It was great to get out on the trails out of Blyth Park today and up to the height of land at the top of the pipeline trail.  Most of my hike today was shady and I saw few other hikers as I retraced trails that I have hiked for decades.  Thankfully, I can now hike without crutches but these trails were a great resource for me during the years after my various right leg surgeries, including right knee and ankle replacements and then a fusing of my right ankle, which is what happens after an ankle replacement fails.

Walked the Blyth Park trails late Sunday morning in the sunshine.  Parking is free and fairly plentiful but does fill up on the weekends.  The main restrooms are open and well maintained.  The trails in the park proper are nicely maintained though you do have to share some of them with the disc golfers, “FOUR!”.  We also significantly extended the limited walk available w/in the park by walking the loop around the eastern section of the fairly recently opened former Wayne golf course area, climbing Norway Hill and doing the most western section of the Tolt Pipeline Trail and walked south down what is signed as the Piper’s Glen Wetland following a large ravine/hillside south of Tolt Pipeline also directly accessible.  Total mileage for all those wanderings was nearly 5.5miles with gross vertical of well over 800’.  

Not a whole lot of wildlife out - spring birds, some squirrels, heard but didn’t see a single bald eagle.  The forest along the hillside both in Bryth and the related trails south is beautiful, relatively open big leaf maple and mixed conifer with more cedar the farther south you go.  Don’t miss a quick side trip over an old railroad bridge across the sammamish slough, (which also gives you direct access to the Burke Gilman superhighway trail.)  A nice park that also serves as a great starting point for a number of extended suburban walks in the Bothell area.  

My 6 year-old daughter and I hiked about 450 vertical feet straight up the steep slope under the power lines from near the playground in Blyth Park along the Sammamish River in Bothell to the ranked highpoint called "Norway Hill" on peakbagger. The actual highpoint is in a fenced yard but we called it good at the bench which overlooks the area to the west. 

On the way down we followed the switchbacking trail which is much easier and passes through some nice forest along the way. Trails are a bit muddy right due to all the rain. 

This is a lowland trail at Bothell's Blythe Park. The park itself is not easy to find. The entrance is off Riverside Drive, which can be accessed from Woodinville or by a bridge over SR522 from Main Street in Bothell. The 3/4 mile trail was apparently upgraded in 1991 by the Woodinville Boy Scouts, but its condition has deteriorated. It needs brushing and removal of blowdown. Several social trails and switchback cuts need to be closed. A trailside bench has been broken and is now overgrown. There is a short, unmaintained side trail to the Tolt pipeline, where we found lots of wild fireweed and California poppies. The condition of the main trail is poor enough that this side trail looks equally likely. We did find some delightful licorice ferns here.

I made a big 'ol loop around my hometown trails on Wednesday. Started walking from my front door down the the North Creek Trail. Took the NCT to the Sammamish River Trail then proceeded to Blyth Park.  There is construction on the Sammamy near Bothell Landing. This is a new construction closure farther east than what they were already doing to install the new bridge. There is a sign saying "no detour available" but there is one: a sneaky path near the parallel bars will take you over to Riverside Drive and then you can resume your adventure from there.

Once at Blyth, I headed straight for the woodsey trails on the hill near the disc golf course. These trails climb up Norway Hill all the way to the great viewpoint at the top. At the summit, Blyth Park ends and the Tolt Pipeline Trail begins. Other trails meander hither and yon, but I stuck to the main way (mostly) as I headed east towards Kingsgate & Woodinville. At one point the freeway interrupts the trail and you need to go around. A map helps here, as the route is not marked.

Once back in the Sammamish River Valley, I opted to take the the abandoned railroad tracks (they intersect with the Tolt Pipeline) back to Woodinville. The tracks are a rail-to-trail in progress; I believe it's called the Eastside Rail Corridor Trail or something similar. It's actually the same right-of-way that runs into Totem Lake and becomes the Cross Kirkland Corridor. Few people even know it exists or that you can legally hike it, which makes it a better bet for social distancing than the Sammamish River Trail.

After arriving in Woodinville, I got back on the Sammamish River Trail and walked up to North Creek. Turning right, I backtracked along the North Creek Trail to mi casa, completing the mighty lollypop as it got dark.

This was a fantastic suburban jaunt on a day when it was supposed to rain but nary a drop fell! There were plenty of people out on the popular trails, but it was easy to maintain safe and respectful social distance from other walkers/hikers/bikers/runners/skaters/rollerbladers/scooter-ers/stroller moms and drone pilots.

Let's see, did anything else interesting happen? Oh right, I almost forgot to mention the fire!  Just before I got home, along the NCT, I walked right past a fire in the brush. At first I thought someone had a bonfire going, but as I got close, I saw that nobody was tending it and that part of the fire included an old wooden fence. I took off my pack and started to fish around for my phone so I could call the fire department, but as I did so I heard sirens approaching from all sides.  Within a minute there was an engine on the scene and the firefighters started running out hose.  The fire wasn't very big or anything, but it's just one of those exciting things you don't see everyday so I thought I'd share.

It was only later I realized I didn't take a badass picture of the fire for my trip report when I totally had the opportunity. Doh!