According to the Pebble, I had 2 hours and 52 minutes of sleep, and my average is 6 hours, 58 minutes. Last night's deep sleep was 0 minutes, and the average for that is 2 hours, 13 minutes. I didn't feel too terrible this morning, but it always catches up in the afternoon. I hadn't really thought about that when I left for the movie theater to see Batman Vs. Superman, and ended up dozing off for a while during a Batmobile chase scene. I guess that's as good a time as any. The movie was pretty good, in spite of what most of the reviewers have to say about it. But I also have terrible taste.
This morning's walk was pretty great. I was treated to another nice view of the moon when I got there.
Not sure why it took me so long to try a panorama of the view from the tracks. I guess because I only recently started walking there and it's pretty dark.
I spent the entire walk up debating whether or not I should do something in the Eastern portion of the gulch. It's been forever because of the mud, and I wasn't particularly optimistic since it rained so much over the weekend. But when I turned the corner to the access road at point A on the map below, this happened.
My first Japanese Gulch deer encounter! And actually only my third total since we moved here. I saw them across the street from our driveway once, and I saw a huge buck eating some flowers near the entrance to Forest Park once. I really didn't want to scare them off, so after I got my photo, I turned around and left. Since I was turning back from what was to be my turnaround point, I decided to go ahead and make a big loop by going up to the business park where I park sometimes and enter the gulch again at Mukilteo Community Garden.
One bonus was that it was a little foggy up at the top by the highway.
That entrance is paved for a while, which is a good thing, because it's quite wet. Some nice person put some plywood sheets in a couple of spots in the biggest puddle, which helps a lot. One trail I like that leaves from this area has been inaccessible for ages due to water, and looks worse than ever. But the way I wanted to go was ok. At first.
That's not even all the mud on what I consider the "main" trail of the Western portion. I made my way around a big patch earlier using the side trail I've mentioned that seems to be specifically for bypassing mud. I got about halfway through this muddy area by going along the sides, but couldn't quite get the last six feet or so more to the second bypass. And I was only halfway through the mud. In this photo, you can see about 2/3 of the huge stretch. Oy.
Thankfully, I know the area well enough to be able to double back and go around. You can see at point B on the map where I turned back and where I finally got back to the trail.
5.34 miles in 1:51, 11,479 steps, 508ft gain
Because of the deer, I ended up going 1.5 miles longer than I have been lately! The extra distance is nice, and I think it's time to make five miles my average walk again. And while the residential areas aren't my favorite option, it's nice to see the landscaping. This is one of my favorites.
