Final May 2021 Water Fountain and Restroom Maps

Dear Diary,

I just finished updating the maps, having already updated the spreadsheet they're based on.  I've uploaded the spreadsheet, again in .ods and .csv formats, to the Google Drive folder where the door and fountain shots are kept, and now I'm uploading the resulting maps to you, dear Diary.

This is my last challenge to your readers to figure out the pattern they show, and say they've done so in comments or by e-mail to me.  This page includes a significant hint.  Once I've finished my next project, I'll be ready to explain that pattern and what I think is the thinking behind it.

For each map, I put in at half-intensity some buildings that have re-opened but only for a fraction of their pre-pandemic hours.  These are Lake City Community Center and Meadowbrook Pool in green, and the Broadview and Lake City branches of the Seattle Public Library in purple.  (Awkwardly, purple is also the colour I use for park restrooms I've found both open and closed during normal open hours, but I hope I won't need to keep showing you, dear Diary, these maps by the time the libraries re-open for their full hours.)

I also, this time, put in Shilshole Bay Marina's main building, which has that unique-in-Seattle sign reading "Public Restrooms" without a "No" in front of it.  This is in black, representing non-city ownership, as are the restrooms at the Locks, all at full intensity since, as far as I know, they're all keeping their normal full hours.

I considered, but rejected, the idea of putting in the supermarkets.  First because I'm not familiar with all of them, and it often takes familiarity to use their water fountains or restrooms; second because I wasn't sure where to stop, having myself used the restrooms at a location I otherwise would probably have forgotten and omitted, Metropolitan Market.  I want to point out, however, that the University District currently holds only a Trader Joe's supermarket, and despite living near it for years, I never managed to figure out whether they had restrooms or a water fountain, let alone where.  Until last year, it also had a Safeway, to use whose restrooms one had to be shown by an employee down a long flight of stairs, but that Safeway is now torn down, the replacement unlikely to appear before pandemic's end.

Anyway:

Water fountains

The main colour is white, for water fountains not visibly damaged but not running.

I had mixed feelings about putting in the buildings named above on this map, considering that most if not all have mask requirements that mean water fountains are only usable with bottles.  But since my main concern here is not actually water for the general public, but for the homeless, and homeless people in present circumstances have pretty much had to adapt to bottles, I decided it was OK to include those buildings.  I assume without actually checking that each building has an accessible and running water fountain, and map it in whatever colour I mentioned above, not blue, white, or red.

Fourteen are red, for water fountains that couldn't be drunk from even if the water were running.  These are:

• Baker Park on Crown Hill - water fountain never installed
• Bitter Lake Playfield - playfield water fountain damaged presumably by metal thieves
  
• Burke-Gilman Trail - western water fountain removed, terribly damaged presumably by metal thieves
• Loyal Heights Playfield - damaged but useable water fountain removed from construction area
• Magnuson Park - damaged water fountain near "tower" restrooms
  
• Meridian Playground - water fountain almost entirely removed, presumably by metal thieves
• street fountain on 15th Ave NE - fenced off in preparation for demolition
  
• View Ridge Playfield - playground water fountain removed by staff of the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation
  
• Woodland Park - three water fountains (northwest and two near the 50th St restrooms) more or less decapitated, two others (near Field #1) eviscerated, the latter certainly and the former possibly by metal thieves; one fenced away from the public for use by lawn bowlers
  

Eleven are in blue, actually running:

• Ballard Commons
• Bitter Lake Playfield, playground fountain
• Burke-Gilman Trail, eastern fountain
  
• Crown Hill Park
  
• Gilman Playground
• Greenwood Park
• Jackson Park
  
• Licton Springs Park
• Pinehurst Playground
  
• Sunset Place
• University Playground
  

One at Virgil Flaim Park is in purple; it can probably be used for bottles, after the vandalism I described in the previous page last night, but not for regular drinking.

Let's compare this to the list of water fountains I found running last May and June.  Note that this May I found several water fountains I wasn't aware of then, and also last October a few (mostly in Woodland and Green Lake Parks).  So my list of fountains running last May and June may be incomplete, but let's compare anyhow.

• Ballard Commons
• Burke-Gilman Playground Park
  
• Gilman Playground
• Green Lake Small Craft Center, fountains attached to two buildings
  
• Jackson Park
• Licton Springs Park
• Little Brook Park
  
• Northacres Park
  
• Pinehurst Playground
• Ravenna Park
• street fountains on 15th Ave NE and on N 45th St
  
• Sunset Place

Twelve park water fountains then, twelve (counting Virgil Flaim, which isn't the parks department's fault) now.

Restrooms

Because, as of my last visits, two different restroom pairs were open only to members of one gender, I made separate maps for men and for women.

For men:

 For women:

The dominant colour by far is blue, for open restrooms.

Red, for restrooms closed every time I visited, are these:

• Ballard Playground
• Cowen Park
  
• Gilman Playground
• Green Lake Community Center, women's room only
  
• Licton Springs Park
• Magnuson Park, Brig and "tower" restrooms
• Matthews Beach, shower restrooms and one single-user stall
  
• Ravenna Park, "upper" restrooms, and also "lower" men's room
  
• University Playground
  
• Woodland Park, Citywide Athletics Building ("Rio")

A distinction among these that I think important is that at Gilman, Green Lake, Ravenna, and Woodland there are explanatory signs; at the rest, there aren't.

I forgot to redden the blue for two restroom locations that I found closed repeatedly but have also found open, Little Brook Park and Maple Leaf Reservoir Park, on the men's map.

And here is my wide-open hint as to the differences between last year's Durkan Drought and this year's, a list of the open restrooms or pairs:

• Bitter Lake Playfield
• Burke-Gilman Playground Park
• Carkeek Park
  
• Dahl Playfield
• Gas Works Park
• Golden Gardens Park, beach and dog restrooms
  
• Green Lake Park, 64th St ("65th St"), wading pool and Batthhouse Theater pairs, plus Green Lake Community Center (men's room only) and Green Lake Small Craft Center ("Shellhouse")
  
• Greenwood Park
  
• Jackson Park
• Laurelhurst Community Center
• Loyal Heights Community Center
  
• Magnuson Park, central ("sport") and beach restrooms
  
• Matthews Beach, one of the single-user stalls
• Meadowbrook Playfield
• Meridian Playground
• Northacres Park, playfield and park pairs
• Ravenna Park, "lower" women's room only
• Ross Park
  
• Salmon Bay Park
  
• Sandel Playground
• Soundview Playfield
  
• View Ridge Playfield
• Woodland Park, lawn bowling, Pink Palace, Cloverleaf and 50th St pairs
  
• Wallingford Playfield

I can hardly wait to see whether anyone notices the pattern, dear Diary.  Happy days and nights; it'll be several before I write in you again.  Until then.

Last Hike: More open restrooms, fewer running fountains

Dear Diary,

Well, today was my last hike this month for you.  I went to twelve parks.  All have water fountains, and six also have restrooms:

• Matthews Beach (both)
• Meadowbrook Playfield (both)
• Victory Heights Playground (fountain)
• Maple Leaf Reservoir Park (both)
• Licton Springs Park (both)
• Northgate Park (fountain)
• Pinehurst Playground (fountain)
• Jackson Park (both)
• Little Brook Park (both)
• Cedar Park (fountain)
• Albert Davis Park (fountain)
• Virgil Flaim Park (fountain)

I also went back to the street fountain on N 45th St.

My object was to complete the Google Drive folder in which I keep the boring door shots and such from the hikes I just finished.  I hadn't re-visited the parks from the third region I hiked earlier in May, as I had the parks from the first two, and so didn't have photos of them at Google Drive.  That is now fixed, as is my lack of a photo of that street fountain (which still isn't running).

Two major changes among those parks, plus some minor ones I'll cover below.  The first major one is that I found the restroom open at Little Brook Park, and the lock placed in such a way that it would not prevent latching the door.  I think that's the first time I've seen it like that, and expand on that a bit below.  The second major change is that while the water is still running to the water fountain at Virgil Flaim Park, some enterprising person has vandalised the fountain such that it's probably now easier to fill bottles there, but certainly harder to drink from the fountain.

I have nothing to say about some of the parks listed above, so don't say anything about them in this page, except what I just said:  there are now photos at Google Drive showing whether the restrooms were open or the water fountains running as of my last visit.

Matthews Beach

As in every one of my visits to date - none of which have taken place in calendrical summer - I found the shower restrooms on the lake side of the restroom building closed.  As in most of my visits to date, I also found one of the single-user stalls on the other side boarded up.  The remaining single-user stall has one toilet, no urinal, one sink which splashed me when I used it, but not as badly as the south-facing sink at Soundview Playfield, one dryer, and one soap dispenser.

The water fountain was not running.

Meadowbrook Community Center, Playfield and Pool

This is the sign I photographed by night on "Hike 9C", this time by day so it can be read:

The mural is signed "Miller" as is another adjacent; I don't know more.

The people staffing the pool as a shower and restroom provider have been busily posting updates:

unlike most of the Community Centers, including this one, although this one has at least taken down its sign saying it would close for the inauguration:

Meadowbrook Playfield's restrooms were open, as expected (even the hopelessly outdated - well, hmmm, some things on the map offered by the Seattle Department of Human Services that I hiked last January to check, some things have been updated, for example Meridian Playground's restrooms are now mapped as open, other things haven't, such as the U-District location of the Urban Rest Stop still shown as open - but anyway, my point was, that until today that map was very out of date, but even it showed Meadowbrook Playfield's restrooms as having re-opened).

Um, yeah, so the Meadowbrook Playfield men's room has two toilets with stall doors, one urinal, one sink, one dryer, and one soap dispenser.

I found all three of Meadowbrook Playfield's water fountains this time, exactly where I'd found them before.  Two ran in October, but none are running now.

Maple Leaf Reservoir Park

The restrooms were open, and there was even an employee of the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation there cleaning them.  When I update the maps tomorrow, I'll change this park's restrooms to half red, half blue.

Licton Springs Park

Unlike most of the restrooms closed in Ballard and southern "NE", but like University Playground and Little Brook, this park's restrooms have no sign on their doors announcing why they're closed.  The men's room's stuff is mostly around a bend from the door, but I could see most of the women's room - the stalls have doors, in both rooms, but one of the women's stall doors had swung open - and I saw no damage.  I've heard there's damage at University Playground but not heard a convincing explanation why that was the only restroom damage not fixed last year in North Seattle, and I've also heard a completely different reason for why those restrooms haven't opened.  I figure without even a half-assed sign like those at Ravenna Park's "upper" restrooms, there's no reason I should assume a park restroom is closed because it has to be.

Anyway.  Licton Springs's water fountains are still running.

Northgate Community Center and Park

After I visited this park as part of the third region, I complained vigourously about the way the people working for Curative Inc at a COVID testing site at the south end of the park had blocked off large parts of it.  Whether because someone at the city actually read that page (something I haven't seen signs of in months), or because someone else complained effectively, or maybe because there's an actual considerate human being among Curative's local employees, their tape is now much more carefully placed.  In particular, although it runs for some distance alongside the playground and the Community Center's front, it leaves paved paths into both areas open.  I was in a hurry, however - this was only the hike's halfway point - and took only a water fountain photo (still not running), and no photos of the tape or the Center's front, at which I didn't even look.  Sorry, dear Diary.

Pinehurst Playground

As my photo shows, the water fountain here is running rather low.  I had decided to try the water of parks whose water I hadn't tried yet, so I drained the second bottle I was carrying, but it was so hard to fill a bottle (it only got halfway, actually) that I gave up on filling two.

 

Jackson Park

I owe an apology to the Jackson Park café, which I failed miserably to describe on the basis of vague, hurried impressions on my first visit earlier this month.  (All my previous visits to this park had been too early in the morning or too late in the evening for the place to be open.)  I basically conveyed my surprise that it isn't what one normally thinks of as a "café".  Well, duh, because even though they call it that at Jackson Park, it's actually much more like a bar and grill, or at least a rather unpretentious restaurant.  It does have a few pastries, and while they're definitely not Little Debbie, they also aren't the hand-crafted wonders most actual cafés take pride in.  I got a grilled cheese sandwich to go, trying to make up for many uses of their driving range men's room, and it was pretty good blocks later.

That men's room is a single-user stall with one toilet, no urinal, one sink, one dryer, and one soap dispenser.  Jackson Park is almost entirely devoted to a sport, so this is a fair test, and I did not see yellow spots on the toilet seat.  Score one against my argument that it's a bad idea to eliminate urinals from park restrooms.

I also looked carefully at the buildings, and Open Street Map hasn't left out a building, but it may have misplaced it.  Again, the map:

The building on the upper left could be the building by the driving range, but it can't be, because it doesn't really face the driving range, which is that big lighter green area on the top left.  It also isn't anywhere near wide enough.  I'm not sure I can learn enough to fix things like this in Open Street Map, but it needs fixed.  Anyway, though, I thought that was a building between the wide lower building and the unmapped driving range building, but there is no third building in that sequence; what I described as a "workshop" was actually a conflation in my memory of "employees only" doors in both buildings, the second of which (the one behind the part of the driving range building I'm familiar with) is rather workshoppish.

Little Brook Park

As noted above, I found the restroom not only open, but for the first time opened in such a way that the lock that closes it at night doesn't also keep users from latching it by day.

I don't know how much of this to attribute to the presence of a parks department employee, whose job it is to provide fun for people in neighbourhoods.  Someone, probably him, had set up a stereo providing music, and a portable basketball hoop, at which he was trying to teach a couple of teenagers some moves.  The parks department slogan is, I think, "Neighborhood Rec'n"; at least that's what's on their trucks.  However, a quick Google search on that turned up 0 results, so I just don't know.

Anyway, my point is, I don't know whether Little Brook's restroom has actually opened for the season or not, let alone whether its door will be reliably carefully arranged in future.

It has one toilet with no meaningful door, no urinal, one sink, one dryer, and a spot where someone had stolen one soap dispenser.

Cedar Park

Awkwardly, I found myself following a family that includes a teenaged girl for about half a dozen blocks on the way to this park.

It has a water fountain that ran last October, but isn't running now.

Albert Davis Park

This park was officially closed for one week after its May 6 sweep.  Supposedly that closure was to enable parks department employees to start restoring the park from the damage done by an encampment that was there for more than a year.  The parks department web page says nothing now about a closure, so presumably it hasn't been extended.

I visited this park twice during the closure, in prime daylight hours, and saw neither department employees nor their trucks.  Now it turns out they didn't even bother to show up to take down their closure materials.  For shame!

Virgil Flaim Park

As I walked to this park, a visibly homeless man saw the bottle in one of my satchel pockets and asked if I had any water to spare.  I didn't - for one thing, I've been drinking from that bottle for months, and for another, there were only a few sips in it - but I assured him that the water fountain in Virgil Flaim Park, just a block away, was running.  I had walked too far to hear his reply.

This park had the only outdoor water fountain known to me running in Lake City.  (I visited the Fred Meyer in the area today, and it may have a water fountain that's running, but I didn't find one.  The Lake City branch of the Seattle Public Library, and the Lake City Community Center, are both open limited hours.)  It's still running, but no longer drinkable from.

Some clever and immoral person, probably a resident of one of the neighbouring RVs, has extracted the pipe that delivers water to the spigot, and routed it so it instead delivers water toward the ground.  I think it's probably turnable enough to be a great bottle-filler, but can't be made a useable drinking spout.  I was too disgusted - this really is the kind of vandalism homeless people are endlessly accused of, plain as day really our fault this time - to experiment, and far too disgusted to try to fill my own bottle as I'd planned.

[EDIT 6/11 - All wrong.  I went back June 8, and found that the water actually comes not from this detached pipe, but from a hole in the side of another pipe, which makes it useless for filling bottles as well as for drinking directly.  I'm pretty sure this was sabotage rather than metal theft, and the main victims are probably the nearby homeless, so the saboteur was probably someone housed who objects to the existence of homeless people.  I apologise for blaming the victims.]

And from there, or anyway a few blocks from there, I caught a bus away, got a picture of the still not running N 45th St water fountain, and went on.

I still have one project to do, which I hope to accomplish next week, but we'll see.  At any rate, I hope not to hike for you next month, dear Diary.  Tomorrow, I should be able to update the spreadsheet in the Google Drive folder, and also show you final May maps of open and closed restrooms and running and otherwise water fountains.  Until then good night.

Details of southern NE Seattle, part II

Dear Diary,

This page is for the rest of yesterday's hike.  As in previous pages, photos of open or closed restroom doors (actually, open for the remaining parks), and running or inert water fountains (actually, inert for the remaining parks), are in a public folder at my Google Drive, URL:

<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cfrNdJI9NVY3ux7OoGI7B8Vg3Klq3liT?usp=sharing>

Also, as in all the hikes with these boring page titles, I tried to remember to test each restroom I could legitimately enter by drawing water in the sink and trying to make it splash me, then trying to use any dryer available to dry off.  I only mention these tests when I forgot them, or when either sink, dryer or both behaved badly.

Christie Park

Last year, this expanded park opened with a running water fountain.  This year it's more ordinary.

It's quite a long way to the next park - Christie Park is at 9th Ave NE and NE 43rd St, Laurelhurst Playfield at 45th to 48th Avenues NE and NE 41st to 45th Streets.  So I digressed quite a bit along the way.

First I went to

University Temple

This building, besides being a church, hosted an amazing number of non-profits, including the Roots shelter for young homeless people.  Since Roots offered showers, eventually it also hosted the University District location of the Urban Rest Stop.  It's a gorgeous old building, and I'm kind of amazed it didn't get landmarked as a way to stop its demolition, but while photographs of it are fairly numerous online, photos of the board on NE 43rd St that listed all the non-profits, which I found almost as inspiring as the soaring steeple, don't seem to be online.  I'll put one here if I'm still able.

Anyway, it's been fenced in, though it's not yet the pile of rubble I predicted in April it would take for certain parties to admit that it's gone.

Here's the Urban Rest Stop's doorway, still standing but no longer accessible for the four shower rooms and one additional restroom still offered by the charity's website (though at least they no longer pretend that this location has a meaningful calendar, as they did until recently; unfortunately, the Internet Archive doesn't preserve the calendar, and I wasn't mean enough to take a screenshot) - um, right, and also still offered by the lying map I spent January hiking to check.  As I said, here's that doorway:

And here's the water fountain I treated as a street fountain, but which is obviously on private property, and probably a private fountain offered by this very long generous church.  The fountain lacked a drainpipe all last year, but still ran until winter.

The University of Washington Campus

This is where I spent most of my days, and many of my nights (awake) from September 2014 to February 2020, mostly indoors during the days and evenings.  I also spent most of my days and quite a few of my nights (awake and asleep) here from April 2020 to January 2021, when not hiking for you, dear Diary, or for my own survival, mostly outdoors at all times.  I looked at both the benches on which I spent most of the latter months, but was much more interested in the five buildings through which I could spend 365 days per year inside.  None of those buildings is yet admitting the general public.  Two are clearly open to random undergrads - Suzzallo Library and the Husky Union Building.  The latter is also open to invited members of the general public, and perhaps to customers (with appointments) of the few open businesses.  One of the buildings I haven't publicly named is open to students who have specific business there, through faculty members' intervention.  The other two (Savery Hall and the other I haven't named) are officially not open at all, which means they're open to those who have offices in them.

I'm going to steal a punchline from what I'd intended to be one of your last pages, dear Diary, because in the present situation it's morally unconscionable to continue to keep this to myself.  The UW campus's outdoors is largely a cascade of parks, interrupted mostly by buildings and parking lots, but despite the huge area covered when one adds all these parks up, it's like all other private parks known to me in North Seattle.  It offers no restrooms with doors that open to the outside, and no outdoor water fountains.  It should be ashamed of itself, what with the vast amount of construction it's been doing during this pandemic, that it has done nothing to change that.  I'm told that bags full of human Number Two can often be found in an underground parking area as a result.

I have to qualify this punch line a slight bit.  East of Sakuma Viewpoint, at Brooklyn Ave NE and NE Boat St, which the University claims as a park and the City claims as a street end, is a restaurant called Agua Verde Cafe.  Back behind this restaurant are its restrooms, which have doors that open to the outside.  They also have locks, which are the push-button kind.  Employees reputedly have to escort people to those restrooms, and when I first went there, the restaurant was closed for the holidays.

The doors were definitely locked on December 22, when I took those photos.  I haven't gone there since, not even yesterday, although since it's possible that they prop the doors open while the restaurant is open (unlikely though that seems), I should get back there and find out.

Also on campus, northeast of there, is a golf driving range, which doesn't have a website.  It's near the intersection of Canal Road and Clark Road.  When this is open, it is open to the public (unlike most of the UW's athletic facilities), and that includes its restrooms, whose doors open to the inside.  It was open last summer, much of which I spent near it on the East Campus, although I never actually used those restrooms.  However, it was closed all last winter, which is when I mainly hiked the campus, and this month it's open only four days per week, Thursday through Sunday.  It also keeps approximately business hours.  I have no photos yet.

I've found nothing else on the UW campus.

Laurelhurst Community Center and Playfield

None of the three water fountains in the Playfield were running yesterday.

The restrooms in the Community Center, with doors that open to the outside, each have one toilet, one sink, one dryer, one soap dispenser, and no urinal.  The doors can only be locked through the push buttons in the door knobs; the apparent bolts above those do nothing.  (Yes, I used these.  I hadn't, after all, been near an open restroom I could acceptably enter since lunch.)

The Laurelhurst Community Center's doorway signage hasn't yet changed since last year:

I'd remembered complaining to you, dear Diary, sometime last year, that I could never get from Magnuson Park to University Playground and all the rest of the parks then local to me (including this one, actually closest to where I then slept) in one day, that is, within the restroom open hours.  I can't find that line now, and did find that I'd done exactly that April 24, as reported in "Magnuson Park: Things We've Lost, part I" and "Our Main Characters".  With my cart, that time.  But I didn't remember that then, and I was feeling pretty proud of myself for having finished the day's task early (5:30 P.M.) despite all the digressions.  I'd been wondering if I could finish the four parks of the 60s and 70s as well, thus making the last hike almost a formality, and decided "Yes, I can!"

So I hightailed it north to, um,

SUN Park

The name of this park is an acronym for a twee slogan; that's why it's capitalised.  Last year it was a private park which I used to introduce the two "Ballard Seacoast" pages, but according to the City of Seattle's 2021 Real Property Report (PDF) it's now an official Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation park, although it doesn't have any official signage yet.  It fits somewhat awkwardly among the official parks of North Seattle, because it's mostly a demonstration garden, like the Center for Urban Horticulture at the UW (about a mile from this park), or parts of the Woodland Park Rose Garden - one not a Seattle park, the other under private management.  But it does already have one parkish amenity:

Unsheltered benches!  (OK, I'm not sure the log in the middle photo is meant as a bench, but the other two certainly are.)  Maybe officialness will bring others - a trash can?  A water fountain?  Naah, that's way too much to hope for.

Anyway, after that brief break, I really did hurry north to

Bryant Playground

Let me shorten this a bit:  I've still never seen any water fountain at any of these four parks, the only four parks with water fountains in a fairly wide area, produce water, and that includes last night.

View Ridge Playfield

This one's restrooms are unofficially, but for years now, open 24 hours, so I wasn't surprised to find them open.  I was surprised I was able to find where the main water fountain used to be (this photo is at the Google Drive folder):

It was between the restrooms and the water area of the playground.  It was removed, according to one of the mothers I spoke with at the playground last May, when the removal was recent, "to not spread germs".

This, and the rush I was in, distracted me from my usual check of the men's room.  However, I spent a fair amount of time at this park last year between July (when my phone was stolen) and November (when I got UW Wi-Fi for my new phone), getting Wi-Fi by day at the Northeast branch of the Seattle Public Library, using the men's room here, and sleeping at one or the other.  From that, I'm pretty certain this park's men's room has one toilet without a stall door, one urinal with its own stall (not sure about how wide it is), one sink, one dryer, one soap dispenser; the sink doesn't usually splash my clothing and the dryer worked last time I used it.

Anyway, onward I trudged.  One big difference the cart makes is that hills are much easier to take, such as the hill along 30th Ave NE.

Dahl Playfield

The men's room here has a profound privacy problem, and when it's hosed down, the water pools around the sink to several inches' depth.  The rest of the park is a playfield, and I've had to work pretty hard to find anything to like about it.

But that's because I hadn't bothered to look at the playground yet.  There's a genuinely cool stone garden of sorts near it.

Anyone who happens to be around 25th Ave NE and NE 77th St should definitely take a look at it.

The Dahl Playfield men's room, which was still open a few minutes before 7 P.M., has one toilet without a stall door, one urinal, one sink, one soap dispenser, and no dryer.

Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center and Park

The Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center has the same excuse for not informing anyone of anything that the Green Lake and Magnuson ones do - construction - but here, as at Magnuson, they chose otherwise.

However, none of these signs yet address the possibility of re-opening.

All for now, dear Diary.  I think it's probably already too late to go to the remaining three parks, and tomorrow it's supposed to be pouring rain, so we'll see when I can get to those.  Until then, happy days and good nights.

Details of southern NE Seattle, part I

Dear Diary,

Yesterday I really didn't want to go hiking, so I decided to start with the toughest job left:

Magnuson Community Center and Park

As you already know, I found two restroom pairs open, the usual two closed, and, also as usual, no water fountains running.  The central men's room has two toilets without stall doors, two urinals, one sink, one dryer, and one soap dispenser.  The beach men's room has two toilets without stall doors, two urinals, one sink, one dryer that I haven't found working since last May, and one soap dispenser.  Anyway, there were also other things worth telling you about.

Near the entrance this sign currently stands:

Now, way back in October, in "Water Fountains - An Interim Report", part II, I wrote as follows about the joys of approaching Magnuson Park:

| Of course there were also tears and the gnashing of teeth 

| along this route - not on 75th, and not in the neighbourhood 

| of switchbacks between 75th and Sand Point Way, but rather 

| in the epic struggle to walk the three blocks from 77th to 74th 

| Sts along Sand Point, a part of it not designed for the human form.

So never let it be said that the current city administration has done nothing for me.

The Cross Park Trail (officially the South Cross Park Trail, but since the North one doesn't cross nearly as much of the park, I don't care) reaches the lakefront path halfway between the beach restrooms and the "tower" ones.  I turned south towards the "tower" first.  Along the way I spotted a sign on a tree.  I like it when parks make it possible to identify plants - we'll see an example on a much bigger scale later - so I stopped to look at the sign:

What Green Seattle Partnership aren't telling you in this sign is that because this tree isn't native to Washington, they'd just love to have the chance to uproot it.  That's why they make an issue about its being native here at all; they just can't help themselves, even when they're trying to be politic and not tell people that the tree providing those people with shade ought not to be there.

Anyway, speaking of uprooting, I think something's changed at the "tower" since I first visited it, although I'm not sure just when.  The change is that the water fountain there is now considered a risky thing to approach:

I was going to say that it had never hurt me, but actually, when I first visited this fountain last May, I vaguely remember that the controls then existing, as opposed to now, actually sort of bit my thumb.  So I suppose this caution is warranted.

I put an extra photo into the Google Drive folder where I keep all the boring shots showing me trying to get water from water fountains and observing open (or, on this trip, closed) restroom doors.  Let me repeat it here:

That's one of the two shower controls for Magnuson Park's beach showers.  Notice that it can't be turned.  Neither can.  Now, this could be vandalism, even metal thievery, but I've been coming to believe that this kind of controls-disabling is actually done by employees of the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, and this is a case in point.  Why would metal thieves have stopped where they did?

The Magnuson Community Center is under construction:

and could thus be excused if it were ignoring the idea of "re-opening" as much as other Community Centers are.  But actually, when I went to its temporary home at the Brig (west entrance), this is what I found:

Much better than when I looked for it in January and couldn't find it.

Burke-Gilman Playground Park

Its water fountain, whose water I really like, is off.  Its restrooms are open.  The men's room has one toilet with a door that doesn't latch or lock, one urinal, two sinks, one dryer, and one soap dispenser.  The bench I liked still has not been repaired.

The Burke-Gilman Trail

It's been a long time since I showed you a video, dear Diary, so I thought I'd show you this one, although it's very short.  Its point is that the Burke-Gilman Trail's eastern water fountain, one of only two park water fountains running in southern "NE", is not in ideal shape.

It's dripping both at the control and from the opposite side of the fountain.

In order to make sure I actually got going, I left the house without taking time to pack food or water (though I did drink some before leaving).  To make matters worse, I got a bag of tortilla chips for breakfast, where I got the newspaper.  So I was pretty thirsty by this point, and, ignoring the damage, washed and filled both the empty bottles I was carrying there.  The water proved good, as it has been in the past.

Speaking of the past, this fountain is part of why I'm suspicious of controls vandalism.  Last winter the controls were visibly damaged, but when the fountains came back on the controls of this one were magically healed.

Since I had water, I didn't need to get it from University Village, and so was free to get my day's healthy food at Safeway.  But I didn't like what they had available, so went to Chipotle in U-Village anyway.

Ravenna Park

Neither men's room is open, only the lower women's room is open, and neither water fountain is running.

I took, and uploaded to Google Drive, two photos of the upper women's room door, one a close-up trying to show the latch that locks it.  I remember doing the same with the men's room but the photo doesn't seem to have taken.

The lower men's room door bears a sign blaming the closure on vandalism.  Both upper rooms' doors bear signs blaming the closure on all four choices:  seasonal closure, vandalism, malfunction or freeze, and maintenance needed.

Near the lower restrooms is a sandbox that constantly spills sand onto the pavement nearby.  A man was sweeping the sand away, blessed be he, and when he saw me taking pictures he introduced himself and explained, with rather slow speech, his job, involving programs at this park.  Someone better equipped than I should try to get this guy the fifteen minutes of fame he seems to want.

On my way between the lower and upper restrooms and water fountains, I stopped at a Little Free Library.  While I looked, a parks employee drove up and hailed me; it was the man I'd met at Northacres Park.  He'd regaled me with tales of closed restrooms then (one involved an unhappy rabbit in the women's beach restroom at Magnuson); this time, he just listed them to me.

Nevertheless, I took a big risk and ate my burrito and drank a bottle of water near the picnic shelter near the upper restrooms, not knowing where I could take care of the probable results.

Cowen Park

Neither restroom was open.  This time only the "malfunction or freeze" box was checked.  You may remember, dear Diary, that in "Some Odds and Ends" I mentioned having seen the men's room here open on March 23, with the water running.  Since UW, nearby, recorded 36° F on the Atmospheric Sciences Building rooftop as recently as April 11, a freeze wouldn't be much of a wonder.

The water fountain also isn't running.

University Heights Plaza

As I told you, dear Diary, I'd worried about the SPU sinks.  Well, in the U-District, they're still there:

Here's a close-up of their new decoration:

On my way to the next park, I stopped by the University branch of the Seattle Public Library.  It thinks there's plenty of time left before it has to worry about anything like "re-opening":

University Playground

This park was recently swept.  So, as at Albert Davis Park, this was the first time I could shoot a landscape at this park without catching a tent, so I did that, even though the landscape of this park is singularly uninteresting:

The restrooms remain closed without explanation.  I've heard two explanations of very different kinds from the two parks employees with whom I've talked the most (one, the guy mentioned above), so I don't know what to think.

On the way to the next park, I verified that the SPU sink is still at the encampment at I-5 and NE 45th St.  Remembering that I hadn't actually tried the one at U-Heights, I decided to photograph this one running:

And there I'd better stop, because I have more photos to show you, dear Diary, and this is sort of a natural stopping point.  Until later today, then.

A Different Hike: Seven Restrooms Closed, Two Fountains Running in Southern NE

Dear Diary,

Wow.  I just got back from hiking to fifteen parks - no, I'm not quite done, three don't have water fountains or restrooms - and Publicola has just reported that the city has decided to fund the Street Sinks after all (item 2).  I can never figure out whether the mayor really has decided to fight water addiction, or not.

Anyway.  I can't write it all up tonight, but here are the essentials:

1. SPU sinks have not all been removed.  I saw four in January; the ones at Albert Davis Park and Ballard Commons were gone this month, so I was worried.  However, the ones at University Heights Plaza and at the intersection of NE 45th St and, oh, 7th Ave NE, but really I-5, anyway those are both still around, but they now bear warning stickers all over them saying the water isn't OK to drink.

2. That doesn't mean it's OK to drink other water, though.  The only fountains I found running in NE south of 85th St at all, come to think of it, are those at the Burke-Gilman Trail at 30th Ave NE, and at University Playground (even though that fountain is still visibly damaged, and didn't run at all last year; so much for when I was told last October that every fountain that could run was running).

3. The restrooms at University Playground, Cowen Park, Ravenna Park except for the lower women's room, and the Brig and "tower" restrooms at Magnuson Park are all closed.  The stated reasons, if any, vary.  But what with the closures of the University branches of the Urban Rest Stop (November) and the Seattle Public Library (January), a homeless man in the U-District now has to hike to Meridian Playground, Gas Works Park, University Village, or one of the very chancy places with open restrooms on the UW campus.  (I know of two; one, I learned today, is only open Thursdays through Sundays in May.)  Or come up with cash to convince a business to let him use the restroom.  (I think this is the situation with the other open restrooms at UW, but am not yet sure.)  Or use a "sanican" and have nowhere to wash his hands.  Which brings us back to where we started, right?  A woman is only minimally better off, since the lower Ravenna restrooms are pretty far from most places in the U-District.

The parks:

• Magnuson Community Center and Park (both)
  
• Burke-Gilman Playground Park (both)
  
• The Burke-Gilman Trail (fountain)
  
• Ravenna Park (both)
  
• Cowen Park (both)
  
• Ravenna Boulevard, to walk across it (neither)
  
• University Heights Plaza, to check on the SPU sink (neither)
  
• University Playground, with a stop at the library on the way (both)
  
• Stopping at I-5 on the way, Christie Park (fountain)
  
• Stopping at the former URS building, which on its other side also hosted the U-District street fountain known to me, Laurelhurst Community Center and Playfield (both)
  
• SUN Park, for a much-needed break for park appreciation (neither)
  
• Bryant Playground (fountain)
  
• View Ridge Playfield (both)
  
• Dahl Playfield (both)
  
• Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center and Park (fountain)
  

Whew.  That only leaves three parks with water fountains to go:  Cedar Park, Meadowbrook Playfield, and Matthews Beach.

Until tomorrow, dear Diary, good night.

Updated maps

Dear Diary,

Congratulations!  Thanks to my recent loquacity, this is your 200th page.  Did you ever expect to get so big?

This morning I did a bunch of work on the base maps of water fountains and of restrooms.  For water fountains:

• I added the fountains I recently found at Bitter Lake Playfield and Carkeek and Green Lake Parks.
• I added, using black dots instead of blue ones, the fountains at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks.
• I put the western fountain on the Burke-Gilman Trail back where it belonged.

For restrooms, I just added those at the Locks, again using black dots.

I corrected the location of the western Burke-Gilman Trail fountain on the old maps.

And I made maps representing what I now know on the basis of hikes in May.  I think I probably can finish visiting North Seattle's park water fountains and restrooms by the end of the month; all that's left is most of "NE".

I'm beginning to draw moderately disturbing conclusions about the basis on which water fountains have been turned on or restrooms have been closed, but would like to do two things before voicing these so far tentative thoughts:  hike "NE", and see if anyone else, on the basis of the recent pages and these maps, jumps to similar conclusions and comments or e-mails me.

Anyway.  Maps.

Here's the water fountain state of affairs:

The dominant colour is white, thirty-four fountain locations shut off but not obviously damaged.  Next is red, eleven fountain locations nobody could drink at:

• Bitter Lake Playfield, playfield-side fountain:  Spout removed from one of two bowls, which I assume makes it problematic to turn the water on.
• Baker Park on Crown Hill:  Fountain never installed.
• Loyal Heights Playfield, playground-side fountain:  Fountain, previously damaged but running last October (unfortunately I didn't show you a photo, dear Diary, so I'm not sure now what the damage was), now removed from construction site.
• Green Lake Park, street-side fountain:  Controls entirely removed.
• Woodland Park, northwest fountain:  Everything that projects above the bowl removed.
  
• Burke-Gilman Trail, western fountain:  Fountain, previously eviscerated by metal thieves, removed.
• Woodland Park, two fountains near the "50th St" restrooms:  Everything that projects above the bowl removed.
• Woodland Park, two fountains near Field #1:  Eviscerated by metal thieves.
• Meridian Playground:  Everything removed except the frame by metal thieves.

Finally, blue, ten fountain locations actually running:

• Jackson Park
• Bitter Lake Playfield, playground-side fountain
• Virgil Flaim Park
• Pinehurst Playground
• Licton Springs Park
• Crown Hill Park
• Greenwood Park
• Ballard Commons
• Gilman Playground
• Sunset Place

Also black, the four fountain locations now known to me at the locks, all running.

Here's the restroom map, much better though not perfect:

The dominant colour is blue, for twenty-four restroom locations that have been open every time between 7 A.M. and 7 P.M. that I've recently visited them.  Five, closed as far as I know, are in red:

• Little Brook Park, visited twice
• Licton Springs Park, visited once
• Ballard Community Center, visited once
• Gilman Playground, visited several times
• Woodland Park Citywide Athletics Building, visited several times

Two are in mixed red and blue:

• Green Lake Community Center, men's room open, women's not on one visit in May, with similar conditions visible by night on a visit in March
• Maple Leaf Reservoir Park, open only once of three recent visits

And two, at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, are in black because they aren't city-owned.

Once I've hiked "NE", I'll re-visit Licton Springs Park and Ballard Community Center, and while hiking "NE" I'll probably look in on Little Brook Park.  But I'm aware that it's unfair to single out Maple Leaf for what's probably my bad luck in running into early closings, late openings, and neglect on weekends, and I should be visiting other parks more or less randomly to check on such things.  We'll see how much energy I have to do that.

Oh, one other thing.  I don't get as much e-mail from the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation as I used to before I called certain people there liars, but one e-mail I did get recently advertised summer jobs.  This suggests that the hiring freeze is no longer on, in which case it wouldn't be at all unreasonable to expect that summer restroom hours - closing at 9 P.M. - could come back.  Somehow I doubt it'll happen, though.  Oddly, in this case, it would be more convenient for me if the parks department does the wrong thing; it's much easier, given the hours I'm constrained to, for me to watch 7 P.M. closings than 9 P.M. ones.

Good night, dear Diary.

NW finished; one more water fountain; one more closed restroom pair

Dear Diary,

Are you bored with the titles of recent pages?  So am I, but there'll be two or three more like that.  Today I didn't get to NE, but did finish NW, with what's become the usual need to go back to one site to see whether its restrooms are really closed or not.

I visited nine city parks today, in six hours - street grids are such wonderful conveniences for hiking!  Predictably, all the slow parts were when I went off grid, to find the Burke-Gilman Trail's western water fountain and to investigate whether water fountains were running in the place I will, here, just call the Ballard Locks.  (About two of those hours went to that, with two city parks involved.  So the other seven took just four hours.)

Let me start, again, by function, then go by park.  As on previous of these hikes, most of the photos of restroom doors and water fountains are at a public folder on my Google Drive, URL:

<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cfrNdJI9NVY3ux7OoGI7B8Vg3Klq3liT?usp=sharing>

but most of the photos in this page aren't in that folder.

Restrooms - Ballard Community Center's restrooms with doors that open to the outside, which are two gendered single-user stalls, weren't open around 3:50 P.M. today.  Also, at about 4:07 P.M., the restrooms at the Seattle Public Library's Ballard branch were unavailable due to a staff break.  The Portland Loo at Ballard Commons was available, but we'll get to that.  Gilman Playground's restrooms are still closed.  All other restrooms were open, including all those at the Locks.

As on previous of these hikes, I've been counting major items at men's and all-gender restrooms.  For each restroom for which I indicate such a count, unless I say otherwise, I tried the sink, it did not splash my clothes, and the dryer, if any, worked.

Water fountains - I've yet to find the water fountain at Ballard Commons not running; it ran today.  Gilman Playground's still runs.  Every single water fountain I found at the Locks was running, even though the Locks still have a mask rule applied both outside and inside.  I found no other running water fountains; the one on the Burke-Gilman Trail, eviscerated by metal thieves last year, and one at Loyal Heights Playfield, damaged last year, have both been removed.

Now by park.

Loyal Heights Community Center and Playfield

All three water fountains ran last October, but the north one (near the basketball area and the playground) was damaged.  Last January the baseball field was a construction site, and the water fountain attached to the Community Center was running; I couldn't find the northern or southern free-standing fountains.  In the case of the southern one, that's because it isn't as far south as I looked; it's closer to the ballfield's third base than to its home plate.  The northern one was within a construction site in January, and still is, but this time I was able to see through the fence that it had been removed, whether because it was damaged, or in order to prevent more damage, or what, I don't know.

The men's room in the Community Center with a door that opens outside has one toilet [EDIT 5/24:  with a stall door], one urinal, one sink, no dryer, and one soap dispenser.

The Loyal Heights Community Center is not yet swayed by the siren call of re-opening:

The schedules on the left are for the first quarter of 2020.

Salmon Bay Park

This park is nowhere near Salmon Bay, or any body of water; some developer had boats on the brain, naming streets north and south of this park "Canoe" and "Sloop", and the park itself wound up with a name that confuses even park staffers.  (I called once about the restrooms here being closed, and it took a while before they'd believe me as to the park's location.)

Anyway, its restrooms were open and the attached water fountain isn't running.  The dryer in the men's room is not the usual no-touch thing found in most park restrooms that have dryers:

 

Privacy in the men's toilet here is not much better than at Dahl Playfield.  There, someone walking in has to turn in such a way that he'll then see anyone on the toilet unless he makes an effort not to.  At Salmon Bay, someone walking briskly probably won't notice someone on the toilet, but otherwise...

That's intended as the view from the doorway.  Note the thing on the left; that's the toilet.

Also, Salmon Bay Park's men's room has no urinal.  One toilet without a stall door, one sink, one touch-driven dryer, one soap dispenser.  I did not look for yellow spots on the toilet seat, but because this park has no sports facilities, it wouldn't have been a fair test.

Webster Park

I then cut hard west to get to this park which just has a water fountain (which only trickled last year, both in June and in October).  Now it isn't even trickling.

On going south, I found myself at the Locks, and figured it was already late enough (1:19 P.M. for my first photo there) that I was unlikely to make it to "NE" by 7 P.M.  So I might as well spend my spare time exploring the place.

Hiram M. Chittenden Locks

None of the photos in this section are in the Google Drive folder.

The first place I went was the Visitor Center.  Now, strictly speaking, this is outside your remit, dear Diary, seeing as how it's a building whose doors opening to the outside don't, far as I know, include restroom doors.  But I wanted to find out how open the Locks actually were.

This was partly because CDC or no CDC, the Locks still have a mask requirement:

and I figured, what's the point (to a housed person) of turning on water fountains in a place where nobody can drink from them?  But I hadn't reckoned with the no-nonsense nature of the federal government, and in particular its squarest single institution, the U.S. Army, a post of whose this place actually is.  (Really.  See its website if you don't believe me, dear Diary.)  So although the website doesn't deign to mention water fountains...

That's the Visitor Center's.  I decided not to try to photograph restroom doors this trip, partly because the Visitor Center was pretty crowded, partly because the whole place was thronged.  I also didn't take tourist photos, not even when an adjacent teenager pointed out a seal to her parents, but I sure photographed a whole lot of working water fountains.  The men's room in the Visitor's Center has one toilet, one urinal, one sink, one dryer, and one soap dispenser.  I don't think I tested the sink and dryer.  The Visitor Center is currently open only Friday through Sunday, 10 A.M. to 6 P.M., so is not a major factor in a homeless person's decision about where to live, but I have some reason to think that might change soon.

The rest of the place, however...  Its hours are 7 A.M. to 9 P.M. seven days per week, and although the restrooms might well open later or close earlier, I saw no reason to think so.

The city's employees might reasonably object that the Army can provide a lot of effectively free labour, but how much of that labour is plumbers?  I was impressed.

These show a double fountain near the main restrooms.  Those have - prepare to stay calm, dear Diary - two toilets, four urinals, three sinks, two dryers, and three soap dispensers.  I did not try all the sinks and dryers; the one of each I tried worked fine.  One of the soap dispensers did appear to be low on soap.  Now, this is the kind of thing where more or less free labour makes a big difference - cleaning and maintaining a monstrosity of this size.

This is a water fountain by what appears to be the Locks' main tourist attraction, the chance to watch boats actually locking one way or the other.  As a result, it's hard to get to while observing social distancing; patience is an asset to those who wish to drink from this fountain.

These are the two attached to the southern restrooms, which actually, dear Diary, aren't in North Seattle at all, but they're such a short hike from North Seattle that I decided to tell you what's in the men's room anyway:  two toilets, two urinals, two sinks, two dryers, and yes, we're in a very square place indeed, two soap dispensers.  But there turn out to be limits to free labour, and these photos show that:  both these fountains are badly overshooting their bowls.  I would be reluctant to fill a bottle at either, and the second one, the one on the right as one faces the building, also back-splashes enough to give my newspaper its first water damage of the day.

Still, wow.  Don't you wish we lived in a city that worked this well, dear Diary?

Carl S. English, Jr. Botanical Garden

Has no restrooms open to the public nor water fountains available to the public, at least not along any of the paved or the more obvious of the gravel trails.  Does have many attractive and interesting plants.

Some day, dear Diary, when we have time for park appreciation again, I'll tell you as much as I reasonably can about the whole place, but right now, a drought's on, everywhere except downtown and the Ballard Locks, so it'll have to wait.

The Burke-Gilman Trail

Somehow recently I'd convinced myself that the western water fountain on this trail was way east of what I've previously told you, dear Diary.  So I walked all the way to, I think, 26th Ave NW looking for it, eating lunch on a bench outside the Nordic Museum again on the way, before realising my mistake and turning back.  Then I walked all the way to the NW 60th St Viewpoint (which is today's extra, no plumbing, park) without seeing the fountain.  Finally I had to consult your old pages that mentioned it - "The Ballard Seacoast" part I and "The Water Fountains of Ballard" - to find it, and even blow up the photos.

This is the current state of the BGT's western water fountain:

In case anyone reading you goes looking for it and even that much is gone, the clue I found it by is that it's at the NW 57th Street Street End, left of the entrance as one faces the water, near a yellow fire hydrant.  (And no doubt that's why there's water there available for a fountain.)

Ballard Community Center and Playground

I couldn't get close to the building, because the front was crowded and the back was taped off, so I couldn't ask its opinion of the "re-opening" concept.

However, its outside-facing restrooms were closed.  I think this is the first time I've found them so.  I will, of course, go back to see whether they stay that way, but my guess right now is that, thanks to where homeless people are nearby, they probably will.  Still, today was Sunday, the day when people outside are expected to fast, so there is another explanation, and I'll just have to add it to my list of things to investigate.

The water fountain was also off.  Nope, nothing for homeless people here, now just move along...

Ballard Commons

As noted above, I've never found the water fountain here off, and that includes today.  This park also has water on the side of the "Portland Loo", and in a hand-washing station, but the SPU sink I found here in January has been removed:

Also, the dryer on the side of the "Portland Loo" has been fixed and now delivers air.  However, I've yet to get results from the soap dispenser, either January or today around 4:03 P.M.

The "Portland Loo" has one toilet, no urinal, no sink, no dryer, and no soap dispenser.  Outside its door is a microscopic analogue to a sink with water, plus an old-fashioned dryer, plus an empty or broken soap dispenser.

On my way away I took a look at the Ballard branch of the Seattle Public Library.  The sign announcing that the restrooms were open was clearly visible:

but it was one of the two days off "curbside services" (well, that's better than "pickup" anyway) currently have at that location, so wasn't a real test.

Gilman Playground

Kitty-corner from this park's northwest corner I saw an unexpected sign:

Let me translate for you, dear Diary:  Someone's trying to build an SRO.  In Seattle.  In the 21st century.  I can hardly believe it, but am awfully glad they're trying.

It would take about a hundred of those or more, to bring every homeless person in Seattle inside.  The entire time I was homeless here, I figured Seattle would only be serious about housing the homeless when it started talking in thousands, the number there actually are, rather than hundreds, the number it's convenient to build for every year.  One SRO is not the answer, but adding SROs back to the city's toolkit is an important step toward the day in the 22nd or possibly 42nd century when Seattle might be ready to consider the answer.

I can't tell you, dear Diary, what's in Gilman Playground's men's room, because it's still closed.  The park's water fountain is still running.

Ross Park

The restrooms are open, the water fountain not running.

The men's room, which I had to use, since I hadn't been near an open men's room since the Locks and hadn't used any since leaving home, has one toilet with a stall door, one urinal, one sink, one dryer, and one soap dispenser.

I used to enjoy swinging on University Playground's swings, when I slept near there, until there were so many uncertain people around every time I went there that I wasn't willing to leave my stuff unprotected while I did so.  Well, there were no visibly homeless people at Ross Park this early evening, and no families using the swingset to annoy, so I swang away.  Yes, I share the bias against homeless people, and did even when I was homeless, but that doesn't mean I wanted everyone denied water.  There's a difference between bias and hatred.

Whew.  I've managed to tell you about this hike the same day, dear Diary.  I have no reason to expect the NE hikes to be like that, but they might be.  Anyway, I expect to spend tomorrow on other stuff, including but not limited to updating (and correcting) the maps, and updating (and expanding) the spreadsheet that's in the public folder.  I'll probably show you the updated maps when I'm done.  But until then, good night and a good day, dear Diary.