September 28, 2016 - Ellensburg City (YRE-0320)

It always helps to have nice weather. We had really nice weather today in Ellensburg, in central Washington.

Central Washington is in the high desert. The landscape is so different from most places I have been. I really enjoyed the hills surrounding the town.

We started the walk at a Starbucks - and I do recommend the salted caramel mocha coffee. We soon found ourselves in a pleasant residential area. The houses were a nice mixture of bungalows, Craftsman-style homes, and mid-century houses. The people we met on the sidewalks of Ellensburg were friendly. They invariably said "Hi!". 

Not all of the houses were bungalows

The American Legion building

Many of the properties were nicely landscaped. We saw some desert landscaping, but we also saw quite a few rose gardens. I loved the variety of colorful mature trees present in most neighborhoods.

Our walk took us to a viewpoint overlooking the rodeo grounds, which are on the National Register of Historic Places. Apparently the Ellensburg Rodeo is one of America's top ten professional rodeos. This is a Big Deal here.

A mural seen downtown:

A mural encountered downtown

We continued through charming neighborhoods to the historic downtown area. 

Yay! A Little Free Library!

Hmmmmm.

The CBD was well-maintained. I enjoyed seeing the flower boxes, decorative trash containers, cute bicycle racks, and other little details that went into making our visit to downtown Ellensburg so enjoyable.

We stopped at The Soup Bowl for an excellent lunch. There are many appetizing possibilities for lunch downtown, so try to time your walk so that you hit downtown around lunchtime.

Me and the Ellensburg Bull:

Art Deco bank, now a gallery:

We completed our tour of downtown with a walk past City Hall and then turned up toward the campus of Central Washington University. The campus is dominated by Barge Hall, the oldest and most iconic building on campus. The signature red brick with white stone trim is reflected in most of the other university buildings, giving the campus a cohesive look.

Before completing our campus tour we looped through a stately residential neighborhood to the west, admiring the 100-year-old trees that lined the street, and hoping chestnuts and acorns did not start dropping on us.

Back on campus we walked past a gorgeous new state-of-the-art science building before reaching the arboretum, where we followed a path along a canal until we reached a quad with outdoor sculptures.

Who doesn't love weeping willows?

In front of the library we saw a photo shoot involving an older couple wearing CWU t-shirts. Who were they? Big donors? The oldest alumni? Ardent Wildcats fans?

It was interesting to find a peaceful Japanese Garden right in the middle of campus. Every campus should have a retreat like this.

We were very impressed with the careful planning that went into this route. We were also impressed by the clear, accurate instructions and the well-organized log book, with excellent information about the walk and the applicable special programs. This walk was a delight!

Walk Route: B+

Walk Instructions: A

August 20, 2016 - Blueberry Festival

Oops.  It's been a while since I have posted. I have been traveling a lot in places where they don't have volkswalks. But I'm inspired by today's great walk.

Our club decided to do a group walk or guided walk on our Girdwood YRE. We picked today because the Blueberry Festival is taking place. We used to have event walks during the Blueberry Festival, but it got to be too much work to organize that, so we are accomplishing almost the same thing by walking the YRE.

We brought Merle with us. She is visiting here from Pennsylvania and wanted to get out of town today. This was her first experience with volkswalking, and I think she had a good time.

On the way down to Girdwood we saw a pod of Beluga whales in Turnagain Arm. It is so much fun to see them, but it's hard to take pictures from a car going 60 miles an hour.

We arrived in Girdwood after a 45-minute drive and headed for the Alyeska Resort, our start point. About 20 people showed up to walk. Upon starting we divided up into two groups - one to walk the 10k, and one to walk the 5k.

The 5k walk follows a little woodsy trail along a creek, eventually arriving at a gravel airstrip. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we had stunning views of mountains and glaciers.

We continued through a subdivision where we admired some homes with gorgeous flower gardens and lots of charming cozy-looking cabins.

Eventually we reached the main road and crossed over to the Jade Shop.

Approaching the Jade Shop

A  trail behind the Jade Shop took us over a silty, glacial creek, and there were more views of glaciers.



We soon arrived at the Alyeska Bake Shop where we were greeted by a bounty of flower pots, boxes, and hanging baskets.

Part of the 5k contingent

Finally, we followed the bike path back up the road toward the Alyeska Resort. We started to pass blueberry bushes, but there were very few blueberries to be found.

As the bike path led us through a tunnel to another trail near the back of the resort we began to see little groups of blueberry pickers. There were a few berries right by the side of the trail that no one had found yet and we ate them!

Very soon after that we arrived at the resort. The walk was now over but it was time to explore all the booths that had been set up for the Blueberry Festival.

I got a quesadilla at one of the booths. (I am writing about this to remind myself not to go to that booth next year. The quesadilla was not that good. While I was waiting for it, I watched a customer walk up to the counter, reach over and stick her hand into a bowl of shredded cheese, and grab a handful to add to the plate of food she had just purchased. This was the cheese the cooks were adding to people's food. She was not supposed to take any, and she was definitely not supposed to stick her hand into the bowl of cheese. I was horrified because I could see what she was going to do and I yelled "No, no, no" but she did it anyway. I told the people working there and they said customers are not supposed to touch the food and I said yes, but they are doing it, what are you going to do about it? I suspect they have not changed the way they operate.)

By the time we left the Blueberry Festival, there was a huge traffic jam trying to get into the parking lot. There was a line of cars backed up all the way from the Resort to the "T" and from the "T" all the way down to Crow Creek Road. Make sure you go EARLY if you go next year.

Route: B+ if you do this YRE on a gorgeous day during the Blueberry Festival

July 25, 2015 - Trail of Blue Ice

We enjoyed the sunshine on the hour-long drive down to Portage. When we got about a mile away from the Begich Boggs Visitor Center, it got cloudy, windy and cold. That's the way the weather always is there - unless it's raining. Between the mountain pass and the glaciers, there is a micro-climate there that is fed by the cold blue glaciers in the area.

We started out from the Visitor Center and picked up the Trail of Blue Ice at the other end of the parking lot. It is an improved trail and it's very pleasant once you get away from the cold wind coming off the lake. That happens in less then five minutes. :) In fact, after a few more minutes I was quite comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt.

The trail beckons

A mossy rock

Our walk was fairly uneventful.  There were two club members who encountered a bear on the trail, but we didn't see any wildlife at all, so we had to make do with observing the local flora.

Fireweed

 
The nagoonberries were ripe, and we stopped to sample some with some other club members. They are similar to raspberries, but "seedier."

We did manage to see some of the "blue ice" despite the clouds. The ice in glaciers looks blue because it is compressed to the point where it is very dense and all of the light waves in the spectrum except for the blue frequency are absorbed.

You can just see a blue glacier on the left, peeping out from under the cloudy mountain top. You had to be there.

It is very calming to be able to spend time in a wild, beautiful environment with very few people around.

When we got back to the Visitors' Center, we used our Golden Age Passport to get into the exhibits and the movie. I accidentally sat on a giant ice worm. I thought it was couch. Yes, ice worms are a real thing, and they sometimes have some on display, swimming around in a bucket of ice water.

Me and my new best friend

A typical Alaskan mosquito

Walk Route: B+

Walk Instructions: B+ 

I like instructions that give the distances at each landmark.

March 24, 2015 - Santa Fe, NM

Santa Fe is small but very interesting. You may want to allow a lot of time for this walk because there is so much to see. You might also want some extra time because the altitude is 7,000 feet.

There must be a strict building code here. There are only a couple of buildings that are more than two stories tall. Almost everything is in the Pueblo Revival style - public buildings, commercial buildings and residences.

The Inn at Loretto - an example of Pueblo Revival

Kate and I started out by crossing the Old Santa Fe Trail. At one time, Route 66 followed this trail, but in the 1930's Route 66 was realigned to bypass Santa Fe.

We soon arrived at the State Capitol building. It is built in New Mexico Territorial style - an adaptation of Greek Revival and Pueblo adobe. 

The Roundhouse

The Capitol building is nicknamed "the Roundhouse" and resembles a Zia sun symbol when seen from above.

The Zia Sun Symbol on the state flag

There is a wonderful art collection inside the Capitol, and many pieces of public art can be seen on the Capitol grounds as well as here and there throughout downtown. Many are by emerging artists.

This abstract piece reminded me of red hot chili peppers

"When Friends Meet"

The Santa Fe Plaza, a National Historical Landmark, now serves as the focus for art, jewelry, music, and especially Native American culture.
There are lots of art galleries, jewelry shops, cafes, and high-end stores in this area. The turquoise and silver Navajo jewelry is everywhere and it is stunning.

There are many reminders of New Mexico's Native American heritage, but there are also reminders of it's Wild West history. Both Kit Carson and Billy the Kid are commemorated in Santa Fe.

We detoured about half a block to visit the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. It is well worth the extra time. Be sure to see the short documentary about her life.

O'Keefe's work often featured flowers or southwestern landscapes, or both

We also made a stop at the Museum of Indian Women in the Arts, where we learned about the work of Pablita Velarde and her daughter and granddaughter.

Pablita's work was colorful and showed Native American themes

St. Francis Cathedral is a Romanesque Revival structure that can be seen from many parts of downtown. The keystone in the arch above the main entrance contains a triangle with the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew carved in it. An "old story" suggests that this was Fr. Lamy's way of thanking various local Jewish merchants for their financial contributions towards the building of the cathedral.

In front of the cathedral is a statue of Kateri Tekakwitha, the first North American Indian to be canonized. (She was from New York state, not the Southwest.)

Saint Kateri

San Miguel Chapel, the oldest church in the US

Between museums and shopping and lunch we only had time for the 5k, but I feel like I got a very good introduction to Santa Fe.
I agree with the saying about New Mexico: It's not actually new and it's not actually Mexico. (But it is actually worth seeing.)

Route:  A-

Route Instructions: C+
The directions were confusing in a few places. You couldn't use the map to clarify where you were because the street names often did not appear on the map. There is so much of interest along the route. It would be most appreciated if the instructions provided a little more narrative about historical landmarks.

September 6, 2014 - New Campbell Creek Trail

Today’s event occurred on a beautiful early fall day. The temperature (55-60°) was perfect for walking.

We started out at the Sourdough Mining Company, as we have done for past YRE’s and regular events on the Campbell Creek Trail. However, instead of turning left onto the trail, we turned right onto a new segment of the trail and followed the Campbell Creek Greenbelt to the east.

While walking through a pleasant wooded section of the trail, we noticed how high Campbell Creek was, due to recent rains. Then we began to notice that the pavement was covered with hundreds of tiny slugs. It was hard not to step on them because there were so many of them. Yuck! At least they were tiny – not like the HUGE ones we saw on our Columbia River Gorge walks.

We crossed Campbell Creek using a nice wood pedestrian bridge and continued following the trail under four overpasses of the Seward Highway. There were some screens next to each underpass to keep snow from the snowplows from falling on the trail in the winter. They had nice designs of people enjoying outdoor activities. Too bad some lowlife felt the need to slash several of them.

Side view of Campbell Creek from the viewing platform

Soon we came to a short side trail leading to a viewing platform. We went down this trail to get a better view of Campbell Creek. Unfortunately, the trees have grown quite a bit since the platform was built, so it was hard to get a good direct view, but you could see the creek from the side.

Soon we came to Waldron Lake. Our kids used to play soccer here (a long time ago) and it looks like the field next to the lake is still used for soccer. We saw Canada geese, mallards, and other types of ducks in the lake.

Waldron Lake

The trail ended at an older subdivision. After two short blocks we came to Lake Otis Parkway, a very busy street. We had to go south for three blocks to the pedestrian tunnel under Lake Otis. On the way we encountered some other walkers who told us the tunnel was a mess. We decided to cross at the crosswalk instead, using the pedestrian walk signal. After crossing we had to go north for three blocks to get to Campbell Park. This is a popular park with a recently renovated playground. The new play structures were very colorful and looked like a lot of fun, but I forgot to take pictures.  :(

I forgot to take pictures, but I found this one on the web. Pun intended.

After making a big loop around the playground, we headed back to the start point, while the 10k walkers continued along the trail to the animal shelter.

Under the Seward Highway

Walk Route: B-

It’s always great to have a new route. The trail was very enjoyable, but the segment from 47^th to the playground was noisy and uninteresting, as was the segment under the four sections of the Seward Highway. 

Walk Instructions: B+

Extremely clear and precise instructions, but no map, no distance indications in the directions. Also, directions are easier to follow when they are numbered.