Can this place get any better? I decided to take a quick hike up to Poo Poo Point this evening after work. Another one of the benefits of Seattle in the summer is that it doesn’t get dark until after 8:30! Tonight’s sunset was right at 8:30pm.

The hike is 1.7 miles up - 3.4 round trip. Starting elevation is 200ft, and the Point is at 1780ft. I decided to push myself and keep a decent pace on the way up and was able to make it to the Point in about 40 minutes, including a few stops for photo ops. Not as good as I was hoping for, but still not bad. Poo Poo Point also happens to be a launch spot for paragliders and when I got up there, I was lucky enough to see a few launches. Here’s one of my favorite pics from tonight:

I uploaded a bunch of the pics to Flickr and you can view the whole Poo Poo Point set at that link.

After a half-hour, I was pretty chilly so I started to head back down the trail. For some odd reason, I thought that jogging/running the entire way down would be a good idea. It was definitely fun, and I made it in about 15-20 minutes - I’m not sure because I stopped to talk to a couple guys on the way down - but I ended up with a pretty decent blister on my heel. It was kind of fun to pass a group of people that I had originally passed on my way up as they were headed down the trail. I got a couple odd looks, but I’ve always loved trail running like that. That run, combined with yesterday’s soccer finally wore me out, though, and I think I might take it easy tomorrow…but we’ll see!

PS - Kind of neat, but if you zoom in on Google Maps, you can actually see a paraglider in the process of taking off. They land in the field just to the West next to the road once they’re done soaring with the birds. Oh, and Mom…they do tandem jumps! grin