A Hike in Northgate, part II

Dear Diary,

I trust I don't have to repeat the map from your last page?  (Hint to your readers:  Even when those readers are as few as y'all currently are, I can't really figure out whether anything I do is helpful or harmful unless y'all say something.)  This page is my discussion and photos of the last two parks I visited very close to Northgate Mall, and of the other, somewhat farther from the mall, half of a park whose very-close half I just described in that previous page.

Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel

Behind this stultifying name hides a charming, though peculiar, little park.  One of its peculiarities, as in most Seattle Public Utilities parks, is signboards informing the viewer of many aspects of the ideal handling of water.  But these signboards can also include more immediately useful things, such as maps of the park:

and of the Thornton Creek watershed of which it's a part:

I forget whether it was the balloons on the first map or on something I didn't photograph that told me where the entrance to the northeastern half of Beaver Pond Natural Area is, but the second map is what convinced me to try again with Victory Creek Confluence Natural Area.

The creek enters this park through an artificial waterfall:

and then passes under two bridges:

Between the bridges there are plenty of (metal) benches, and a few concrete benches in the middle, on the main side, plus there's a path on the other side, mainly, I think, so residents of buildings on that side can take stairways down to the park; but there's also a staff entrance to the creek valley, which the paths and bridges for the public don't provide access to, for, um, obvious reasons; and the other side has two benches.

I think this photo was just random:

 

I also took photos of the art, which is unified enough to be obviously the work of one person.  That person's name, according to a report on the park's 2009 completion (PDF), is Benson Shaw, which sounded familiar, but Google doesn't know of my having named him before.  Anyway, some of the art:

All in all, it's a rather nice place to spend some time, and can no doubt be educational too, if one allows it to.

Maple Leaf Community Garden

This is one of two P-Patches in North Seattle owned by the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation rather than by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.  I've speculated on reasons why the parks department owns each; in this case, I suspect it's because of the gorgeous old tower there.  And I've told you that before, dear Diary, and even shown you photos of that tower, so I'll only add one more this time:

and note that this is another P-Patch with difficulties for the vertically challenged, but close with a more typical P-Patch picture:

Beaver Pond Natural Area, round 2

As I just said, a sign at the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel mentioned a possible access point to this park's northeastern block, so I decided to try again, assuming I'd ever tried much the first time, which isn't clear from either my memory or your pages, dear Diary.

Actually, my memory is also having trouble with the map this time.  My best guess is that I tried the dead end of 9th Ave NE into this block's southern side first, but got nothing.  Then I certainly went up 8th Ave NE toward the putative entrance at NE 106th St.  Along the way, I took this photo, which from the map must be of the southwestern block:

Once on NE 106th St, I turned east, heading for its dead end.  This proved to be a parking lot; there were two trails going south, which presumably lead to the linkage between the blocks, and I took a photo from each:

But these trails both dead-ended themselves pretty quickly, which made me think they were probably unofficial trails made by hikers like me.  It turns out one can walk along the western edge of the block, north alongside the parking lot, this is pretty obviously an authorised trail (it has signs warning dog walkers not to leave Number Two behind, as I mentioned re Flicker Haven Natural Area a day or two ago), and it too has views of the creek:

but it also leads to a turn which basically provides free access to the northwestern half, the half north of the South Fork, of this block of Beaver Pond Natural Area.  Here one does feel rather primæval.

And from here I was able to clamber up the embankment to Roosevelt Way NE, rejoin the street grid, and go on to the next hike, from Victory Creek to Victory Heights, which it's now obvious I'll have to tell you, dear Diary, about in the morning.  Sweet dreams until then.

A Hike in Northgate, part I

Dear Diary,

How are you today?  I'm hoping to burden you with at least five more pages, finishing Wednesday's hikes, and then a couple more on my next plans, so I hope you're doing well.

When I first planned the hikes for the region between I-5 and Lake City Way NE in Seattle, there was this scary hike featuring way too many sites.  So I split it up.  There's less distance between this hike and the next than between any of the other pairs in the region - yes, that's right, the walk from Hubbard Homestead to the Seattle Public Library's Northgate branch is longer than the walk across Roosevelt Way NE, or perhaps more to the point, the walk from Beaver Pond Natural Area to Victory Creek Park.

But this one featured lots more photos, because I documented Beaver Pond fairly fully, but wimped out on both Victory Creek Park and Kingfisher Natural Area.  So this one has to be split into two parts.

A map (for both parts; A through C are in this one, D through F in the other, and yes, that means I'm splitting Beaver Pond up):

The Seattle Public Library, Northgate branch

The postcard shot:

The mostly closed doors:

Northgate Park and Community Center

I assume the Community Center is still closed to the public, but don't know, because it's been closed to the public.  Let me start the explanation with this photo:

There's still a "sanican" in Northgate Park, although it was supposed to be so "temporary" that it didn't deserve a place on a winter hygiene map.  It's still from the main company Seattle uses.  But this time, unlike January, it's locked.  Presumably the people who have the keys are the people it was put there for, the employees of the Curative testing site in the park.

Curative is a company founded in California in January 2020 which quickly turned to become mainly a COVID-19 testing company.  For their one-year anniversary, the FDA announced that their tests were prone to false negatives, that is, to telling (specifically) asymptomatic carriers of the disease that they didn't have it.  Nevertheless, since that time they've felt confident enough to shut off large parts of Northgate Park.  Not the playground:

and not the water fountain, which for a second year in a row isn't running:

But Curative is comfortable blocking both doors of the Community Center:

and making access to the notice board dubious:

One basically has to choose, when arriving at the park, between the lawn, and the (largely blocked) paved access to various places:

And while I was there Wednesday, they had a mild-mannered, lab-coated, but very large man there to enforce all these rules.

The Jackson Park Golf Course pays Seattle rent.  Does Curative?  And if so, was the rent calculated to include blocking public access to so much of the park, and all of the community center?

It's interesting that at a time when everyone else is moving towards looser rules, this park is moving in the other direction.  For how long does Curative get to do this?  For how many more months, or years?

Beaver Pond Natural Area

For "South to and from Northgate" last year, I walked the southwestern block of this park pretty fully, and then completely ignored the northeastern block.  This page includes my photos of the southwestern block, but I didn't turn toward the northeastern block until after visiting two more places, one of which gave me the clue I needed to find a way into that block.

So OK.  The southwestern half of Beaver Pond Natural Area is essentially a single trail built around the South Fork of Thornton Creek, and it's right across the street from Northgate Mall, so it's pretty popular, and pretty littered.  (As a Natural Area, of course, it offers no trash cans.)  It connects to four entrances, three of which include stairs:

These entrances, which are marked with dots on the map above, are on NE 103rd and 104th Streets east of 5th Ave NE, and on NE 104th and 105th Streets west of 8th Ave NE.  The 105th entrance is the one without stairs.

One doesn't always feel present in a primæval wilderness there.

It also has a surprising number of trees evidently not felled by beavers:

But parts of it can feel pretty natural:

And it does, in particular, get the hiker pretty close to the creek:

However, there's a warning about that creek:

so don't get too close.

I have a few more pictures of the other half ready for the next page.  Until then, dear Diary.  I intend to work until 10 P.M., and then resume at 8 A.M. tomorrow.

South to and from Northgate

Dear Diary,

Last night I mentioned that I filled two bottles from Northacres Park's winter-hardened water fountains on May 27.  I knew this to be a good idea, you see, because I hadn't filled even one bottle at them on May 15, and, wow, did I suffer for that.  There's one more pair of restrooms ahead, open, but not one running water fountain out of only four candidates.

From Northacres Playfield I went, both days, back to 1st Ave, and took it south to 117th St, which passes over I-5 to become another instance of 1st Ave.  My map claims there are several ways to leave this 1st Ave between I-5 and Northgate Way, but I think the only one that's actually open is 116th St, and it was blocked by construction on May 15.  So that day I had to trudge along the edge of a very tedious housing development, getting thirstier all the time, blaming the builders for blocking the exits at 115th and 112th ...  Anyway, I strongly recommend anyone taking this path on foot escape via 116th if at all possible.  In a car, you're stuck with 1st, because there's a stairway in 3rd.  Ultimately you get to

Hubbard Homestead

Visited May 15 and 27; no plumbing

Of course with a name like that I envisioned a historical site, and I was astonished when I got there and realised I was familiar with this history-ignoring park, as you are too if you've caught the Route 41 southward from north of Northgate.  It's basically Northgate North's back yard.  The 3rd Ave end has a skatepark, the 5th Ave one benches and a basketball hoop or two.  In between, a waving field of tallgrass for which a playground is planned, and I can only hope a water fountain too.

Northgate Park

Visited May 15 and 27; one water fountain, not running both times

This is much like Albert Davis Park, sandwiched between a library and a community center, but much bigger, and without (at least both times I visited) campers.  Much of the added space is grassy.

Beaver Pond Natural Area

Visited May 15 and briefly May 27; no plumbing

This is the sacrificial goat of the Thornton Creek system.  It's right across 5th Ave from the mall, and it was never going to be a quiet place to watch undisturbed wild things.  So they built a nice, easy trail, which has four entrances.  The one on 105th St west of 8th Ave doesn't have stairs, but all the others - 104th west of 8th, 104th east of 5th, and 103rd east of 5th - do have stairs.  This trail keeps you at a little distance from the creek, so unsurprisingly I found at least two short probably-unofficial trails that go right up to the banks; one starts behind the bus shelter on 5th near 103rd.  There are reputedly actual beavers.

The Natural Area extends northeast of the trail system, but I've found no entrances or maps, and strongly doubt any plumbing is hidden there.

Victory Creek Park

Visited May 15 for something like an hour, and much more briefly May 27; probably no plumbing

This park confuses me.  It has a sign anmouncing some amenities that have pretty well established meanings in Seattle's park system:

The children's play area should mean at least a little playground equipment, and the picnic area should have at least one picnic table.  But the only thing I found even remotely resembling either of these is, um, this:

What I did find is a small park consisting mostly of yet another creek, with woods around it laced with trails.  Now, I can't imagine that the parks department is lying here, so what can explain this?  I think it's obvious:  The amenities are underground, and I just never found their entrance.  If you wish to explore this possibility, all entrances to the park that I found are from a parking lot at the QFC on Northgate Way.

Another possibility:  That's a fake sign.  Once I saw such a one naming the micro-park at Olive and Denny "Four Car Park".  This one gets the name right but the amenities wrong.  Note the atypical typefaces used.

Anyway, the reason I cared is that in Seattle's parks water fountains are strongly attracted to playgrounds.  So if you ever do find the play area, let me know whether it has one, would you?

Speaking of which, 

Victory Heights Playground

Visited May 15 and 27; one water fountain, not running either time

This is one of two parks in a sort of pocket neighbourhood south of Northgate Way; this one is down 19th Ave from there.  It's next to Victory Heights Cooperative School, and the water fountain is attached to the school building.  The playground equipment has several translucent panels high up, that on sunny days cast beautiful coloured shadows.

Kingfisher Natural Area

Visited, from different angles, May 15 and 27; probably no plumbing

At the address Google gives this one, where 17th Ave turns into 104th St, there's a very obvious trail that runs quite straight down to the creek.  Initially I settled for that, but I started to wonder, and on the 27th decided to use my head start to explore more thoroughly.  I started on 15th Ave, and found at 104th St signs naming the place (absent at the alleged main address) and announcing a trail.  This turned vertical almost immediately, and, fed up with shying away from such trails, I parked the cart and went in.  Some time later - probably a quarter or even half an hour - I found an unofficial exit where another 17th Ave dead ends north of 100th St.  My trail was easy to discern, but it met many other trails, I know of no map, and I think anything from a water fountain to the original Crystal Palace could be hidden here, but probably isn't.  The trail I spent that time on is relatively hard, I was very glad I'd brought my umbrella, and frankly amazed I escaped not covered in mud.  So I promptly gave up on any more thorough exploration.

On the 15th, though confounded by map errors, I managed to exit the neighbourhood of Victory Heights to Lake City Way, took it to 98th St, and then went south on 20th Ave.  This may be the steepest street I've ever climbed, and I can't recommend doing it while pushing a cart and dying of thirst.  Maple Leaf is actually one of Seattle's tallest hills, and our next park faces south from near the peak.

Sacajawea Playground

Visited May 15; no plumbing

This is another park that stretches the meaning of Seattle parks' terminology.  Sacajawea Elementary School, behind the park, has some playground equipment, but the park has none.  It's mostly a grassy indentation in the hillside, surrounded by trees, with one giant tree in the middle.  I saw some teenagers there, but no kids.

Downhill, at 82nd St, we get to the only one of these parks with a restroom.  I took 15th Ave to it on May 15, but on May 27, skipping Sacajawea, went back to Roosevelt before starting south, which was a much more bearable slope.

Maple Leaf Reservoir Park

Visited May 15 and 27; one pair of restrooms, open both times, and one water fountain (I think), not running both times

This isn't actually a very big park, but it seems limitless.  There's a bunch of sport space toward the 14th Ave side, while the Roosevelt side has the playground and restrooms, with the water fountain well hidden north of the latter.  I used the men's room on the 15th and it worked fine.

I also finally got desperate enough that day to try something I imagine your readers, dear Diary, have probably wondered at my not doing long since:  drinking from the sink.  See, I grew up with a fiberglass hot water heater, which taught me to worry about pipes; I figure if the parks people give us both sinks and water fountains, they must have a reason for doing so.

On the 27th, coming south on Roosevelt, I discovered the park's upstairs, which has yet more sport space plus lots of grass space for future sports or present comtemplation.  I found, however, no plumbing upstairs.  The upstairs does have, on clear days, great views of the city and the mountains; I saw both Mount Rainier and the Cascades.

Both days, I continued down Roosevelt to 75th St (on the 15th buying a can of soda from the Peruvian restaurant on the way).  On the 26th I'd taken a bus to Lake City, my first time taking the cart on one, so on the 27th, after visiting the Safeway there (and using its men's room), I caught a bus back to campus.  On the 15th, however, I was there for a little park hidden on Banner Place south of 75th.

Rainbow Point

Visited May 15; no plumbing

This is a small park nestled between major roads; it basically exists for its views, with plants strategically placed to edit the roads out of those views.  Not a bad place to sit a while.

From there I trudged down Roosevelt to 65th St to cross I-5 for the tour's last park.

NE 60th Street Park

Visited May 15; no plumbing

Since I-5 curves, it repeatedly creates awkward bits of land where it meets grid-pattern streets, and one of those is a small triangular park.  At its north end it's wide enough to look like woods; at its south end it's just a line of trees.  I saw hints at the north end that someone might have lived there.

Then I hiked south to 50th St to re-cross I-5 and head for campus.

So ends my story of May 14 and 15, but there's one more chapter to the May 26 and 27 tale, which I hope to tell tomorrow.  Until then, dear Diary.