Seattle Stairway 100K - Stage 9

Another long overdue post, though this one is slightly less overdue...

In early December 2016 we took advantage of another fine Sunday to walk another stretch of the Seattle Stairway 100K. We started where we had left off -- at the corner of the UW campus -- and walked along Montlake until we arrived at our first set of stairs, the Wahkiakum Lane Stairway: 174 stairs from the Montlake parking lot to Stevens Way.

first stairs of the day!

The route climbs steadily up the hill to the HUB. I know when I was a student I used to park in this lot sometimes; but I seriously don't remember these stairs other than the first set from the lot.

note that Wil is wearing his Kili boots -- we're starting to break them in now!

Somehow we missed the stairs down through the Padelford Garage, so we came down the hill, crossed the pedestrian overpass, and went down the stairs there ... which then stranded us on the wrong side of Montlake ... which led us to a tiny detour so we could cross at the traffic lights. I mean, there's a reason for the overpasses, amIright?

We then meandered through the lower Ravenna neighborhood, where I didn't capture much, but did find these "ivy camouflage" electricity boxes amusing...

nothing to see here, nothing to see

 We crossed pretty 17th Avenue, the frat bros still snoozing in their houses on an early Sunday. Niiiiice and quiet.

Then we made our way across I-5 on the 45th overpass. Weirdly quiet here.

Our route was pretty uneventful ... just walking through quiet neighborhoods with not a stairway in sight. One brief highlight: this cute little planting strip garden in Wallingford:

This gave Wil some serious Garfield envy:

But, really, we were just making our way to Fremont. Somehow I didn't even take a picture of the Troll. Yes, I know it's been a while since we walked this stretch, but I think it was one of the least memorable ones. Perhaps because it was all pretty familiar to me -- the UW campus, the University District and Wallingford and Fremont ... and because there weren't all that many stairs to climb.  But now that we had reached Fremont it felt like the end was finally within reach ... just a long and a standard stretch to go!