Escaping Green Lake Park, part I

Dear Diary,

Do you ever talk with that other page?  As I just told it, I'm now, in a sense, among the sheltered homeless.  I'm writing this not from the usual bench, but from a too-warm bed.  All the photos in this page, I was able to take today, without worrying about my cart.

That said, the story I have to tell still irks me.  And it actually isn't about homelessness anyway, this page.  It's about pedestrians with wheels.

From hike 3C, i.e. the parks of Greenwood, all of which the map depicted at the time as having open restrooms, none of which actually had them, I went north to hike 3D, which I'll tell you about later, dear Diary.  But it involved yet another restroom mapped but not open, and I was starting to need to do Number Two.  There were two "sanican"s at that park, but the ADA one was being camped in, and the regular one was out of toilet paper.

So I trudged back south, along Fremont Ave N, which was then, and according to Google Maps still is, a "Stay Healthy" street much of the way.  Eventually I noticed a man, probably somewhat older than me, walking to one side, and asked him if the block really had a sidewalk.  He said yes, and made way for me and my cart.  He also decided the reason I hadn't noticed the sidewalk was the darkness (he had no way of knowing I normally wear glasses), so he gave me his flashlight!  It converts to a lantern.

I never actually got around to figuring out how to attach it to my cart - basically, I prefer having some night vision over increasing my visibility - but used it for a very different purpose within 24 hours.  It's much brighter than the flashlight I already had.

Anyway, I got back to Green Lake Park, used one of its restrooms, and settled down on a bench to get some rest, because I meant to get up around 2 A.M. to start trying to figure out which restrooms in Green Lake and Woodland Parks were open 24 hours.

Instead I woke well past 4 A.M..  I still think my data on Green Lake, between 5 and 6 A.M., are probably good, but it was after 7 before I finished Woodland, and I can't be sure the last pair of restrooms hadn't just been opened.

Regardless, I had no work left in those parks for the time being.  Now, I wanted to get to Golden Gardens Park that day, and so (yes, I know this doesn't make sense) I was determined to exit at Aurora Ave N and N 65th St.  So I walked up West Green Lake Drive N, which is closed to traffic much of the way to Aurora.

Eventually I became aware that I was on Aurora, and although it was Sunday morning and traffic was light, this did not appear the healthiest place to be.  Again I noticed a sidewalk, of sorts.  The cart did not at all like crossing the verge to the gravel path, and a rivet burst.

Then I actually saw the path.

That line in the foreground is one tree root, and the hill in the middle is another, much bigger.  Here's a closer view of the puddle beyond, which was rather larger the morning of January 10:

So obviously light traffic on Aurora was much to be preferred over wrestling the damaged cart past obstacles like these, and back over the verge we went, me and that cart, which burst another rivet on the way.

One might ask, is there a sidewalk on the other side of Aurora, justifying Green Lake Park in offering only a parody of one on this side?  Unfortunately Aurora is divided there, and of course there are no sidewalks along the dividers:

So of course in the end I finally crossed Aurora at N 68th St, which I could've reached via a short paved trip up from the loop trail.  But the cart was unhappy with me, and soon began to show it.  I'd had trouble with one of those rivets before, and figured I knew what I was in for.  But actually, it turns out that without either of them, essentially nothing holds the back side of the cart in place.  And I was headed uphill, crossing Phinney Ridge.

So after I'd put everything back into the cart, jury-rigged into a temporary fix, I went on to hike 4B, about which I'll tell you shortly, dear Diary.  But first I should explain that a few days later, I did find out how pedestrians on Aurora are supposed to avoid those tree roots.  It's an insanely complicated route involving bits and pieces of at least four streets, and an underpass.  It is signalled entirely by subtle cues that only a profoundly defensive pedestrian will recognise.  Here's some of the abundant signage where I should have turned off West Green Lake to join that route; sorry for the bad photos:

Now, you see, dear Diary, the wheelchair symbol in the middle photo, but it is not attached to a sign reading "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here".  The only cue telling a dementedly defensive pedestrian that the proper direction here is down N 63rd St is that there are sidewalks on both sides of that street, as shown in the bottom photo.

I'm not sure, dear Diary, whether the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation or the Seattle Department of Transportation is responsible for this mess, but I can hardly wait for the ADA suit about it, in which I'd love to testify.  (My damage amounted to $70, the cart's price, and I'm not disabled; suing myself would be pointless.)  I don't know what drives Parks's love for gravel paths, but I don't think that love is so out of place anywhere in North Seattle as along Green Lake Park's border on Aurora Ave N.