A while back I started writing trip reports for some of my hikes over at the very helpful Washington Trails Association (WTA) site. It seemed like a small but potentially effective way to share information about transit-accessible trails and to plant the seed in more folks’ minds that transit to trails is a thing you can do or something that just might be more possible than previously assumed. So when Anna Roth over at WTA reached out after noticing my trip reports, I was more than happy to chat. Here’s the Q&A.
Expanding transit is one of the very most effective things we can do to promote quality of life overall for rural and urban Washington and more equitable access to the outdoors.
– me
I was equally pleased that at least one of those trip reports, for North Kitsap Heritage Park, prompted a fellow hiker to try out a transit trek — scroll to the bottom of the trip report to read the comments.
Not shown: a lot of stuff that belongs filed in these folders.
I’ve found some jewels that make identifying transit-accessible hiking and other outdoor exploration around the U.S. much easier and compiled them in this resource page. It lives in the main site navigation but I thought I should highlight here.
For now, it’s super simple, in an alpha list by state. Canada welcome, too — I know B.C. transit-accessible outdoor opportunity abounds just north of me here in Seattle.
Every time I update the resource page to add a new find, I also update a corresponding spreadsheet in hopes of someday creating a simple search tool on here.
In the meantime, if you know of a comprehensive resource for your region, be it city, state, county, or province, let me know using the contact form and I’ll add it. Generally I am looking to add resources that provide many options versus a single long trail, although I’ve made some initial exceptions to that in this early stage. For example, I included Boston’s Walking City Trail because I don’t know of other resources in that area (a major city in New England) and it’s a pretty long trail, and included the SF Crosstown Trail because it connects to a ton (a full ton! I weighed them) of other regional trails.
If you’re aware of a central source of transit hiking/trekking/transit to trails info that the resource page aspires to be, I’d love to know about it. Get in touch.
I mentioned I’ve been making a point of writing trip reports over at the Washington Trails Association (WTA) site. I had to run some errands in Port Townsend the other day and so had some time to check out a short beach hike. Here’s the trip report.
Pro-tip for transit trekkers planning a day trip from Seattle or Edmonds: You don’t have a ton of time if you want to make use of the Kitsap Fast Ferry–Kingston Express or Edmonds-Kingston ferry combo. Two things you can do:
1 — Help solve that schedule dilemma by letting Jefferson Transit know you’d love increased frequency – earlier or later runs – to make visits easier. Take their survey here. I checked all the boxes for more service all the time. Unrealistic at current funding levels but there’s no reason to not ask. Be sure to use the comment box at the end of the survey to say thanks, and tell them if you think you would be more likely to use the Kingston Express if there were more frequent connections and if there was at least one earlier and one later Kingston Express run so a day trip would not require being quite so conscious of time.
2 — For Seattle-based folks, you can enjoy a longer day trip by taking the Jefferson Transit route 7 to North Viking Transit Center and catching the Kitsap Transit 390 to the Bainbridge Ferry. Also for your consideration: is there really ever an off-season for visiting Port Townsend? I personally don’t think so, but there are some fairly reasonable lodging options in town during the official off-season to allow an overnight (or longer) visit. NB that many are in old hotels that have not been retrofit for any kind of mobility access in mind. Some of the contemporary motels near the ferry terminal should be more accessible and also have decent rates.
Another pro-tip: when the tides are low enough (and you WILL want to consult tide tables), you can extend a hike from Point Wilson all the way to McCurdy Point, about 4 or 4.5 miles west, with an option to exit the beach at North Beach County Park, where you will still have access to Fort Worden State Park trails.
Note! This post was edited a bunch of times shortly after I initially published it to clean up all kinds of little errors, clarify a few points, and add that last bit about McCurdy Point.
Juvenile and adult shoe prints in wet beach sand belie the recent presence of humans near Point Wilson
Transit Trekker 