Tag Archive for 'West Seattle'

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Walking Schmitz Preserve Park

Schmitz Preserve Park is the only Seattle park with old-growth forest and is a beautifully forested area that makes you feel like you’re in the foothills of the Cascades rather than in West Seattle.


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Schmitz Preserve Park walking route

Schmitz Preserve Park walking route in green

Start at SW Admiral Way and SW Stevens St, which you can get to by the 56 bus. By car, the directions would have you take the West Seattle bridge to the Admiral Way exit and take Admiral Way across West Seattle and turn left on SW Stevens St, where you can often find street parking near the park entrance.

Enter the park entrance near the SW Admiral Way and SW Stevens St intersection. The road into the park used to be open to vehicle traffic until a landslide in 2002. Though this is a fairly small park, there are several different unsigned trails. If you take a wrong turn, it won’t be too difficult to find your way back. The trail can be somewhat uneven and muddy, but is not too difficult overall.

Walk along the main park road and, at the fork in the trail, veer right downhill. At the next fork, take a left before crossing the creek.

Continue walking and you’ll cross over the stream a couple times. Keep right at the next intersection (turning left will take you back to the entrance) and continue deeper into the park. There are some sections of the park soil that remain damp, though fortunately there are a few boardwalks that keep your feet dry over the worst parts.

You’ll approach an intersection of several different trails. The left-most path will take you into the surrounding neighborhood. Take the trail second from left even farther into the park. The other trails on the right will take you back along the other side of the creek.

This path continues along the stream. Turn right at the next fork to loop back, otherwise you will enter the surrounding neighborhood.

This section of the trail is fairly straight and a little elevated from the creek. Stay straight along this main trail and after passing a side trail to the left, you’ll reach another intersection. Turn right here to cross the creek and the next intersection may seem familiar. Turn left and then left again to return to the main entrance.

Highlights: old growth forest, quiet, not very busy, multiple trails, cool and damp, stream

Lowlights: can be muddy, unsigned trails

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SDOT sidewalk repairs

Here’s an interesting look into an SDOT project to repair a West Seattle sidewalk.

Property owners are required to maintain sidewalks around their property, except where damage is caused by the city or a tree. In this case, the city and property owner worked together:

By sharing the cost of the sidewalk, rather than just making repairs around the tree base which the BTG funding would cover, the property owners and SDOT were able to expand the scope of the work to repair the entire sidewalk length of the block from curb to the building, preserving street trees and giving them a better growing space for years to come.

This blog entry from SDOT has some more interesting information on sidewalks, including how sidewalk repairs are prioritized and the huge need:

SDOT Pavement Management estimates there are well over 7 million square feet of sidewalk that need fixing throughout Seattle.

To report any concerns you have or suggest a repair, use the Street Maintenance Online Request Form.

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Pedestrian hit in West Seattle

Update below – there are two reports of a pedestrian hit last night at the same intersection but with different details. I’d be surprised if there were two accidents at this same intersection last night, but then again, it’d be surprising if so many details were wrong in one version of the story.

A driver hit a pedestrian in West Seattle last night.

A 24-year-old woman was hit by a vehicle Wednesday after 10 p.m. at California Ave. SW and Fauntleroy Way SW and police are searching for the driver.

The woman was taken to Harborview Medical Center with broken bones. Her condition was not immediately available.

Here’s the location on the map:

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It looks like there are crosswalks on all sides of the intersection, so we can only speculate as to what happened. Hopefully the victim makes a full recovery. This is a good reminder to be careful when walking (and when driving), even when you have the right of way.

Update: The PI’s Seattle 911 blog reports that a pedestrian was hit by a bus at the same intersection:

A 29-year-old woman was rushed to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries on Wednesday night after being hit by a Metro bus.

Police responded at 9:50 p.m. to the accident at California Avenue Southwest and Fauntleroy Way Southwest.

It’s likely the same incident, but some of the details are different. I’m not sure which one is more correct, but if I had to guess, I’d guess the PI.

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