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| View from BPA Road |
Getting There
Take NW Skyline Blvd north from NW Germantown Road. The Skyline Blvd Trailhead is 1.6 mi and a parking are available on right (east) side of the road.
Today, I was actually headed to Sauvie Island and Wapato Greenway for a short, flat hike. It was too late to get all the way out to Warrior Rock. As I approached Newberry Road, I make the quick decision to head up to Skyline.
At the Wildwood Trail parking lot, there were 7-8 cars. I probably could have found a spot but continued to my usual trailhead. I was going to do an abbreviated version of my usual hike.
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| AllTrails map |
The Hike
Length: 4.72 mi
Elev. gain: 1,017 ft
Moving time: 1:25:24
Total time: 1:27:08
Avg pace: 18:07
Calories: 859
FitBit
Steps: 11,458
Floors: 131
Cals: 2,568
Sidelined (sorta) due to anterior impingement and plantar fasciitis in my left foot + ankle. Argh! It happened after my last hike here. I've had range-of-motion issues since a football injury in high school in my left ankle but it's never posed this kind of problem. It could be exacerbated by the arthritis. Seems doubtful but the hike before at Nesmith Point Trail in the Gorge was where I got absolutely soaked. I wondered if this affected my boots; I tried some different sole inserts. Or, maybe I need to do more stretching before strenuous hikes. I may tried 200-400 mg of ibuprofen before the next hike to see if that alleviates the pain. All speculation.
The heel pain and ankle tightness comes and goes and are probably related to each other. I'm still waiting to get a referral to a podiatrist. I wanted to take a short hike to test myself and the weather was just too nice not to head out.
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I stayed on the fire lanes in Forest Park. When I got to the Wildwood intersection, I continued on Firelane 15 to Firelane 12. Before the drop a couple were looking at their phone, probably deciding their route. I waved and zoomed by.
When I reached BPA Road, I considered make a loop with Wildwood but kept going to the end of the road where you can see the mountains.
The Cascades were out today. The sun was reflecting off the snow on Loowit (MSH) and Klickitat (Mt Adams), and I could just make out Tahoma (Mt Rainier). Worth a little discomfort.
I could hear a puppy barking really loudly. I saw the dog before I saw the owner carrying a big stick. I made the dumb joke "is that the branch manager?". (eye roll, sigh).
On the return, I still was going to do the Wildwood section but dropped down Firelane 12 again, making this hike a true "out-n-back".
