Dog Run

Charley has now been with us for about four months. She’ll turn two in September, and she’s full of crazy energy. I decided that I had better step up the exercise with the dogs or she would tear the house apart. After the sore knee was finally better I began taking longer walks, and then runs with the dogs in the morning. Easy half or one milers at first, then two miles, and then more. I found a new route that is really nice.

From our house we jog south on 32nd down to Yesler Way (about a mile). A cable car used to run from Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, all the way along Yelser Way east until it ended at Lake Washington. The cable car has been long gone (it ran from 1888 until 1940), but there is a wooded trail where the drivable part of Yesler Way ends down to Leschi and the lake. It’s a short, but steep winding trail of bare dirt and stone steps that ends at a small park right across from the Leschi Marina. We jog down the Cable Car trail and then back north long the lakeshore, past Leschi, the marina, docks, beaches, and parks. It’s a great route.

At Madrona Park Beach there are a few different ways you can climb back up the hill to our neighborhood. We usually hike up the staircases that put us out at Union a few blocks from our house (750 total steps), occasionally we will climb back up another wooded route a few blocks south. If we walk back home this way the route is just at 3 miles. Some days after we finish the climb, we jog down to the overlook near 35th and James and back, for one final mile. Then a cool down walk past Sennet’s playground, Verité Coffee – the local coffeeshop, the Madrona Alehouse and Hi Spot Café, before finally arriving back home. The dogs, and I, have really been enjoying it. Most days I’ll let them romp into the lake for a bit as we jog past the beach. Good for all our health – mind, body & soul.

We got 31.7 total miles (jogging, hiking, walking) this last week – Sunday to Saturday – according to the GPS on my phone. That usually included the 4 miles in the morning and a half mile or more in the evenings, just around our blocks.