Seattle Urban Hike: Day 4 Halloween

I woke up at my friend Meredith’s studio apartment looking out at rain. She had come back late from a Halloween party and I quietly put my things together in the dark, trying to not wake her. There were some miles that needed to be made up today, and an early start—even if the weather was horrendous—were going to have to happen.

Virgo and I hoped to grab some coffee, grab some stairs, and loop back to Meredith’s to pick up our packs. We headed over the Magnolia Bridge wearing Halloween costumes, in gusts that reversed my Montbell umbrella, which has impressed me in the conditions it’s been able to hold up in (check out Sticks video of wind on Moose Mountain in Olympic National Park at 31:47)

Walking that bridge in 30 mph winds wearing a turkey costume as it is pouring rain reminded me of something you’d see in one of Squatch’s thru-hiking movies. I can only imagine what the passing by cars thought we were doing—especially since Virgo was filming the whole thing!

The wet morning hike continued through an industrial district. Unprotected from trees or even buildings and right up against the water, I was cold and wet and still dreaming of coffee. There was no way we’d find something in the industrial district, but then, from the top of Amgen Bridge, like a mirage, we discovered Fuji Bakery, a fancy and very affordable Japanese style bakery right next to a lumber yard.

The only Montblanc you can summit on the Seattle urban thru-hike.

My good friend Whitney Allgood LaRuffa came and joined us at the Fuji Bakery, where we continued a loop of the lower Queen Anne stairs. Right off the bat, Allgood learned that on an urban hike (much like on a backcountry hike), what looks like it will connect on a map often does not connect in real life. We ended up exploring a steep, wooded area, that a couple hundred feet up, would have led to where we needed to be. Instead, we backed off and decided to take another approach to connect our footsteps to Olympic Blvd, where we called it a night yesterday.

That morning took us to among my favorite stairs of the whole trip—the Castle stairs. Allgood—wearing a Knight Halloween costume-fit right in with the surroundings. I could only imagine how cool it would be to be a kid growing up in that neighborhood. Spending a childhood sword fighting and playing make-believe on those stairs would be better than any backyard treehouse.

We looped back to Fuji and then Allgood brought us to where we started the morning at Meredith’s, now that we had connected our footsteps from there. Lindsay “Marmot” joined us, wearing Space Cat tights and a neon shirt and bringing her usual enthusiasm.

We headed off to Magnolia and the Perkins Lane stairs. Marmot, who lives in Seattle and loves to run and explore the neighborhoods on foot, was especially excited for the way far out there Perkins Lane stairs. These were big, steep stairs that looked out on the Sound and traveled through the park.

We looked a little ridiculous going through the neighborhood in costumes with Virgo filming us. People on foot, bike, and car gave us thumbs up and honks. Halloween is one of the only times a troop of grown adults can walk through town dressed strangely and we were having the time of our lives. Marmot and Allgood stopped to play tetherball that was attached to a post on an island in the middle of a road. The city has so many random things to discover if you only slow down to find them.

Today, as urban hikers, we got to relive a little bit of what it was like to be a kid again.

After a long and satisfying lunch at a Mexican place, we continued north to Discovery Park. I had been told by multiple stair climbers that it was an easy to place to get lost. When we finally climbed the big stairway in the middle of the park, I felt a sense of success and pride that I had found it and managed to not get lost.

We past Seven Hills Running store, where I would be speaking the next day, and some of the best Halloween decorations anywhere in the City. I was starting to get hungry and we speculated as to whether three adults dressed in Halloween costumes could trick-or-treat our way to some candy.

I’m not going to lie. Someone left out that bowl of candy on the porch with the sign “Please take ONE.” I promise you, I may not have been the intended audience, but I only took one.

In the dark, we graveled through the Marine Center and Fishermen’s Terminal. We found one of many spots where people who live in their RVs and vans in Seattle park their vehicles. It was a neighborhood I would not have traveled to ever had it not been for this hike. It was a neighborhood I felt a little uneasy hiking through at night, and felt much better about walking through with Allgood and Virgo with me. But it was the type of experience I cherish because it gave me the full, rich sense of the city, not just the touristy areas or the pretty areas, but the whole of what Seattle is.

We returned to the Ballard Bridge and crossed—my one big mapping error of the trip. We had crossed it yesterday and I realized as we approached the pedestrian on-ramp, that I had mapped crossing the bridge twice, thus failing Urban Hiking Rule #2: No backtracking. If I were to do it again, we would have crossed at the Locks, but I was already committed and not about to go 4 miles out of my way to cross at the next closest bridge, so we continued on.

From this view of the bridge, we discovered Peddler’s Brewery, where we enjoyed a Halloween pint in costume. Our hike took us down Leary and we approached Halle’s Ales again from the backside, stopping for another pint. Virgo told us of a Halloween party, but I wanted to get some more stairs. Allgood and I found a few more stairs and walked to the party in the Phinney Ridge/Green Lake neighborhood, while Virgo ran the most direct route. It was hard staying up with all the walking, but we got to see many people in costume.

All in all, even as an adult, walking all day in costume made me feel like I had a full Halloween.