My Neighborhood, North Creek Trail, Sammamish River Trail, Blyth Park & Tolt Pipeline Trail — Wednesday, Apr. 29, 2020

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!