christopher575

I mentioned a while back that they had to close Howarth Park's beach because of concerns about the structural integrity of the bridge that goes over the railroad tracks to get there. A bummer for sure, as it's big, close, and a good place to get rocks. And I'd been slacking in the rock collection department for a while. I've been curious about how exactly they closed off the access, and figured I may as well take a day off from my Gulch-a-thon, so I walked down.

Not very far into the walk, and right next to the park, I found this. I guess they just couldn't wait until they got home.

So much perversion in this mostly-hetero neighborhood

Today's route took me through View Ridge, the neighborhood next to ours, which is one I had my eye on when we were looking at houses. I like our area a little better because they didn't take down as many trees here due to the steep hills, but the views over there are pretty spectacular. Here's what you see from the entrance to the park.

Overlooking that entrance is this lovely estate, which was recently listed for $1.3million. It sits on four lots, and I'm sure it's very expensive to maintain. Nobody bought the house and its Zillow Zestimate is $707,000, just over half what they were asking. Ouch. Mostly I'm jealous of the lions.

I say it all the time, but I'm just so glad we found our place. The neighborhood's lovely, but it's also close to stuff. On foot, this neighborhood's another half hour out from the main drag. Fine for exercise, but inconvenient for, say, trying to go out for some cocktails. I bet a lot of people drink at the Masonic lodge that's at the intersection where the neighborhood starts, come to think of it.

Down the road, through the woods, and up the stairs is where the bridge they closed is, and they did a pretty good job. There's even barbed wire up top.

There's still a lot more park up above the beach, and it includes some trails. I almost explored them, but it was going to be a long haul back home, so I decided to save those for another time. There are nice views everywhere you look, though it's hard to tell by the shots my phone's capable of.

Since the first time I've been to the park, there's been a sign at the top of a staircase saying that a bridge is out down below. They've added signs regarding the beach closure there, so now I'm curious. Is there a second path to the beach that they've closed off? I can't imagine a way across the tracks for it. Maybe, when that bridge isn't out, it's an alternate route to the main bridge? So many questions. Rest assured, I'll investigate sometime.

There's a play area there and I realized it'd been far too long since I used the timer option.

Today's route:

Today's awesome walk, 5.07 miles in 1:43, 10,895 steps, 631ft gain

(5.07 miles in 1:43, 10,895 steps, 631ft gain)

The stats on this route excite me because it's the largest ascent I've done in a while, and it's over five miles, which I've only done once recently. However, all the traffic was pretty annoying. I didn't realize how spoiled I've been by all the silence and serenity in the gulch lately until I had to listen to so many cars today. Something to consider when I'm thinking about leaving my own at home.

On the way home, I realized it's been ages since I posted a picture of our ridiculous trees.