Walked about 2 Miles - West Hills of Brooklyn

 

 

After PTC, I took a couple of days off from walking. Let's face it, my body needed a rest. I was sore and achy and I tried to catch up on sleep. I walked today, because I knew I needed to stretch my legs and get back to it. I walked up in the West Hills of Brooklyn, because I wanted to be able to come home quickly if need be. Runkeeper wasn't tracking properly today, so I don't have the exact mileage that I walked, but it was probably right about 2 miles. That was all I could manage. I was happy for some clouds to make it not so hot, I'm really ready for fall.

 

 

 

 

The only thing sad about summer ending is flower season coming to an end. I tried to take as many flower pictures that I could, because soon they will be gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've walked by the Scared Heart Church many, many times; it's a beautiful building. I finally worked up the nerve to climb the steps of the church and get a closer look at this corner stone. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this pumpkin patch. There must have been at least 20 growing here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This artist is drying canvases on the lawn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psst: it's not a real heron. The duct tape around the neck kind of gives it away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm really curious about what kind of reptile was found. I'm also glad I'm not the one who found him.

 

 

 

Portland to Coast - Leg 2 - 4.2 Miles

Greg arrived at our exchange right around midnight. Our van was on the move again and we were ready to walk our second, and last, leg.

Not many pictures to take in the wee hours of the night. I walked my 2nd leg at 4am. There is really nothing that can describe the feeling of walking in the dark, cold night with only a head lamp and the occasion car to light the way. Every once in awhile a runner would fly by. Most would say something encouraging and many told me to 'be safe'. Occasionally, I would take off my head lamp and gaze up at the stars to just be in the moment and enjoy every second of this extraordinary experience. 

My mom-in-law had a great second leg as well. The start of her exchange was rocky due to too many vans in a very small area, but she made it with seconds to spare. After my leg, I had the luxury of crashing for about 20 minutes in the back of the van. That was just the second wind I needed. I did get a picture of her from the back of the van. She's blurry, because she is so fast. 

The view from the back of the van. Our team was really great about switching up seats and giving folks a chance to stretch their legs after walking. The second leg took its toll on all of us. After almost 24 hours of no sleep and hours in the van, our bodies were dragging a bit more than usual. Our team still managed to come in before our projected time.

We met up with van 2 at their sleeping area. I'm so glad our sleeping area had grass close to the van. They were ankle deep in dirt and the grassed sleeping area was well away from vans. The lines to the port-a-potties here were an hour long.

The house in the background served up hot breakfast complete with bacon; the line was insane. My mom-in-law is handing off to the first member of van 2 in the foreground.

The two vans had a few minutes to hang out and chat. We left van 2 to head to the beach.

We parked a few miles from the beach and took a free trolley to the turn-around. We were blessed with amazing trolley luck returning to the van. With the enormous crowd, we could have been stuck for ages.

We landed at Seaside around 9am. We quickly headed to the quintessential Pig'n Pancake for breakfast. Most other teams had the same idea. I've never seen a restaurant flip tables as quickly as Pig'n Pancake. I was so very impressed. Using the bathroom was heavenly; we all couldn't wait to wash our hands.

We had many hours to kill while waiting for van 2 to finish their legs. Our team split up and came back together several times. I loved all the people watching. 

We watched this finish line for hours. It was great to cheers teams in, especially the ones we had gotten to know over the 2 days.

The turnaround had these stats about the whole production. It's just amazing to realize how big of a event this truly is. The organization was just so good. Moving that many people that many miles that efficiently is something they should be proud of. 

As the day progressed, the beach just got more and more packed. It was just incredible.

Greg had the honor of walking the very last leg of the entire race. Our team time stopped when he crossed a specific point. We waited another 30 minutes or so for the rest of van 2 to arrive; the traffic in Seaside had turned into a zoo. Once they arrived, we queued up and all 12 of us crossed the finish line together. We were done! We got our picture taken, ate some food, and then headed for home. We were exhausted.

I never in my life dreamed that I would have the opportunity to do something like this. I'm so grateful to participate in the world's longest relay race. I loved every minute of it. 

Portland to Coast - Leg 1 - 4.1 Miles

Last weekend was Portland to Coast. I was so grateful that my mom-in-law and I were able to get spots on Greg's work team. It was such a relief to know that on this walking team, running was not allowed. It was so great knowing that I couldn't run even if I wanted to and with my bum ankle, I really didn't want to. I was also super grateful that I had been assigned 2 easy 4 mile legs. This is a distance I'm comfortable with and knew I could easily complete.

PTC really started for me the night before the event. We arrived at Greg's work in the afternoon to decorate the vans for our Geeks in Sneaks theme. Once the van was done, we had a great pasta dinner, a celebratory beer, and then off to bed.

Our team started the race at 8:15am on Friday. Above is most of van 1; I'm in the middle. We learned that some walking teams started as early as 3am. It was nice to have only about 10 teams starting at the same time we did. We were able to bond with these folks, because we kept running into them at exchanges. Soleful Strutters was one team that we started with and we became quite friendly. Here is a great article about their male team who came in 10th. Such an amazing story.

The majority of the 36 hours of the race were spent in this van. Each leg is 4-8 miles long. We'd jump in the van after one person started walking, find a spot a couple of miles down the road, and check in with our walker when they passed us. We repeated this pattern for the duration of the race. 

It was great fun to jump out of the van and cheer our team (and all the other teams) on. The camaraderie was so great.

Here I am finishing my first leg. Yeah, I really don't know what is up with my hands. I started on Hwy 30 about a mile before Scappose. It was kind of a boring stretch of road with no shade and sun was beating down on me. After I entered Scappose, a man was on the sidewalk misting walkers and runners with water. It was heavenly. I could see views of Mt. Saint Helen and Mt. Hood and I even saw some goats! So really, it was not bad at all. I didn't take any pictures, because my team was counting on me. I walked faster on this leg than I've ever walked before. Granted, members of my team were walking more than 3 minutes a mile faster than me, but still I was happy with my PR.

I also had my first road kill! Road kill is when you pass another walker. Some on my team had 8 kills in a single leg. I took me over a mile to make my road kill, but just having someone in front of me kept me motivated and walking fast. Vans post the number of road kills and I saw one van that had 117 kills. A zombie is a walker you passed, who then passes you right back. No zombies was a common chant I heard throughout the weekend.

My mom-in-law did great on her first leg. Here she is in yellow after just getting a road kill. She and the girl in red walked together and talked the entire time. And she still managed to beat my pace. 

After our van was done with our first leg, we headed to the sleeping area where van 2 would meet up with us. We had about 6 hours before we would walk again. The first thing on the agenda was food. There was one food stand that was a fundraiser for the Vernonia high school. They had the most incredible assembling line flowing and it took me about 2 minutes to get my hamburger. I really liked that Portland to Coast supported local fundraisers for food, showers, places to sleep, etc. It's the perfect way to support these small communities and make it worth while to have 20,000 people trample through their area. 

They should have put "sleeping" in quotes. It was really nice to lay in sleeping bags in this field (our van has its doors open), but there was no sleeping to be had. We got up at 11pm to pick up and get ready for van 2 to arrive.

I have never used so many port-a-potties in all my life. Towards midnight, it started spreading through the crowd that the port-a-potties were out of toilet paper.  Yikes! Luckily, some were still stocked and there were volunteers, in the dark, directing folks to the ones with toilet paper. It was kind of amazing. Even more amazing is that at the next exchange the Honey Bucket trucks came through to refresh the port-a-potties. The organization was incredible.

Just after midnight, Greg finished his 1st leg and handed the relay bracelet off to the first person in our van. We were off again! 

Walked 4.50 Miles to Burnside

 

 

Today was overcast and slightly misting when I headed out. It was such a huge relief! The air was finally cool and crisp. The sun barely came out at all. It was just the best weather for walking. I walked down 12th to Burnside and looped back on 14th. It was a very urban walk and I've never gone as far North as Burnside before. It was a great walk.

 

 

 

 

I finally got a better look at where the overpass used to be. I can't even imagine what this area will look like 3 years from now.

 

 

 

 

I took this route, because I figured I should document the other face I've seen. This little guy is maybe a half an inch tall. He's at the corner of Powell and Milwaukie, right next to the Aladdin theater. I wonder how long he's been there. 

 

 

 

 

After I crossed Powell, I saw another face. It looked almost identical to his twin across the street. I searched the rest of the poles at that intersection, but didn't find any more faces. I really would love to find more of these.

 

 

 

 

Art Fills the Void

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Portland Zine Sympossium was last weekend. The event looked really cool and I heard great things about it. I'd love to go next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Jolly Roger is part of Portland lore.

 

 

 

 

Eek! 1903! I couldn't believe my luck. I'm still looking for 1905 and 1906; I never thought I'd see a 1903. So cool! I wonder if I can find a 1902. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the first time that I've looked closely at this Mural on Morrison and 12th. I've driven by it a million times. And in true inner East side fashion, I had to walk around most of a roasted chicken on the ground to get this picture.

 

 

 

 

I love that they included tall bikes in the mural. I see these everywhere and they kind of scare me. How do people not fall off? What do they do if they have to stop all of a sudden. I'm in awe of folks who have mastered tall bikes.

 

 

 

 

I love these old beautiful street lamps.

 

 

 

 

I chuckled when I saw this eagle in the meridian in the middle of a street. Very different than the eagle I saw on my last walk.

 

 

 

 

#88 Nicolas Batum - I had to look this up. This image took up the entire garage door. 

 

 

 

 

The LOS Poetry Pole - Won't it be great. Won't it be grand. Oh where will it stand? A post with a poem. Words with a way of saying hello. Won't you please stay, Rest for a moment. Read words that I pray, Bring a smile to your lips, And hope to your day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I walked around Washington high school.  This school has been boarded up for ages. It's great that PICA has been using it lately for their events. It's a beautiful building and I would love to see it being used more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I walked through Ladd's Addition on my way home. The community comes together to maintain the four rose gardens in Ladd's Addition. This Saturday, they will dead head roses to keep them healthy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's getting seriously crazy with the presidential election this year. I wish everyone, no matter what they believe, will vote. It's truly the only way to make change happen.

 

 

 

 

Two blocks from home, I heard this guy barking at me. I turned around and he was just staring at me. I walked closer and he started heading down the tree. For a few seconds we were eye to eye with only a few inches in between. I quickly took a few steps back, because I sort of fear a squirrel will jump on my head some day. I think that would hurt. This is a dark picture, but hopefully you can how earnestly he was trying to get closer to me.

 

 

 

Walked 4.31 Miles - to the Rhododendron Garden

 

 

I got up early, on my day off, to walk since it was going to be another scorcher. At 6:30am, it wasn't exactly cool, but it was still so much better than the rest of the day. The morning light was so beautiful that it's worth getting up early. I asked Greg where I should walk and he suggested the rhododendron garden. I thought that would be too far (I was meeting a friend for breakfast), but I made it there and back in plenty of time.

 

 

 

 

I'd only walked a few blocks when I ran, almost literally, into 4 chickens! They were on the sidewalk and it was sort of surreal. I was still kind of sleepy and took a few seconds to just stare at them.

 

 

 

 

Then they were in the street and that was kind of scary.  So I knocked on the door of there owner (the only house with a chicken coop), but nobody answered. A lady walking to work happened by and I asked if she knew about these chickens. She said that they roam free all the time and the owner just lets them do their thing. She also said that they are in the street a lot. They had made their way back to the back yard by this time. I figured there wasn't anything else for me to do, so I headed on.

 

 

 

 

It's been a long time since I've walked over the Brooklyn Yard on Holgate. 

 

 

 

 

The rising sun was intense, but it was also so beautiful. 

 

 

 

 

I headed north off of Holgate, because I wasn't sold on the rhodendren garden route quite yet. I'm so glad I did! This very large eagle was chilling on this cell tower. I love birds of prey and always have my eyes out for them around town. This is the largest bird that I've seen in the city. I walked all the way around the block, because I was so amazed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could smell these figs from about a block away. 

 

 

 

 

I've been trying to get a decent picture of figs for the season. I've seen them every where, but my pictures haven't turned out well. After I took this, I realized that last year's fig picture was from this same tree. 

 

 

 

 

This mural is on the same building that used to house my best friend's coffee shop. It's the first time I've walked by it on my walks.

 

 

 

 

Below that very large mural is this fella. He can see how small he is by the cigarette butt to the left of him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The morning sun gave me this beautiful shadow. 

 

 

 

 

 

Walked 4.23 Miles - West Hills of Brooklyn

 

 

Hot! Such a crazy hot day. The temp read 90 degrees when I got back from my walk. It was so hot that I almost talked myself out of walking. I came super close, but I put on my shoes and headed out. It's only going to get hotter this week and I wanted to get at least one walk in. I won't be walking when it's 97 degrees as they are predicting it will be the next few days. At first the heat was so awful and my legs weren't happy, so I told myself that I just had to walk a mile. That's it. Just enough to put in a good effort. Once I hit 1 mile, I decided to go for 2 miles. My legs were feeling better and there was a nice breeze that was so wonderful. Then I decided to go for 3 miles. I walked a stretch of 16th street that is heavily lined with trees. I walked this stretch of 6 blocks 4 times. Not adventurous at all, but it was walking. When I finally hit 4 miles, I headed for home.

 

Well, hello willpower! Nice to have you finally show up! Willpower is something I've never had a lot of, but I'm starting to discover it more and more as I walk. Putting one foot in front of the other until I had hit my original goal was just a great feeling. I'm hoping to cultivate my willpower more and more until it becomes second nature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried out Greg's water belt on this walk and it was great! I had no issues and it was so nice to have water on such a hot day. The belt also held my iphone. When my hands started to get sweaty, I could tuck the phone away for a few minutes. It was still readily accessible if I wanted to take a picture. I didn't have the problem of voice control popping on. I think I've found a winning solution!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This guy made me wish for cooler weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't see Adventure Table No. 1.  I wonder what this table is for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like I said, 16th is lined with huge beautiful trees. When I walked here last week, the end of this limb was blocking the street. I had to walk around and I didn't really see what had happened. Now the stump is has been cut off and set aside. This is just one branch that fell. I'm so glad it didn't hit their house.

 

 

 

 

I think this is supposed to be a gold medal. The Olympics ended yesterday. I was ready for it to end, because I've been very immersed in the games and it was great fun, but also very tiring since the network coverage is on so late.

 

 

 

 

 

Walked 3.91 Miles - Oaks Bottom

 

 

It was another hot day, so I headed to Oaks Bottom. I decided once I got to the end of Oaks Bottom, I would continue on the Spring Water Corridor for a bit. We just received our leg assignments for Portland to Coast which is in a few short weeks! I was thrilled to see that both of my legs are categorized as 'easy' and each leg is 4 miles long. I'm trying to make all of my walks at least 4 miles to prepare. I was going to walk around the block a few times to push this over the 4 mile mark, but my iphone started getting wonky on me the last mile of my walk. Voice control kept turning itself on which interrupted my audio book. I tried music as well and had the same issues. It was so annoying that I just decided to end the walk before I hit 4 miles.

 

 

Greg did some research and it turns out that many runners have this problems, because their hands get too sweaty and it messes up the iphone home button and turns on voice control. There is no way to disable the voice control, so I need to figure out how to be less sweaty - at least when it comes to my left hand which holds my phone.

 

 

 

 

I walked along Milwaukie more than I normally do. Usually, I keep to the quieter neighborhood streets until I have to get on Milwaukie to cross Holgate and pass over McLoughlin. It was nice to see some new sites. I've always thought this Buddhist Priory is so pretty. There were many photo ops here, so I'll definitely walking past here again.

 

 

 

 

I also spied this large stencil on Milwaukie which I've never noticed driving by.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't carry water on me when I walk. I need to keep my hands free for taking pictures. The water fountain (use the smaller one) at the top of Oaks Bottom was another reason I chose to head this way on a hot day. Filling up here at the start and on the return trip was heaven. It's made me re-think carrying water. Greg has a water belt and I think I'm going to give that a try since it will allow me to keep my hands free.

 

 

 

 

This is why Oaks Bottom is so desirable on a hot day. To know that respite from the heat is just a mile away got me out walking on a hot day.

 

 

 

 

I have a new favorite street artist! This is the second time I've stumbled across these faces. This one is about 2 inches high. I love that it's such a different medium for street art. It could be as simple as a mold and fimo clay, but what a great idea. The other face I saw was much smaller and this. I will definitely be on the look out for more. So very cool.

 

 

 

 

About 1/4 mile on the Spring Water Corridor headed towards down town, I saw some folks stopped on the path. I figured they had spotted something cool, so I picked up the pace to see if I could get in on the action. I was in luck! You can see a tan deer directly across from the two girls.

 

 

 

 

I was also able to stand directly across from this mama deer. Her two young offspring were also eating close by. This is the third time this season that I've seen these 3 deer. It's so great to see and I'm so happy that they were across the fence and train tracks. I worry about them becoming too tame and getting hurt. 

 

 

 

 

The edges of the trail were covered in Cottonwood seeds. It looked like snow and was about 3 inches tall. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have some very cool neighbors. This is only two blocks from my house. I love seeing all the different signs they post often.

 

 

 

Walked 4.07 Miles - Ladd's Addition

 

 

I took about a week off of walking.  A heat wave hit Portland and the thought of walking in such hot weather (it was 102 on Saturday) was just not appealing. You know what a wimp I am in the heat. It did spark me to start up Pilates again. I'm so happy about that. That along with riding my bike more has really helped me diversify my exercise. I'm hoping to build more strength and stamina to keep my leg pain at bay.

 

For today's walk, the heat had really come down. It was still hot, but not unbearable. I was still a sweaty mess by the end, of course. I headed to Ladd's Addition to find more shade. I walked through Ladd's and paralleled Hawthorne up to 30th.

 

 

 

 

Heading to Ladd's Addition also let me spy on the construction. This is the first time I've walked on the new transitional sidewalk very close to where the overpass used to be. It's amazing how much this landscape has already changed. I'm finding it hard to remember it when there were buildings here.

 

 

 

 

A temporary light pole held in this cement block by shims.

 

 

 

 

I want to sneak up here when the worker crews are gone to get a closer look at where the overpass used to be. They were watching it much to closely today to venture over the barriers.

 

 

 

 

This building sits pretty much exactly where the 12th street max stop will be. I've always liked this building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a closer look at the Abernathy school - built in 1925. This was the first time I've walked by and there were no kids playing. This is a pretty school and it's fun to see all the small things they have done to make it more personal.

 

 

 

 

I've been seeing these mushrooms on so many trees.  They are kind of weird looking. It almost looks like they are plastered on the side of the tree.

 

 

 

 

 

Magical sidewalk art

 

 

 

 

Ladd's Addition has a lot of these trap door type things. I'm sure they are access to utilities. They have the same rings used for the old horse posts and must be close to 100 years old.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This plant was enormous! It made me feel like I was in the tropics. It helped that I was quite sweaty at this time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bear! I find it really hard to believe that a bear was spotted here. Granted, it's possible, but highly unlikely. I found it curious that all of the tabs were taken.

 

 

 

 

Sid and Nancy kept me company for the very long wait at the pedestrian sidewalk.