#30DaysofScootering: Morning Scoot to Lake Sammamish State Park.

It's a beautiful spring day in Issaquah and I don't have to be at work until 10:00 AM so after breakfast I scooter off in the direction of Lake Sammamish State Park

This is the paved trail that runs north from Gilman Boulevard. It's nice and smooth all the way up to the city border with the town of Sammamish.

I turn onto the Pickering Trail. We do have our share wild critters in town. They were here first and stick around because we keep enough green places available for them to live.

Another one of the many bridges over the Issaquah Creek.

I turn right to follow the creek.

This viewing platform was built to look over the creek and then a couple of years later the creek bed moved. It's still a good spot to watch birds.

Issaquah has a lot of these signs at various spots along the trails.

This tree appears to be completely devoid of Keebler Elves. I think TV sometimes lies to us.

A squirrel chattered at me from the branches of this tree.

This is the Pickering Barn. In a couple of weeks, the Saturday Farmer's Market will return here.

The Issaquah Creek is lower now than it was a few weeks ago.

I scootered under this bridge. I encountered no trolls. I think children's books are not always 100 percent factual.

See the blue sky and bold shadows? March was not like this at all. Often, April in Issaquah is not like this, but I'm not complaining.

Another sign about the place.

A couple of deer are watching me.

They don't want me to get too close.

Note the three lanes: Car, Bike & Pedestrian. As a scooterist, I pick the least crowded, most comfortable lane.

There are a lot of unpaved trails in the park, but some nice paved ones as well.

Another little creek bridge.

The park is on the south end of the lake. The city of Belevue borders the west side of the lake, Issaquah is on the south end. The town of Sammamish occupies the eastern edge of the lake and Redmond is on the north end.

Lots of ducks and geese call the lake home for much of the year.

Looking out at the Sammamish Plateau.

The blue sky is still a bit of a novelty around here.

I cross back over I-90 via the Bike-Ped bridge.

They reworked some sections of the boardwalk trail and the new boards are much smoother for scootering.

In addition to my morning scooter trip, I scootered home for lunch and then this evening I rolled over to the bank. Today's total scooter miles were 9.67, bringing my April total to 74.8 miles.

#30DaysofScootering: Scootering for Snacks

After I finished up work today, I scootered off to get myself a few snacks. It's a nice evening in Issaquah.

This little bridge over the Issaquah Creek is just south of Gilman Boulevard.

Later in the year, the trees along Gilman Boulevard will bear various edible fruits but today I'll have to get my snacks elsewhere.

As near as I can tell, Trader Joe's is a really good candy store that also has a few fruits and veggies.

I lock my scooter up to the bike rack, go in and get a few things.

I carry this little nylon bag folded up in my pocket for my small shopping trips. For my bigger excursions, I have a bigger backpack.

I scooter off towards home on more of Issaquah's excellent trail system.

This is the trail that loops behind the Target and Safeway stores.

Various bits of preserved wetlands serve as drainage buffers for the parking lots.

Back home with my snacks. The little black blob to the left of the bananas is my bag all packed away. By the way, I AM NOT A NUTRITIONAL ROLE MODEL.

In other news, Fabian Cancellera won his third Tour of Flanders today. And he celebrates by tweeting out a picture of latest racing machine:

People are catching on that scooters are cool. 

I scootered 3.9 miles today, bringing my April total to 65.13 miles.

#30DaysofScootering: A Couple of Extra Miles Before Work

The forecast called for rain, but the morning was still dry, so I scootered a couple of extra miles before going to work. And, of course, I took some pictures.

This is where Rainier Boulevard intersects diagonally with Front & Dogwood Streets.

This structure in the new Confluence Park echos the lines of the old barn that was here back when this was farm land.

These are the plots for the new community garden.

Here's another of Issaquah's many little alleys.

This is the bridge on Juniper Street over the Issaquah Creek.

More signs of spring.

This old cedar is on the path by the school administration buildings.

The bridge on Dogwood Street crossing the Issaquah Creek.

One of my favorite bits of traffic calming, the speed humps on First Avenue Northwest.

2.75 miles of scootering today bringing the total for April to 61.23 miles.

Here's a bonus for you. My friend Bob sent me a link to this 16 minute video from the New York Times with the subject line: Thought you might like this.

I certainly did like it and I think folks who find my little scooter posts interesting might enjoy this as well. It's called Slomo and here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000002796999/slomo.html?smid=fb-share

#30DaysofScootering: Scooter Commuter

Friday is the start of my work week, so today I'm going to document my workday commute. For the past four years I have managed to arrange my life in such a way that I live four blocks from where I work. I used to walk the four blocks, but for the past year I've done the trip back and forth twice each day on my NYCeWheels KickPed. Some days it's rainy, sometimes it's dark, but today it's neither and I spent a little extra time taking pictures to document the trip.

It's 0.27 miles from my front door to the back door of The Bicycle Center where I work (I tracked it using the GPS on my phone). Since I'm so close, I scooter home every day for lunch. It takes me three or four minutes each way, depending on traffic. Today, I logged a whopping 1.08 miles on my scooter.

The picture at the top of this post is the little passage that connects the central courtyard of our little apartment complex to Sunset Way.

I turn west on Sunset Way. That's an antique shop on the left and the Police Station is on the right. I scoot down the block to the corner.

Issaquah has a whole bunch of public art. The reading lady statue doubles as a handy bench.

I turn right here and zip across the crosswalk. The bus stop here is served by Sound Transit Route 554, which connects Issaquah to downtown Seattle.

The Blue Door was gift of Issaquah’s sister city Chefchaouen, Morroco. The wide path I'm on is part of Issaquah's excellent multi-use trail network.

I turn left at the Issaquah Depot Museum. There's a restored trolley that runs on various occasions as tourist attraction on the short section of tracks that run from here to Gilman Boulevard. I scooter over these tracks everyday and I've been very impressed with how my KickPed's rubber tires handle this crossing. I don't think I'd try it on a scooter with narrower tires.

Since I've been a scootist, I've tended to notice a lot more NO SKATEBOARDING signs. I personally think we should be doing more things to encourage the skateboarders. Jerry Seinfeld makes a really good point here:


I'm not coordinated enough to be a good skateboarder, but I respect the heck out of those kids.

Here's the back view of the depot.

And an old caboose. I turn left just past the caboose.

The small, lower, building on the left houses a hair salon and a pizza shop. The large red building to the right is The Village Theatre Kidstage.

Now I'm next to the pizza shop looking across Front Street. The Bicycle Center used to be in the taller building on the left, which originally was a bank. Four years ago, The Bicycle Center relocated to the lower building on the right, which used to be a furniture store. The subdivided space now contains The Bicycle Center and Trattoria Amante. Issaquah has about a zillion pizza places, but Amante's is my favorite. They have lots of other good food as well and sometimes Christine will meet me there after work or I'll bring something home.

I scoot through the parking lot. By the way, these shots were taken in the morning, usually in the evening the parking lot and Front Street are packed with cars.

And come into work the back way.

When the bike shop is open, we have this Penny-farthing out front. Unfortunately, it has a crack in the fork, so it's unsafe to ride.

Well, that's my commute. Yes, I'm "lucky" to have such a short and beautiful commute but Christine and I made a lot of conscious choices over the years to get us to where we are. For this particular commute, the scooter is a great way to go.

1.08 miles for the day, bringing my April scootering total to 58.48 miles.

#30DaysofScootering: The Alleys and Quiet Streets of Issaquah

After yesterday's scooter trip to Seattle, I took it easy today. Christine and I both have Thursdays off from work and our weekly custom is to get up when we feel like it, walk the two miles to our favorite breakfast spot, The Issaquah Cafe. On the walk home, we stop for donuts (which will serve as our afternoon snack) and we check out some of the local wetlands to see what is going on with the local birds and beasts. It's a lovely, relaxing way to spend the day. Thursday afternoon usually involves some lounging around, reading and napping. Needless to say, Thursday is our favorite day of the week.

But, this month is the #30DaysofScootering and I take my scootering and blogging duties seriously, so around 3:00 PM I roused my self, looked at the impending clouds and headed out for a quick trip around the neighborhood.

I live in the section of Issaquah known as Olde Town (yeah Google Maps spells it that way) and my neighborhood has a lot of small residential streets and many of the blocks have alleys bisecting them. Big city alleys have that crime & grime reputation but Issaquah's alleys are pretty quiet and great for scootering.

It's spring now, so lots of trees are in bloom.

Every time I go past the rear of the local funeral home, the tombstones remind me of a creepy story I first read forty years ago, August Heat by W. F. Harvey. It's an oldie, but well worth seeking out.

This old cabin is still standing behind a modern house.

Most of the alleys are smoothly paved, with very little traffic. Today is garbage day so everybody has their garbage, recycling and yard waste bins out.

After scootering up and down a few alleys, I cross over the north branch of the Issaquah Creek a few times via a series of small bridges.

The signs say PEDESTRIANS ONLY but I've never heard of anyone having a problem when crossing these by bike or kick scooter.

More blooming trees and waste bins.

I scooter home just as it is starting to rain.

1.9 miles for the day, bringing my April scootering total to 57.4 miles.