Seattle Urban Thru-hike: Intro
So I’m starting an urban-thru-hike of Seattle today.
Seattle is the #3 most staired city in the US after Pittsburgh and LA. I’m expecting to cover 650 stairways in the city boundaries alone. Unlike my urban hike of LA and stairway hike of SF, I’m anticipating that locals in Seattle will have a lot of knowledge about the stairways and use them frequently for outdoor training. It’ll be interesting for me to see the differences in the cities and their attitudes towards pedestrianism.
General Info:
This route was designed to include all stairs that connect a public road to a public road. This means some stairs that connect to buildings, pathways, a pier, or the shore are not included. This means some park stairways are not included, though I generally kept park stairways if they were big ones that didn’t make me go too far out of the way. Stairways 10 steps and below were not included. I based my data from the Seattle Stairs website as well as a 100k stairway trek put together by Michael Yadrick.
Hiking Plan:
I’m aiming to start hiking around 6:45 am (I know it will be dark still) and go until I finish/it gets dark. I will eat along the way at restaurants and also carry snacks. I will be on-call for work, so expect to be spending some time in coffee shops with my laptop–but that’s one of the joys of urban hiking—if it gets cold, wet, or I have to make a phone call, it will be easy to do.
How to Join A Hiker on an Urban Trip:
It’s very hard to intercept hikers on an urban route, so it’s easier for the person who wants to join to wait somewhere along the route and wait until the hiker runs into them. Usually, a friend who wants to join will call me and tell me they can join in 30 minutes. Then, I look at my map and guess where I’ll be in 30 minutes–somewhere ahead on the route.
Where I’m sleeping:
I’ll be staying overnight with friends for most of the nights. Urban hiking is a great way to reconnect with people I haven’t seen in years. I am so excited to see friends new and old who live in the city.
Talk/Presentation
I’ll be speaking at Seven Hills Running store at on Monday, September 2nd at 7 PM. The following day (Nov. 3rd), I’ll be walking with a group meeting at 7:30 am at Le Fournil French Bakery. I will also be speaking at the Mounatineers on the 3rd. Details TBA.
I haven’t had some quality time to wander Seattle for more than 10 years. Food, friends, and coffee….I’m expecting an awesome next week on the urban trail!
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