City Hall Protest hikes

At 8 a.m., the bodies were already piling up inside the entrance to Seattle City Hall. The homeless and their supporters lay splayed along the floor in a silent protest of police sweeps to close homeless communities. I attended to shoot photos for Homeless in Seattle, and this led me to hike to city hall twice yesterday and again this morning. Then, in the afternoon, I hiked to the library in a futile attempt to obtain support from a staff representative to encourage distribution of information about the Homeless Web site.

At 8 a.m. cars were still streaming into the downtown, but the volume had already lightened up.

A topo map indicates that the condo is at 325 feet elevation above sea level. Kaiser Permanente is about 375 feet. And the Seattle Public Library, slightly higher than city hall, is situated at about 175 feet. The distance from the condo to City Hall is 1.1 miles and to the library, 0.9 miles; to Kaiser Permanente, 0.5 miles.

So, using simple math, here's my performance for the past two days:
1.1 (2)(2)(2) [city hall] +0.9 (2) [Library] + 0.5 (2) [Kaiser Permanente]
= 9.4 miles = 15.04 km.
(325' - 175') (8) = 1200'

Official statistics for year to date:
Distance: 361.62 km
Elevation Gain: 30,375 feet

Fall colors on Tiger 3

Descent from Tiger 3's 2.2 mile mark to the Talus Rock Trail

Yesterday I followed a different path on Tiger Mountain, taking in the fall colors and, toward the end of the hike, discovering a cave. The cave, which is situated at the termination of the portion of the hike depicted here, seems to have been created by a rock fall. For safety reasons, I skirted the cave, noting one approach that, if taken carelessly, might have resulted in a fall. This is worth a return visit for further study.

I found the cave by happenstance. After hiking to the 2.2 mile mark on Tiger 3 I began my descent, detouring onto the Talus Rock Trail near the end and following the Nook Trail fork to the Bus Trail. (See "nature photography hike".) This path involved another ascent, which gives me confidence that using the topo map above and using the additional ascent as a cushion, I'm confident I ascended at least 1,460 feet today. Adding to the confidence is the fact that, due to paving of Tiger's upper parking lot, I had to start from a lower location, which was well below the 500 foot market near the upper parking lot. From the car to trailhead showed at about 0.8 miles, using Map My Hike; From there MMH showed 2.08 miles to the 2.2 mile mark, so I'm going on faith that it was reasonably accurate for the other legs of the hike, and I'm claiming easily 6 miles today.

The sign directing hikers to the Talus Rock Trail. A fork from this trail leads to the "Bus Trail."

Here were some of the scenes that greeting me today:

Fall colors greeted me as I left the roadway to ascend the hill leading to the upper parking lot.

At this point I had begun the descent to the Bus Trail.

Statistics for the day:

Distance:  6 miles, 9.6 km
Elevation gain:  1,460 feet

Official statistics for year to date:
Distance: 396.18 km
Elevation Gain: 30,635 feet