More Details on Upcoming Hikes

Dear Diary,

I gave a bad number to you yesterday.  I didn't mean to lie, and technically didn't - all I said was that 43 North Seatle parks were "represented" in the map Seattle's Department of Human Services had made, and "represented" can mean lots of things.  But rather fewer parks were actually symbolised on the map with things that mean hygiene services are available.

Meanwhile, there's another recent map to consider.  The Department of Parks and Recreation claims to have updated its map of "comfort stations" (PDF) on December 23.  This map makes different implausible claims from those in the one put forward by Human Services ("HSD" hereafter).

Let's just go park by park, split up by the directionals ("NW", "N", "NE") in their addresses.

Northwest

1. Ballard Commons.  The city treats the Portland Loo as a restroom, and one open 24 hours.  It is a single-user stall.  HSD and Parks agree in saying a restroom as well as "sanicans" are open there; I remember a hand-washing station.
2. Ballard Community Center in Ballard Playground.  This presumably has restrooms whose doors open inside it.  Nobody says those are open.  (Please assume this about pools going forward, as well as community centers unless I say otherwise.)  It also has two restrooms, single-user stalls, whose doors open to the outside.  Parks says these are open; HSD doesn't.  They were not listed as open last year.
3. Ballard Pool.
4. Carkeek Park.  Has multi-user restrooms which both HSD and Parks say are open.  These were 24 hours this summer, but probably no longer are.  HSD also says there are "sanicans"; Parks disagrees, and I don't remember any.
5. Gilman Playfield.  Has multi-user restrooms which both HSD and Parks say are open.  They were not listed as open last year.  HSD also says there are "sanicans"; Parks disagrees; I'm not sure.
6. Golden Gardens Park.  Has multi-user restrooms on the beach, and halfway uphill near the dogs' off-leash area.  HSD and Parks agree that both sets are open.  Again they disagree about "sanicans".
7. Loyal Heights Community Center and Playfield.  The Community Center has multi-user restrooms whose doors open to the outside.  HSD and Parks agree that these are open.
8. Ross Playground.  Has multi-user restrooms.  Parks says they're open; HSD disagrees; they weren't listed as open last winter.
9. Salmon Bay Park.  Has multi-user restrooms.  Parks says they're open; HSD disagrees; they weren't listed as open last winter.
10. Sandel Playground.  Has multi-user restrooms.  HSD and Parks agree that these are open.  They weren't listed as open last year.
11. Soundview Playfield.  Has single-user stalls.  Parks says they're open; HSD disagrees; they weren't listed as open last year.
12. Webster Park.  HSD says there are "sanicans"; Parks disagrees.

North

1. B. F. Day Playground.  HSD, Parks and I all say there's a "sanican" there; I remember no hand-washing station.
2. Bitter Lake Playfield and Community Center.  Has multi-user restrooms.  In June these were open 24 hours.  In October they were locked; a project to replace their lighting had gone off track.  HSD and Parks agree that they're now open; they were not listed as open last winter.  HSD also mentions "sanicans", and I saw some in October, but Parks disagrees.
3. Gas Works Park.  HSD and Parks agree that the multi-user restrooms here are open; HSD adds that they're 24 hours, which was publicised.
4. Green Lake Park and Community Center and Evans Pool.  Four pairs of multi-user restrooms (one in the community center, doors opening to the outside), and one pair I've never found open.  Last year's list, and this year HSD and Parks all agree that all five sets are open.  In October I found three pairs open 24 hours.  Rachel Schulkin of Parks told me they only promise that the north pair of restrooms, the ones by the wading pool, are 24 hours.  HSD says the southeast pair, the ones by nothing much, are.
5. Greenwood Park.  Has one single-user stall with unlockable, and usually unlatchable, door.  Parks says it's open; HSD disagrees; it wasn't listed as open last winter.
6. Licton Springs Park.  Has multi-user restrooms.  In October I saw the closure notice, and I think more recently I showed it to you, dear Diary.  But HSD and Parks agree that they're open now.  Last winter they weren't listed as open.  HSD also lists "sanicans", which I saw in October, but Parks disagrees.
7. Madison Pool.
8. Meridian Playground.  Has multi-user restrooms.  Parks says they're open; HSD disagrees; they weren't listed as open last winter.
9. Sunnyside Ave N Boat Ramp.  HSD and I agree that there's a "sanican" there, without hand-washing station.  Parks doesn't.
10. Wallingford Playfield.  Has multi-user restrooms.  HSD and Parks agree that they're open.
11. Woodland Park.  Disregarding the zoo, has five pairs of multi-user restrooms, two in the athletic area, three in the woods uphill; the latter were 24 hours this summer, but may no longer be.  HSD says one set in the athletic area (the "cloverleaf") and two in the woods (50th St and "hilltop") are open.  Parks says both athletic sets are open, plus 50th St and "lawn bowling" (northernmost).  Last year it was 50th, "Pink Palace", and "Rio".  In other words, any of them may be open.

Northeast

1. Albert Davis Park and Lake City Community Center.  I've seen "sanicans" with hand-washing station, and HSD and Parks say they're still there.
2. Burke-Gilman Playground Park.  I haven't found this park's multi-user restrooms open lately, but Parks says they are.  HSD doesn't, and they weren't listed as open last winter.
3. Cedar Park.  HSD and Parks agree that there's a "sanican"; I don't remember either way.
4. Cowen Park.  Has multi-user restrooms, among the few Parks admits are closed.  HSD doesn't list them, nor did last winter's list.
5. Dahl Playfield.  Has multi-user restrooms.  HSD and Parks agree that they're open.
6. Jackson Park.  Has single-user stalls at the driving range; multi-user restrooms with doors opening inside the "pro shop"; and restrooms with doors opening inside the cafe which I haven't seen.  All of these are open to the public.  Has had "sanicans" on the golf course, but removed them last year, and I don't know whether they're back; these would not be open to the (non-paying) public.  Neither HSD nor Parks lists any of these, nor did last winter's list.
7. Lake City Mini-Park.  I've seen "sanicans" with hand-washing stations, and HSD says they're still there; Parks doesn't.
8. Laurelhurst Community Center in Laurelhurst Playfield.  Has single-user stalls with doors opening to the outside; HSD and Parks agree they're open.
9. Little Brook Park.  Has a single-user stall not lockable, and I haven't even encountered it latchable.  Nobody says it's open.
10. Magnuson Park and Community Center.  The park has two undisputed pairs of multi-user restrooms.  Only the beach pair was listed as open last winter, not the central pair, but both HSD and Parks say both are open now.  Each adds one more.  HSD says the restrooms burned in a fire years ago are open.  Parks says the restrooms in the Community Center with doors opening outside are open.  I've yet to see either pair open, so will not express an opinion here.  Magnuson Park had, this spring, dozens of "sanicans", but no hand-washing stations; HSD lists seven locations, Parks ignores them all, and I'll just have to see for myself.
11. Maple Leaf Reservoir Park.  Has multi-user restrooms.  HSD and Parks agree that they're open.
12. Matthews Beach.  Has one pair of presumably multi-user shower restrooms.  I doubt these opened at all this year, but I wasn't there during official summer, when they're supposed to open, so can't be sure.  Also has two single-user stalls.  One was, in October, boarded up, the other open.  HSD and Parks agree that restrooms are open here, and probably mean that stall.  HSD also says there are "sanicans", of which I saw several in October, but Parks doesn't.
13. Meadowbrook Playfield, Community Center and Pool.  HSD and Parks agree that the Community Center is offering showers inside.  HSD seems to think that also means restrooms are available there, and I suppose technically they are, but probably not in the sense of "available" usually meant.  Parks also thinks restrooms are available at Meadowbrook, but probably means the multi-user ones in the Playfield, whose closure notice I've seen.
14. Northacres Park and Playfield.  Has single-user stalls in the park side, and multi-user restrooms in the playfield side.  Parks thinks both sets are open.  HSD thinks at least one is.  Last year the playfield set weren't listed as open in winter, and I've seen the men's room closure notice, though at that time the women's room remained open.
15. Northgate Park and Community Center.
16. Pinehurst Playground.  HSD, Parks and I agree that there's a "sanican" there.
17. Ravenna Park.  Has two sets of multi-user restrooms, called "lower" and "upper".  The lower set is in fact open, the upper not.  HSD and Parks agree on that.  There's a "sanican" near the lower set; HSD agrees, but Parks doesn't.
18. Ravenna-Eckstein Park and Community Center.
19. University Heights Plaza.  Has "sanicans" and a hand-washing station, which HSD acknowledges, but Parks doesn't.
20. University Playground.  Has multi-user restrooms which didn't open this year.  Nobody expects them to open this winter.  Has a "sanican" behind them, which HSD remembers, but Parks doesn't.
21. View Ridge Playfield.  Has multi-user restrooms which were 24 hours this summer.  HSD and Parks agree that they're open, but say nothing about 24 hours.

So HSD lists 30 North Seattle parks, 21 with restrooms and nine with only "sanicans".  My 43 included twelve parks whose restrooms weren't listed, and one set of "sanicans" not in a park.

Parks' map looks to me like a map compiled in spring, before the restrooms in upper Ravenna or Cowen Parks opened, although it shows summer restrooms in Green Lake and Magnuson Parks as open.  (But then, I'm pretty sure those two never opened this year anyway.)

I haven't decided how systematic to be in checking things other than restrooms and "sanicans".  I doubt either map is going anywhere soon.

I'm probably not going anywhere soon either, given the forecast weather, but we'll see, dear Diary, we'll see.

More Hiking and Door Shots!

Dear Diary,

Yippee!  The city has finally released its list of restrooms it's keeping open this winter.

http://www.seattle.gov/humanservices/services-and-programs/addressing-homelessness#hygiene

It's, um, surprisingly long.  This is sort of hidden by the fact that they chose to release it not as text, the way they did last year, but as a GIS map.  It works similarly to the street ends GIS map, so while I wasn't exactly at home with it, I was able to use it.

I concentrated on the two libraries and forty-three parks represented in North Seattle.  [EDIT 12/31:  To be clarified and corrected in a post today.]  The parks, in particular, include a number of surprises.  As Erica C. Barnett reported today, the city looked for restrooms that could withstand winter but were usually closed anyway, and this year kept them open.  There were some examples listed that I didn't remotely expect - to put it more plainly, I think the city goofed a few times.

I've been feeling bad about not having any photos for "Land and Water" (though really, how many interesting photos can one take of creeks?).  I've found a Lake City park I forgot about, there are things to do in Ballard ... you get the idea, right, dear Diary?  Given a kick in the seat of the pants the size of this one, it'd be crazy not to start hiking.

It is, admittedly, crazy to hike in January in Seattle, especially for a middle-aged homeless man.  All the more so since the days are now at their shortest.  I suspect I'll have to do some stimulating of the economy to make it work.

But anyway, one thing is true, dear Diary:  we can expect More Hiking, and More Door Shots.

Land and Water in North Seattle, part III: Thornton Creek's North Fork

Dear Diary,

I've walked at least twice from Jackson Park to Lake City via NE 135th St, and being the grouchy sort I am, have grumbled at least twice about the hills and valleys the street crosses.  These turn out to be the work of tributaries of the North Fork of Thornton Creek.

Thornton Creek and its tributaries are the most complex stream system in North Seattle.  Each map I've looked at treats them so.  Also, much of this system survives at least somewhat intact.  So it's no wonder that the Thornton Creek watershed gets a lot of attention.  The most important source for this page, in fact, is a map made by the Thornton Creek Alliance, who offer it for free download.  (It's the same map as I found in Matthews Beach, photographed, and showed you in "To the Beaches!")

The land Thornton Creek drained can be summarised thus:  hills in the north and east (the North Fork and its tributaries), plateaux in the south and west (the South Fork and its tributaries), with a few lowlands mostly in between.  I've found this complex system difficult to write about, and have ended up with the usual breakdown - the North Fork, then the South, then the combined stream.

I've tried not to make this a boring list, but I've probably failed.

I've reserved detailed treatment of the North Fork itself for the end of this page.  This page introduces three adjacent north-south oriented hills, then a sort of lowland, and a round hill; then it introduces a plateau west of all that, that's also south of most of it.  The North Fork actually starts way north in Shoreline.  Early in its Seattle career it curves around the southwest side of the round hill.  Then it runs at the north edge of the plateau.

The North Side

We start with the hill in coastal Lake City from the last page.  This hill arguably starts just north of the city limits (NE 145th St), and rises fairly quickly to a peak, 344 feet above sea level, between 39th and 40th Avenues NE and NE 135th and 137th Streets.  Cedar Park is two blocks west of this peak, over 300 feet.  The hill slopes very gradually south, its last 20 feet just barely north of Thornton Creek's mouth, at the equivalent of NE 91st St; the hill thus defined necessarily includes much of Matthews Beach.  In the west the hill's edge can be taken as Little Brook until that stream ends at 36th Ave NE and NE 115th St.  The edge then seems to shift southeast to 44th Ave NE and NE 105th St, and south-southeast beyond that.

Little Brook is a tributary of the North Fork.  Pedants call it Little Brook Creek, and drive on road streets.  Little Brook is shown on all topographic maps of the area that I'm using, unlike most other tributaries.  The Alliance map shows it starting just south of 145th St at 27th Ave NE, and promptly heading east.  It turns south at 31st Ave NE, with just enough eastwardness to reach 33rd Ave NE by NE 125th St, and then curves more to end at 36th and 115th as already mentioned.  Like most surviving Thornton tributaries, it's in culverts much of its way, though usually in the open south of 125th.  It passes through Little Brook Park in the open, goes past the Lake City Hub Urban Village Acquisition in a culvert, and passes through Little Brook Creek Natural Area in the open.

A short tributary runs near Little Brook, around 33rd Ave NE from NE 123rd St to the equivalent of NE 117th St, entirely in the open.  I don't know whether it's a remnant of an earlier lower course for Little Brook, or what.  It's on the 2020 and Alliance maps near Little Brook, and on my Rand McNally physical map without Little Brook.

The hill west of Little Brook is a small, gentle one entirely in Seattle, its 'peak' (244 feet) running along 30th Ave NE from NE 134th to 143rd Streets.  It becomes indistinguishable as a hill by NE 125th St.  It has Little Brook on its east, the unnamed short creek on its south, and a hypothetical streambed on its west.

The topographic lines strongly suggest a narrow valley starting not far from 28th Ave NE and NE 143rd St, running south near 28th, and ending where the North Fork crosses Lake City Way NE south of NE 120th St.  No map attests this as a creek, but it could have been stopped early, because its course runs through downtown Lake City.  It could well have run through Albert Davis Park, and should have drained the land where Lake City Mini-Park and Lake City Memorial Triangle now are.  Virgil Flaim Park is close enough to both this and the North Fork that it could have drained to either or both.

The hill west of that is only a southern spur of a really tall hill in Shoreline's Hamlin Park.  It's still 360 feet on entering Seattle, at 23rd Place NE, and doesn't entirely fade out in the south until NE 123rd St.  In the west, it gets lower some by about 20th Ave NE.

The only lowland in this city-limits sequence isn't all that low; it slopes from 300 feet at those limits to 200 at the North Fork.  It runs from about 20th to 15th Avenues NE.  It is crossed by three streams usually in culverts.

Hamlin Creek is shown only on the Alliance map (as is typical of surviving tributaries), but topographical lines confirm that the course taken by the culverts, down 20th Ave from well into Shoreline, is close to the natural one.  It's in the open, in Seattle, from just north of NE 137th to just north of 135th Streets.  It reaches the North Fork at the equivalent to NE 128th St.

A creek not named on the Alliance map is shown starting in the open at NE 143rd St, only entering culverts at NE 137th St, and going straight down 17th Ave NE either way.  It later switches to 19th Ave NE but stays mostly in culverts until reaching the North Fork at the equivalent to NE 130th St.  Again, topographical lines suggest the straightness isn't entirely artificial.

Topographical lines don't say much about Littles Creek in Seattle, but it's shown on the 1859 map as well as the Alliance one.  It starts in Shoreline, in culverts most of the way, but is mostly in the open from the equivalent of 10th Ave NE and NE 145th St southeast, partly through Jackson Park's northeast, to 15th Ave NE and the equivalent of NE 138th St.  There it returns to culverts going straight south to the equivalent of NE 133rd St.

The reason topographical lines don't confirm Littles Creek's Seattle course is that it hugs the bottom of the last northern hill, which peaks at 368 feet at the equivalents of 9th Ave NE and NE 140th St in Jackson Park.  This hill is round, unlike the stretched north-south orientation of the previous three.  The North Fork runs southwest of it.

The Plateau

Beyond the North Fork, both west and south, is the first and largest of the plateaux.  Far north, it appears to reach from around I-5 to the tops of the Puget Sound coastal cliffs, with tall walls on east and west getting it to about 400 feet.  It extends further east south of the North Fork, into Pinehurst, where the base level is lower, nearer 300 feet, although Pinehurst is a hill inside the plateau, reaching 340 feet.  Its northern wall in this extension faces the North Fork all the way southeast to its easternmost point, at 34th Ave NE and NE 115th St.  South of there it retreats back west quickly.  Most of the way back to 1st Ave NE it's bordered by the South Fork, with the walls of Maple Leaf Hill and the next plateau beyond.  Across I-5, it slopes more gradually until things like Green Lake and Phinney Ridge intrude.

Not much of this plateau drains into the North Fork, but not much of an elephant is still bigger than a mouse.

In the north the plateau continues into Shoreline, so the slopes are gentler and the topographical lines' signals of streambeds less clear.  But an all-Shoreline tributary reaches close to Aurora Ave N at the city limits, and there are faint signs that Meridian Ave N lies on top of a stream that joined that creek.  (At least one stream in that part of Shoreline is named Meridian Creek, but no two maps I've checked agree about which one.)  Also faint are the hints of a stream starting near Sunnyside Ave N and N 143rd St, going northeast to NE 145th St, then east along the latter to the North Fork.

Smaller streams over the plateau's eastern walls are much clearer, and for a few blocks near 4th Ave NE every street seems to have been built over one:  NE 140th, 139th/137th and 136th Streets, I-5 itself, one angling northeast from the equivalent of NE 132nd St.  (This last seems likely to have drained at least most of Northacres Park.)  There's a strong signal over a lower wall starting near 12th Ave NE and NE 125th St and heading northwest.  The part of 19th Ave NE that actually goes northeast may sit in a streambed.

Only one southern tributary of the North Fork is attested on the maps, though, a short one on 125th St NE shown on the 1859 and 1908 ones.

What I'm calling the plateau actually slopes down pretty dramatically to the east, reaching 200 feet about 25th Ave NE east and continuing downhill from there.  Meanwhile, as the North Fork heads south of the hills, a comparable lowland stretches north of it.  Downtown Lake City is in this lowland.

The North Fork

The North Fork of Thornton Creek starts north of NE 175th St in Shoreline.  It enters Seattle in culverts along I-5.  Already there I suggest a hypothetical stream joining it on the right, from the plateau's eastern wall.  The North Fork emerges into the open - from this point on, it's usually in the open - and enters Jackson Park.  There it's the creek I told you about, dear Diary, in "The Jackson Park Perimeter Trail".  I've suggested five minor streams that could have joined it from the right as it flows southeast through the park.

It continues southeast through Flicker Haven Natural Area, then turns northeast to go through Licorice Fern Natural Area.  It turns because just there, between the two parks, is where it first collides with the plateau's northern wall.  The first tributary from across that wall, the hypothetical stream headed northwest from 12th Ave NE, would reach the North Fork in Licorice Fern.

After that park the plateau wall, and the North Fork, turn southeast again, and continue in that direction a long way.  Almost immediately the fork picks up its first left-bank tributary in Seattle, Littles Creek, then two more, the unnamed creek and Hamlin Creek.  The hypothetical 19th Ave NE stream would have joined it right after the unnamed creek.  After its last right-bank tributary, the unnamed historical stream, it goes through the Thornton Creek Addition, past Virgil Flaim Park, and through Homewood Natural Area.

(The Thornton Creek Addition, dear Diary, is a small place listed in the real property report that I forgot and never visited or told you about.  I'm sorry.  It's near 23rd Ave NE and NE 125th St.)

Anyway, the North Fork then collects the big hypothetical stream of downtown Lake City, Little Brook's littler neighbour, and finally Little Brook itself.  There the plateau finally ends, and the North Fork finally turns, going south toward its junction with the South Fork.

Which, dear Diary, I hope to tell you about soon.  Happy days until then.

Land and Water in North Seattle, part II: The Lake City Coast

Dear Diary,

Lake City east of Lake City Way NE, starting a little north of the city limits at NE 145th St, is a hill that reaches, at its peak between 39th and 40th Avenues NE and NE 135th and 137th Streets, over 340 feet above sea level.  This hill slopes gently in most directions, but is crazy steep towards the lake.  (And under it.  I think this suggests a seismic origin.  Note that the lake is 16 feet above sea level itself.)  Now, when you put a cliff next to a coast, you usually get a bunch of itsy bitsy streams all too busy rushing downhill to acquire tributaries or big watersheds, and so it was here.  The 2020 map claims one actual stream (whose name I haven't found) still flows into the lake at the equivalent of NE 143rd St, and several probable former streams at 138th, 130th and 126th.

The few parks in the area this page is about are in this northern part of it:  the non-public NE 135th St Street End and the public beach NE 130th St Street End, and the silly but symbolically steep University Lake Shore Place near NE 125th St.  With one exception:  the Burke-Gilman Trail stays near the lakefront the whole way.

Further south the cliff is less severe, which can make for bigger streams, and one such may have reached the lake around NE 113th St.  But south of that, with the hill's highest point now only as far from the lake as Alton Ave NE, the slopes are gentle enough that I'm not sure I can perceive any valleys in the topographical lines, the main way I infer streams.  This continues all the way to Matthews Beach, twenty blocks south.  No way rain that fell near the lake at NE 100th St flowed all the way to 113th to enter it, but I don't know what path it did take.

What I do believe is that even that far south the hill was - for that matter, is - still keeping coastal rain on the coast, and not letting it enter Thornton Creek.  But besides the sliver of land I've told you about tonight, dear Diary, almost everywhere else in Seattle east of 5th Ave NE and north of NE 100th St did drain into Thornton Creek.  So it might be a while until I can give you part III of your present, dear Diary.

Land and Water in North Seattle, part I: Introduction

Dear Diary,

I wanted to give you a Christmas present.  My first idea didn't work out fast enough, but gave me a second idea.  How would you like a basic physical geography of North Seattle?

Of course I'm not a geographer, though I was briefly a geography major in college.  Nor am I a topographer or hydrologist, those being the topics I actually intend to focus on here.  What I am is a guy who's walked much of North Seattle this year, who wishes I'd had such a page before starting, and who figures the best possible outcome would be that this set of pages so enrages a pro that she writes a better one.

My main sources are a series of government maps from the 1850s, from around 1900, and from 2020.  I got many of the relevant links from the posts about Seattle in the 2016-2019 blog by Jason King, Hidden Hydrology.

The 1850s:

The US Bureau of Land Management

This page asks for "Township" and "Range" numbers, meaning north-south and east-west.  North Seattle is entirely in ranges 03 E and 04 E, and townships 25 N and 26 N.  (To add the rest of Seattle, add townships 23 N and 24 N, and I think a sliver of Seattle is in T23N R05E.)  Enter the choices one at a time and execute a search.  In the resulting page choose the 1850s "cadastral" map, not any 1860s one that may be offered.

Around 1900:

US Geological Survey TopoView

Search for Seattle.  I downloaded PDFs of a 1908 Seattle map and the 1897 "Snohomish" one.

2020:

USGS current topographical maps.  These are updated every three years.  It takes five of them to fully cover Seattle, though one is only needed for Magnuson Park.  First check in TopoView as above, to verify what the latest year is.  Then do Web searches of this form:

"US Topo 7.5-minute" "[location]" "[year]"

for example

"US Topo 7.5-minute" "Seattle North" "2020"

Besides Seattle North, the main other North Seattle map is "Shilshole Bay"; for Magnuson Park also get "Kirkland".  Much of the rest of Seattle is already on these, but for the remainder see "Seattle South" and "Duwamish Head".

Let me explain something to you, dear Diary.  In my junior year of high school I took a "world" history class, meaning Europe.  I had an assignment about the Portuguese Enlightenment - Pombal and the Lisbon earthquake, basically.  I got curious what had happened next, and discovered to my shock that my textbook contained not one word about Portugal after the 18th century.  It was as if, having served a brief historical purpose, the country had ceased to exist.  Nor could I understand what sources like the Encyclopedia Brittanica said.

Since then I've believed passionately in something that amounts to a kind of political correctness in history and geography.  I think it matters that Siberia had a history before Russian rule, and I wish I could read it.  I think all of the land now called Scotland existed throughout ancient history, not just the parts that happen to be sexy in each period, and I think Morocco was part of the Roman Empire.  More to your point, dear Diary, I think Meadowbrook Playfield is an important Seattle park even though it bores me.  And more to this series's point, I think there's more to the hydrology of North Seattle than the Ship Canal, Green Lake and maybe Thornton Creek.

OK, then.  I'll go around the coast, looking for past or present creeks and following them uphill.  As in the recent street end series, I'm starting at the northeast.

Street Ends: Shilshole Bay

Dear Diary,

Here at last are the last remaining photos from my October hikes.  I have a few ideas, but will not be actively writing much in you until I finish the next set of hikes, probably starting tomorrow.

The street ends on this page are the first I encountered, on the first hike that led to the page "The Ballard Seacoast", part I.  So all four of them were introduced in that page, and all with photos.  Maybe it's self-indulgent of me, then, dear Diary, to show you these photos too, but at least that way I'll have presented the whole set more or less consistently.

And I was right:  These are the best group.  Maybe one of the other street ends is the best single one, but each one of these four is accessible and has amenities, and that isn't true of any other consecutive set in North Seattle.

34th Ave NW Street End (Salmon Bay Natural Area)

Google Maps knows this one only by the name of the sculpture in it, "A Salish Welcome", a picture of which is in the page already mentioned.

Photo 1 - The street that ends

Photo 2 - The land the city appears to claim

The sculpture is on the right.

Photo 3 - A view over the water

All the remaining photos 1 are up a small cliff from the street ends (i.e. photos 2 and 3).  Pretty typical of the street end thing, I guess.

36th Ave NW Street End (Seaview Picnic Park)

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

No, the water isn't all that accessible here.

NW 57th St Street End

Photo 1

Photo 2

Down the stair you can see is the beach you can't in this photo.  There's a photo or two of it in the page already mentioned.

Photo 3

NW 60th St Street End (NW 60th St Viewpoint)

Photo 1

You can see at the end of the block the viewpoint I originally thought was the public park NW 60th St Viewpoint, as narrated (with four photos of views) in "History and Parks", part II, June 25.

Photo 2

There must have been multiple people on the three benches for me to photograph that that way.

Photos 3

I took one photo from each bench, once the people had left.  There's a view in a direction no bench faces, however, so I shot that first.

Whew.  I'm not sure, dear Diary, when I'll next write in you.  Good night, and if, as seems likely, it's more than a few days, happy Christmas.

Street Ends: North-West Salmon Bay

Dear Diary,

How very embarrassing.  I just found a photo that can only be a view over the water, a photo 3, from somewhere slightly west of the Ballard Bridge.  But at least two people read the page where it belongs, so it would be unfair to them to put it there.  And anyway, where is the place I shot this view from?  Why no photo 2?

This is especially annoying because the nearest street north of the water at the Ballard Bridge is NW Shilshole St.   Shilshole is essentially similar to N and NE Northlake Way:  a place to drive fast around obstructive water.  A crucial difference:  it does have sidewalks the whole way.  But they're on the north side of the street, so for four street ends, I had to cross the insane stream of traffic.

Oh, well.  Nobody's reported back on the Ballard Community Center restrooms, so I guess this is just a second sign that I'm not done making the hike to Ballard.  Meanwhile, I didn't lie, the street ends this page is supposed to be about are all accessible, though only one has anything I'd call an improvement.  The best group is still ahead.

Ballard Bridge (15th Ave NW) Street End

Photo 3 - A view over the water

20th Ave NW Street End

Photo 1 - The street that ends

Photo 2 - The land the city appears to claim

Photo 3

24th Avenue NW Street End

Here is evidence that I had not as of October 17 learnt how the street end law actually is:  I shot two photos 1 and 2 here, under two "theories" as to where the street really ended, I guess.  Only one photo 3, though.  Looking at the photos, what I think is that there's nothing resembling signage, and two places that could conceivably be public.  Theory 2, however, gets us not much of a view, and a street end way too close to a business's front door.  Well, here are the five photos.

Theory 1

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Theory 2

Photo 1

Photo 2

28th Ave NW Street End

Here my photography was constrained by the presence, the entire time I was there, of a young madwoman.  When I arrived, she greeted me effusively, naming me with a name I'd never heard before, explained that she had the right to have her sleeping bag there (I assume that was what was in a cart not mine), accused me of stealing the sleeping bag, speculated for a while on the Satanic influences that might have induced me to do this, and then forgot about me and found other things to rant about.  (Apparently when not worrying about her sleeping bag she rules the world.)  I devoutly hope that at this hour on this night, she has her sleeping bag, and is not at the 28th Ave NW Street End.

If she was instead a drama student, she was way too determined to get it right.  I don't think so.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

As I said, the best group is still ahead, and then we're done with street ends, dear Diary, except, sigh, the Ballard Bridge one.

Street Ends: North-Central Salmon Bay

Dear Diary,

All three of this page's street ends are actually publicly accessible.  Um, for some value or other of "accessible".  One even offers the first near-shore seating since Fremont Canal Park, rather far southeast.  So let's get started!

11th Ave NW Street End

My notes call this "a really neat micro-park".  The only sour note for me was that it was so popular, I had to hang around for some time to take photos without people in them.  Such a terrible fate.

Photo 1 - The street that ends

That's the park on the right.

Photos 2 - The land the city appears to claim

That's the seating, some of it, in blue.

Photo 3 - A view over the water - well, sort of

14th Ave NW Street End (14th Ave NW Boat Ramp)

Photo 1

No, identifying a "street end" here makes no more sense than it did on Sunnyside Ave N.  Less, in fact, since that really is 14th Ave NW, the one that goes all the way to 65th, not just some vague continuation of it as at Sunnyside, that crashes into the water there.  But there are no Cheshiahud Loop consultants here to give a second opinion.

I probably should have taken a picture of the view there, but I was rightly worried about space on my phone, and my notes say nothing about it.

15th Ave NW (Ballard Bridge) Street End

Unless I'm badly mistaken, one of the city colleges has a program in merchant marine, and they have it on the coast to one side of the bridge.  One of this program's main products seems to be fences.

This being a bridge, there is no photo 1.

Photo 2

Photo 3

No, really, my notes claim that's a view over water from the Ballard Bridge street end.

But they also claim an alternative theory under which one can reach the fences even sooner.  There are two narrow streets running parallel to the bridge, one on each side.  Helpfully, at least the one east of the bridge has the name, I am not making this up, "15th Ave NW".

Photo 1

Well, dear Diary, I'll tell you a secret.  All seven of the remaining street ends, those west of here, really are publicly accessible.  I have to charge my phone, and then I'll tell you all about them.

Street Ends: North-East Salmon Bay

Dear Diary,

The street end program gives discounts on the fees paid by users of the street ends when those users are maritime industrial companies, on account of jobs.  So although this and the next two pages each introduce three Salmon Bay street ends, this one is kinda short.

All photographs in this page and the remaining three were taken October 17, as I walked, um, home from Golden Gardens Park.  That means that the pages go in the opposite direction, and this one has the last photos I took that day.

These three look alike at first glance - some business blocking the area.  But at the 

NW 39th St Street End

there turns out to be a path around north of the business.

Photo 1 - The street that ends

Photo 2 - The land the city appears to claim

Photo 3 - A view over the water

6th Ave NW Street End

Photo 1

NW 40th St Street End

Photo 1

Detail:

I'm guessing, dear Diary, that I'll regret it if I spend any of the next three mornings sitting or standing still.  So I'll be walking, getting started on the many short hikes required by the next, and last, series I intend to write in you.  It will surely help if I first clear the decks by writing the last three street end pages tonight, and getting their photos off my phone.  So the above photo is not a sad ending for the day, just a pause.

Street Ends: North Lake Union

Dear Diary,

This is the first page in this series whose street ends are all publicly accessible. Unfortunately, they aren't much to look at - in this area, the waterways beat the street ends hands down for enjoyment of the shore - but anyway here they are.

This page covers two to four street ends, depending how you count.  I introduced one of them, which is an official Seattle park, way back in June in "At the Centre of the Universe, Does Gas Work?", two more in "Lake Union's North Shore" in October (which is also the page anyone curious about the waterways should see), and one, the least impressive of all, is new.

These photos may not be good, but at least they're better than those in the other pages.

Latona Ave NE Street End

Photo 1 - The street that ends, photographed October 14

Photo 2 - The land the city appears to claim, photographed October 13

Photos 3 - Two views over the water, photographed October 13 (first) and 14

Sunnyside Ave N Street End, aka Sunnyside Ave N Boat Ramp

Photos 1 - photographed October 13

So wait a minute - the street that ends ends right at the shoreline!  There is no street end here!  I think there really isn't, but let's first finish with the photos, because there certainly is a view.

Photo 3 - photographed October 14

OK, now for the mystery.  The city's GIS tool says this is the Sunnyside Ave N street end, but the appendices to the Cheshiahud Loop plans tell (p. 90) a different story.  (For links to both see "Lake Union's North Shore".)  They correctly note that the boat ramp is a waterway (a place for boats to enter and leave the water), and since Lake Union waterways are owned by the state, they infer that this one is too.

Well, this would just be a weird fantasy on the part of the trail planners except that they offer as corroboration another location for the Sunnyside Ave N street end.

Sunnyside Ave N Street End

Photo 1 - photographed October 14

Yes, this is where the instance of Sunnyside north of the boat ramp ends, at N Pacific St.

Photos 2 - photographed October 14

The Cheshiahud Loop people say that compensation for the actual street end was made in the form of a "planted median".  Now, you can see there's no planted median in Sunnyside or Pacific here.  But the Burke-Gilman Trail runs south of Pacific, it's split between pedestrians and cyclists there, and as it happens there are plantings between the two.  Those plantings extend well beyond any reasonable size for the compensation, I basically think this theory is as lunatic as the boat ramp one, but I took photos just in case.

The Burke-Gilman Trail and the Sunnyside Ave N Boat Ramp both exist, and both are public parks.  Both appear, from the city's real property report, to have title complexities, but unless there's some legal need to involve the street end laws in resolving those, I don't see any point in calling anything near Sunnyside Ave N a street end.

Fremont Bridge (Fremont Ave N) Street End

I'm pretty sure I did the street end research that underlies the introduction to this series on October 15, before setting out for Ballard.  On the way there, I saw another bridge split above me:

And I took pictures of the Fremont Bridge street end.  There's no street that ends - nothing analogous to Eastlake Place here for me to fantasise about - so no photo 1.

The GIS tool says this street end is incorporated into the Burke-Gilman Trail.

Photo 2 - photographed October 16

Photo 3 - photographed October 16

Well, the Fremont Bridge is at the far northwest corner of Lake Union, and this street end faces west, so that's actually a view of the ship canal.

Next stop Salmon Bay, but it's raining so hard where I am that I'm going to wait before trying to write it.  Until then, dear Diary.