July 30, 2014 - Vancouver, BC (YRE)

We started our volkswalk at the cruise ship dock and soon we found ourselves in Gastown. This is the oldest part of Vancouver. A lot of effort has been put into restoration, with good results. One of the first things we noticed was how polite Canadians are. They stop so you can cross the street, and they even wait in line at the bus stop.

One of the special attractions in Gastown is a "steam clock," built in 1977, but appearing to be much older. It is powered by steam and it emits a little cloud of steam from time to time. Every 15 minutes it makes a tooting noise.

After Gastown comes Chinatown. Vancouver has the third largest Chinese community in North America (after NY and SF). It reminded me of Chinatown in Honolulu, with lots of small grocery stores selling unidentifiable (to me) items.

 

We bought some almond cookies at a Chinese bakery, and soon came to the "skid row" area, which reminded of us of Portland, Oregon, though not nearly as dilapidated or depressing. After a bit we arrived at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens. This was a peaceful, beautiful retreat in the middle of the city. Mext to the garden was a monument to the Chinese railroad workers and dock workers who played an important role in the early history of Vancouver.

The next "town" was Yaletown. This was where the railway workers lived. It is now a residential, shopping, and cafe area, probably very expensive to live in, but fun to walk through. There was a row of beautifully restored houses that the workers once lived in.

Next we walked through a vibrant section of Downtown. There were small parks, food trucks, public art, concert halls, museums, and office buildings. The main library was in a stunning building designed by Moshe Safdie .

Part of one street was blocked off and there were some sculptural benches made of slices of wood. People were sitting on them, enjoying the sunshine.

One interesting thing we noticed about Vancouver is that there are lots of residential buildings in every section of the city, even downtown. Many of them are high-rises, but there are a lot of smaller buildings, too. We walked just one block away from one of the main downtown streets and found ourselves in a pleasant residential neighborhood with lots of trees and very little traffic. For a big city, Vancouver seemed very livable.

Back in the business district once again, we passed lots of coffee shops (think Seattle), and modern glass and steel office towers, fountains and mini-parks. People dressed in business attire were sitting in these parks and we didn't see any homeless people here.

Heading downhill towards the water, we finally arrived back at the cruise terminal and completed our 10k walk.

Walk Route: A

Walk Instructions: A+

July 27, 2014 - Juneau, AK (Seasonal)

I heard a nasty rumor that it would be 81 degrees and sunny today in Juneau. As with many rumors, it turned out to be false. It was in the upper 50's with intermittent drizzle. Perfect walking weather.

We started and ended our 10k volkswalk in heaven, otherwise known as The Alaska Fudge Company. Walking down Franklin Street, we realized that the cruise industry has brought enough jewelry stores and souvenir stores to Juneau to allow for one for each legislator. I do not exaggerate. Nestled in amongst the touristy shops are some very nice shops selling local art, Native art, quilting supplies, and Alaskan Amber-themed paraphernalia. (Alaskan Amber is a locally brewed beer.)

Juneau only has a few blocks of flat land and then it rises up steeply to Mt. Roberts. As a result, this walk has a lot of climbing. The route is cleverly designed so that you climb for one block and then go level for one block and climb for one block and level for one block, etc. You start at 1st Street, and by the time you reach 8th Street, you are way up there. At 4th you pass by the State Capitol building. It was open on Sunday because there were 5 ships in port today. On the opposite corner there was a historical museum that was closed. (It was also closed the last time we were here. I think it may be permanently closed.)

At the top of the hill(?) we passed several small houses where miners lived during the gold rush period. We turned inland and entered the canyon between Mt. Roberts and Mt. Juneau. This is a popular hiking area, and it was easy to see why. The road follows Gold Creek into the valley. You can see the flume built by the gold-miners, but there is little other evidence of civilization. We hiked down the road for a mile until it ended at a trailhead. There is a mining museum here, but we didn't stop in. It was beautiful here. This is a temperate rainforest and it is very different from the hiking trails in Anchorage. The trees are mostly evergreens and they are taller than the trees one sees in and around Anchorage.

After returning along the same road to the inhabited portion of Juneau we walked passed some interesting houses and then took a turn onto Calhoun Street. It curved around and led us past the Governor's Mansion, Cope Park, Gold Creek (again) and to the cemetery. Most of the cemetery was old and uncared for, but we passed by the cemetery of Joe Juneau, the person for whom Juneau was named.

We walked back towards "downtown" past some schools and took the bridge across Gastineau Channel to Douglas Island, then turned back to Juneau. We passed the state museum, which was closed for renovations until 2016.

Walk Route: B+
Walk Instructions: B

July 12, 2014 - Anchorage: Chester Creek/Tony Knowles Coastal Trail (YRE 902)

It was supposed to rain today, but it turned out to be nice so we headed downtown to do the Chester Creek/Tony Knowles Coastal Trail Walk. Our secret for this walk is to park at Westchester Lagoon and start the walk there. This works for us because it is always easy to park there and you have bathrooms when you need them. If you start at the Public Lands Information Center, parking can be a problem and so can bathrooms.

There was a bridge that had collapsed, so to get to the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail we had to detour through a neighborhood. The detour was marked, but not very well. Fortunately, the POC for this walk is on top of things, and has added written instructions for the detour to the walk instructions, so even a tourist ought to be able to figure it out.

The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail was great, as always. However, some of the bicyclists need to be a little more considerate and a little less reckless in their biking. Walkers need to remember to keep to the right side of the trail, as you can be passed on the left  without warning. You may also encounter bikers coming towards you at a blind curve and you wouldn't want to be too far over to the left if that happens.

There were a lot of beautiful flowers today, both wildflowers and the garden variety. They looked especially pretty at the Oscar Anderson House (National Register of Historic Places).

Flowers at the Oscar Anderson House

On our way down the hill at W. 1st Avenue we were repeatedly dive-bombed by a pair of seagulls.  They were either protecting some road kill that was in the road or protecting a baby bird that was in the road (or getting ready to kill the baby bird). They were not intimidated by my screaming at them.

After the nasty seagull incident we arrived at the Anchorage Depot (National Register of Historic Places). The bathrooms at the railroad depot always appear at just the right time and are always nice and clean.

The Anchorage Depot

Flowers at the Eisenhower Statehood Monument

 If you happen to do this walk on a weekend in the summer, you will pass the Downtown Market. If you are a visitor, make sure to take some time exploring this street fair,or at least stop and get something to eat.

Downtown Market (summer weekends only)

Upon arriving at the Old Federal Building (National Register of Historic Places), which now houses the Alaska Public Lands Information Center, the official start point for this walk, we noticed the usual hot dog carts outside. In addition, there was a park ranger with a display of various kinds of furs. I went inside, through the metal detector, to stamp my books. Maybe I'll stay and see one of their movies some day.

Left to right: Park Ranger with furs, tourists, reindeer sausage cart

Flowers and mutant plants in front of Alaska Public Lands Information Center

From there we walked over to the Visitor's Information Center and Town Square, where you can see some really vivid displays of flowers. You will also see why Anchorage is called "The Hanging Basket Capital of the World."

An ornamental cabbage in Town Square (Wyland mural in background)

We made a little adjustment to the next leg of the walk. Instead of walking down busy, noisy, boring A Street, we walked down E Street to the Park Strip, then over to F Street.

This sculpture represents whale ribs

This route took us through a charming old Anchorage neighborhood (South Addition) where we were able to see many beautiful gardens and (mostly) tasteful remodels.

South Addition house

At 14th we cut over to G Street to visit the Fire Island Rustic Bakery. This stop is a must whenever in the neighborhood. During this part of the walk we saw something I don't think I've ever seen before in Anchorage: a small plane flying over downtown with a banner behind it (for GEICO).

Then we headed back to E Street and down the hill to Valley of the Moon Park, where we connected with the Chester Creek Trail. There was a large group of Samoans celebrating a birthday, complete with a bounce house. I wanted to join in - it really looked like fun.

On the Chester Creek Trail we encountered Lidiya and stopped for a chat. She showed us some orange boletes (wild mushrooms) she had just found by the side of the trail.

Soon we were back at our car, and it was so nice out I almost didn't want to stop walking, but my feet know when I have done 10k, so that was the end of our walk.

During the walk, I said to Ken that it's too bad the route didn't go by the start point for the Anchorage Lightspeed Planet Walk, and it's too bad the walk didn't go down E or F or G Street instead of A Street. Upon returning home, I looked up my last blog entry for this same walk: July 18, 2012. I found that I had the same two comments after doing this walk almost exactly two years ago.

Walk Route: B-
Walk Instructions: B

Here are my comments from two years ago on the route:

1) A one half block detour from the Performing Arts Center takes you to the "Sun" at the beginning of the "Anchorage Lightspeed Planet Walk."  http://anchorageplanetwalk.org/index.html 

This is a very cool exhibit. The Anchorage Light Speed Planet Walk is a scale model of our solar system. Taking the walk, you experience the relative size of the planets and their distance from the Sun. The scale was chosen so that a leisurely walking pace mimics the speed of light. On this scale, each step equals the distance light travels in one second (300,000 kilometers or 186,000 miles).  You will be able to see Mars in Elderberry Park and Jupiter on the Coastal Trail at Westchester Lagoon on the Coastal Trail Walk. If you do the Kincaid Park walk, you will see Pluto.  Mercury, Venus and Earth are not far from the Coastal Trail Walk route (and perhaps are included in the Route for the Anchorage Historical Walk). 

2) I would rather walk down G Street from downtown, passing the Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop.  The current routing down A Street exposes walkers to a lot of traffic and the occasional group of homeless individuals loitering along the way.  The G Street route could cut over to E Street at 15th and follow E Street to the Chester Creek Trail.