl Scouts and their families getting outdoors for some exercise and exposure to nature.  I saw one group of Daisies brimming over with excitement as they watched some squirrels chase each other.

May 1, 2012 - Yakima - Downtown

Yakima is in the heart of Washington's apple and wine regions. There were four walks to choose from, so I expected there would be a lot of interesting things to see on this walk.  I was rather disappointed. (Due to ongoing knee problems, we walked the 6k option rather than the 10k.  Perhaps the 4k segment we didn't walk had all the good stuff.)

We started out at a hotel located on the other side of the Interstate from downtown Yakima.  As a result, the first and last 1.5k of our walk took us along very busy roads where there was nothing to see. We actually passed a number of hotels in the downtown area, so it is surprising that the start point was located where it was.

We did enjoy the Millenium Arts Plaza with its clever sculptures, as well as the Renaissance style Capitol Theatre.

Capitol Theatre

Three of the installations in Millenium Arts Plaza

Apple Picker's Gear

From the Arts Plaza we proceeded to an area where, according to the route instructions, we would "enjoy the shops."  There were a couple of ordinary looking restaurants and several empty storefronts, but no shops.  On the way back we saw an interesting-looking large building about half a block off our route, but we have no idea what it was.



Walk Route:  D

Walk Instructions:  C

Parking lot art

Mural

Vintage neon sign: the hunter pivots from side to side and the gun periodically "fires."