The long hike I took earlier this week tired me out plenty, but my aversion to doing another very soon was strengthened by my cart adding its own complaints. Two nights ago (May 6) the right front wheel came loose; it had lost three spokes on one side. Also, enough rubber has worn away from the right rear wheel that in places it's rolling on its rim.
I used to push the cart on its rear wheels most of the time, but it turns out to be somewhat different when I can't push it on four wheels. And it takes more energy to push it two-wheeled; that's why, with the extra hiking current circumstances require, I'd switched to four wheels in the first place.
So I haven't been hiking much. I've managed to write one page in you, dear Diary, on the basis of the parks department website, but can't make that a regular thing.
That said, here's one more page based on the website. Yesterday's page critiqued it; today's draws on its information.
I found 109 things the department identifies as parks in North Seattle. Two of those are trails. 45 of the rest are east of I-5, 62 west.
I've divided the area east of I-5 into three sections. I've tried to cover the parks south of, say, 60th St, plus Magnuson Park, fairly fully:
Burke-Gilman Playground Park (most pages)
Cowen Park (a fair number of pages)
Laurelhurst Community Center and Playfield (some pages, including one page mainly about the playfield)
Magnuson Park (mainly in three pages, one two three with bits and pieces elsewhere)
Ravenna Park (many pages)
University Playground (a fair number of pages)
The only news I have of these is that BGPP's men's room dryer isn't working.
It turns out I was ignoring a solid majority of local parks. I'd managed to find out about Christie Park (for which see mainly this page, and to which the website seems to attribute a water fountain after all) but here are the rest:
- Belvoir Place
- Fritz Hedges Waterway Park
- Park Home Circle (near Ravenna Park)
- Peace Park (with which I was at least already familiar)
- Ravenna Boulevard (near Ravenna Park and already familiar)
- Ravenna Woods (near Ravenna Park)
- Union Bay Boglands (already familiar)
- University Heights Plaza (already familiar)
The website appears to attribute plumbing to none of these, but the last listed currently hosts "sanicans" and a hand-washing station. Anyway, as I get used to handling the cart's current configuration, I'll try to get myself to visit these, verify the absence of plumbing, and take pictures.
The hike that took the cart down stretched from 60th to 110th Streets. In the resulting page, I covered these parks briefly, without pictures (although it also includes a section on Magnuson Park with pictures):
- Bryant Playground
- Dahl Playfield
- Froula Playground
- Inverness Ravine Park
- Matthews Beach
- Meadowbrook Community Center and Playfield
- Ravenna-Eckstein Park
- View Ridge Playfield
It turns out I was better informed on this area than on my own neighbourhood; I'd only missed five more:
- Mock Creek Ravine
- Nathan Hale Playfield (seems my old map was right about it after all)
- Ravenna Ravine
- University Circle
- Wedgwood Square
Again, the website seems to mention no plumbing; I'll try to get to them to verify after the new wheels arrive.
The remaining 17 parks east of I-5 are between Lake City Way and I-5, or north of 110th St. These too await the new wheels.
Finally, there are the 62 west of I-5. My original goal was to reach the Ballard cliff; several parts of it familiar to me are hard for me to traverse with the cart, and anyway by no stretch of the imagination is Ballard in northeast Seattle. But it would be unreasonable to ignore places like Gas Works, Woodland and Green Lake Parks. I'm not at all sure yet how many of these 62 I'll look at.
So here's my point, dear Diary. I've been writing in you as close to daily as I could manage. That will pause today. I'm not sure how many times I'll write in the interim, to repeat that nothing has changed in the local parks I've been covering or to add pictures of the ones I've been ignoring. Once I have new wheels, I intend to return to writing daily until, dear Diary, we're done. Good night.
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