My latest travels

You probably read that headline and said, “WHAT TRAVELS? I want to travel!” It is so long since I posted that I thought I would show you my daily travels. I have been sharing them with my best friend who shares his bike ride shots with me. And another friend (funny they are both Canadians) takes a walk every morning and posts those photos to Instagram and Facebook where I get to comment on them. She has no idea that I am doing that I am walking every day as well because I don’t share my pics on either platform.

But today I decided I should share my travels. Six days a week (missed a few due to weather) I have taken a walk around Redmond. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I walk 6.5 miles and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 3.5 miles. That comes out to about 30 miles a week. I figure that by the end of this week, we will have been in lockdown since we got back from New Orleans in March I will have been walking for 20 weeks…which means I have walked almost 600 miles. Too bad I kept coming home. If I had just walked and kept on walking, I could have been in Redding, California, Butte, Montana, fifty miles beyond Prince George, BC or about one fifth of the way to Hawaii…but I would have to swim.

As I said, I have been sending my buddy Bob pics when I walk. One of the things Bob tells me when I send him pics is how beautiful Redmond is and believe me, I know. We are so lucky to live in a place where everything is walkable. And where nature is less than three blocks away. So here’s where I went today. Today is one of my short days. Just a less-than-an-hour 3.5 miles but I think it is a rather beautiful walk. Can’t wait to see what you think. Here’s the route. The numbers on it correspond to some of the places I will describe below. Map copy

 

 

As you can see, I start and end where the red and green dots are together. That’s our house. If you are wondering where I got the map, it comes from a wonderful app called Map My Run (but you can specify a walk—more about this app later). It keeps track of my walk via GPS and then lets me save it, upload it and keep track of all my walks online. It’s a free app so if you walk or run try it out. Here’s my first set of photos up through number 2 on the map.

So if you read the captions on the photos, you know that I love living within walking distance of all of this. I can get to any of the places above in less than five minutes. In fact when I go to the supermarket across the street, it takes me longer to drive there than it does to walk. And excuse my caption rant about losing my health club to apartments. Since late 2014 more than three thousand new apartments have been built in the downtown Redmond core. Believe me, these apartments don’t rent for cheap. A one bedroom/1bath, 800 square foot apartment in the pictured building rents for a little over $2600 a month. It sits at the number 2 on the map.

This part of the walk cuts through out municipal campus (again, about three blocks from our house). The big grassy area above is used all year for all kinds of festivals and celebrations. This is all between 2 and 3 on the map.

The scenes pictured above are just before I get to the number three on the map. I get to see the river on all of my walks and it is beyond photogenic in almost every season. I used to walk on the paved side of the river but had to stop once the pandemic hit because it is just too crowded. I should add that the paved path is part of the Burke-Gilman trail that you can take all the way from Sammamish (about five miles up river) to the Puget Sound on the other side of Seattle. That’s a total of more than 20 miles.

The scenes (above) are all between numbers 3 and 4 on the map. It’s all forested but close to business on the left. Check the captions for more info.

As you can see from the pics, this part of the walk is open and I can see the river for most of this section. It is also out in the sun with very little shade which means on a hot day, I want to get through it pretty quickly. This is the section between numbers 4 and 5 on the map.

This is the section between numbers 5 and 7. I took the bunny pic at #6. The church lot is great because it is seldom used. Also, it is not well know because everyone sticks to the river trail. It’s the perfect Covid walking trail. I should mention that I do NOT wear a mask when walking. I rely on social distancing and as you can see, I hardly ever pass anyone. I do carry a mask in my pocket and if I have someone coming towards me that I cannot avoid, I put it on and ask that they mask up as well. There are very few places on this walk that I can’t avoid others by at least eight feet.

All of the above show up between numbers 7 and 8 on the map. A really nice trail on the Burlington-Northern railway line called the Redmond Connector. Again, since most cyclists, runners and walkers would rather take the River trail, this one is usually empty. It suits me just fine. It is also part of one of my longer walks as well.

This section is between 8 and 9 on the map. At number 9, I am on the bridge looking down at the Sammamish River. Almost home at this point.

And finally, 9 to 10 and back home. It was a really nice walk except for being a little warm at the end. But I shouldn’t complain. I am finishing this on Friday (took this walk on Thursday) and it is drizzling and somewhat cold. I wore a jacket for the first half and I have been back for two hours and so far—no sun in sight. Next week should be interesting as we are supposed to reach ninety degrees on Wednesday. I will have to walk at 4:00 am to beat the heat. I don’t know how my friend Susan does it with all the humidity she has in Ontario.

I want to give a quick endorsement to the app I mentioned above. It’s called Map My Run and it is from the clothing company Under Armor. It is available for iOS or Android. Not only does it use GPS to show me where I have been, it gives me mile-by-mile updates of distance, time and pace (spoken out loud) and it has an Apple Watch app as well so I can always just glance at my watch to see all the info. It has a place in the app for you to take a photo to add to your daily walk. It also lets you save your walks/runs to the Map My Run website where you can see your entire walking history along with the maps and photos. You get a weekly update of how you did for the week with a lot of other great data. If you walk a lot like I do, download and let me know if you like it. BTW: You can also use this on a bike since it measures by GPS and not by steps.

That’s about it for my “travels.” Thanks for following along. Next week we are having a new roof put on our condo so we may just head out on Monday and not come back until it is done on Thursday so look for some possible travel tales next week. But wherever we go, I will be walking.

If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress. — Barack Obama

9 thoughts on “My latest travels

  1. Susan MacGregor

    Evening Jim! I will admit that I do not walk the same distance that you do in the morning! Right now it is usually just over a kilometre week mornings after darling husband has left for work at 6 am (so we may be walking at the same time in the future?) Love your photos!

  2. Bob

    What a great piece. I now have seen a total of 4 people in all your walk photos. Amazing. I’ll have to check out that app . Do you think it will work when a burn around on my new bike ? Photos to follow ……

  3. Pingback: Random Stuff – J&K Travel

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