A Short Walk from Pioneer Square to the Pike Place Market
November 3, 2013
The character of old Seattle still graces theĀ ambience of the Pioneer Square area of Seattle and along Western Avenue to the Pike Place Market.
Exploring Seattle On Foot: Long Walk # 2
July 1, 2011
“I have never found a city without its walkers’ rewards.”
— John Finley, “Traveling Afoot”
I so enjoyed my first long urban hike across the I-90 floating bridge (see yesterday’s post), that I’ve planned several more.
I set out on my second long walk, a journey of 8-1/2 miles, from my home to the Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle.Ā I hiked 3-1/2 hours, including stops for photos and coffee and a picnic breakfast, along a route with scenic trails.Ā Here are some highlights:

First stop: the Woodland Park Rose Garden at 50th & Fremont Ave N (unfortunately, the gates did not open until 7 a.m.)

Waiting for the Interurban sculpture at Fremont & N 34th Streets. It's a Seattle tradition to decorate these statues.
Thoreau Thursdays (11): Traveling Afoot
June 30, 2011
“I have learned that the swiftest traveler is he that goes afoot.”Ā
— Henry David Thoreau,Ā Walden
Thoreau asserts that the fastest traveler is the one on foot.Ā A seeming paradox.Ā But when he goes on to explain, the mystery becomes clearer.Ā In Thoreau’s day, to travel 30 miles by train cost the equivalent of a day’s labor.Ā Thoreau could walk that distance in one day and arrive by evening.Ā The person traveling by rail would first have to spend a day laboring to earn the fare, and then take the train the next day.Ā Thus, the walking man arrived first and had a day full of the pleasures of the countryside.
The economics of walking as a form of travel have changed.Ā The price of a tank of gas is still less than a day’s labor, and it transports us over distances that would take days traveling by foot. Today a better argument for slow travel might focus on the quality of the journey, the best way to travel.Ā We might romanticize train travel over air travel, as Paul Theroux does in The Tao of Travel:Ā “Every airplane trip is the same; every railway journey is different.”Ā Or we might learn that the most rewarding journeys are on foot, as Gardner McKay does in Journey Without a Map:Ā “I came to realize that I traveled best when I traveled no faster than a dog could trot.”
As I read more about walking, I began to wonder just how far I could walk in one day.Ā I don’t even know the farthest distance I’ve ever walked in one day.Ā I began to crave taking a long walk.Ā A walk in the city would do:
“These are near journeys, but there are times when they do not satisfy, when one must set out on a far journey, test one’s will and endurance of body, or get away from the usual.Ā Sometimes the long walk is the only medicine.”
— John Finley, “Traveling Afoot,” from The Pleasures of Walking, edited by Edwin Valentine Mitchell
I planned my pedestrian expedition for one of my days off work.Ā Now that summer is here, the days are long.Ā I had always wanted to walk across the I-90 floating bridge, so I set my goal to walk from my home in Green Lake to Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island, a distance of about 14 miles.
I set out under cloudy skies at 7:00 a.m. and, after stopping to take photos and have a coffee and breakfast sandwich, I arrived at my destination at noon. It was a pleasurable walk but hard on my feet.Ā I had to apologize to my poor feet for the extra 25 pounds I’m carrying. (Another good reason to lose some weight!)Ā I could have walked more, as the day was still young, but I decided not to risk becoming more footsore.Ā So I caught a bus home from the Mercer Island Park and Ride.
This experience of walking 14 miles gave me new appreciation for Thoreau’s energy and stamina.Ā Maybe I can gradually work up to walking 30 miles in one day.
Here are some photos from my first long walk in the city:

The trail runs along Hwy 520 floating bridge. Floating walkways link Foster and Marsh Islands. A sign warns of water over the trail. I proceed carefully. It's very muddy on the islands.