christopher575

This morning I drove out to a spot where I sometimes park near the Boeing Recreation Center. It's near the Northeast entrance to Japanese Gulch, and parking there's a nice way to walk around at the top of the East side without having to actually climb up. Another option is to walk the long, steep streets that lead there for a really challenging climb. You start at a high point and go down, then back up, so there are two huge climbs if you go really far, or just one if you turn back at the bottom. My plan was to go quite far so I could see the spot where a car recently jumped a curb and killed a pedestrian. I already know from driving by that there's nothing particularly challenging about that spot, so it'll be interesting to hear the excuse given.



But I didn't even get to park. Suddenly in the area where I've always left my car, there are tons of No Parking signs. I know there was at least one, but it was in the curved part and I would leave the car just beyond that. I was never worried either way, because the office building at the very end of the road after it turns was recently vacated and renovated, but now that it's being used again, there's lots of traffic in the area, and probably more enforcement. Which is a shame, because there isn't any other legal parking for miles. My original plan was to park at point A on this map, and point B is where the accident was.


6.08 miles in 2:08, 13,695 steps, 464ft gain

Since I couldn't do that, I drove to the business park near the South end of Japanese Gulch, walked in the dark down to the bottom and back up, and did the access road a couple of times.



Sometimes I accidentally get a photo while putting the phone away, and once in a while, I like it enough to keep it.



Once it got bright enough, I walked back down a bit and then climbed up to the East side via the Rusty Car trail. It was so nice to see it again after so long, and there was really only mud in the one spot I knew there would be. Up at the top on the West side, the usual spots that are most likely to be muddy barely were, and I didn't even have to use the side paths to get by. Unless we get more rain, the only reason not to spend a lot more time up there now is that it's still dark way too late.

I liked these little bushes in a yard near the business park.



And the clouds were cool, too. I really wish the camera I'm waiting on that I plan to use for time lapses was here, I bet this morning from this parking lot would have been nice.





I was very productive this afternoon. I finally took the downstairs Christmas tree down and put it in a brand new plastic storage bin I got a few weeks ago. It just barely fits, which I guess is perfect since there's no extra space taken up in storage. And I did dishes. Maybe that's not a lot, but it felt like it, and I very nearly forgot my afternoon conference call. Thankfully I remembered with eight minutes to spare.