The Burke Gilman Gets Marked!

True confession: Back in the day when I lived on Capitol Hill and ran down to catch the Burke Gilman near Husky Stadium, I occasionally brought my bike and a small can of spray paint. See – GPS wasn’t really available, and if I REALLY wanted to know my distance, or to measure my progress week by week – I needed to know the distance from one mile to the next. Bike – check. Bike computer – check. Spray paint – check. No one looking – check!

And I’d paint a little circle right there on the trail! Well – I’m happy to report that those days are OVER – unless I need to run more than 18 miles!

Head on down to the Burke Gilman and check out the new signs. I suspect these numbers will change if/when the Extension project kicks in – but for now you can count on seeing 9 of these markers as you head north.

This is the same marker – headed towards Fremont, and the last mark thus far (I had to run an extra mile or so, with my eyes glued to the sides of the trail to see if I could find number 10. Alas – no luck!

Just to be sure, my brother and I headed north on the trail. Sure enough – about 7 and a half minutes later, my brother spotted the first marker (the Wall of Death had nothing to do with our pace, I promise!):

And maybe, just maybe, we wanted to be really sure, so we kept going:

I won’t bore you with mile three, and we didn’t get to mile 4. But our handy GPS watch verified that the marks are accurate. So, Wallingford – now you can hit the trail and count.

Summer approaches (slowly!) – so let’s start walking, rolling, running, and jogging along the newly refurbished Burke Gilman. And no, you don’t have to turn back when you get to the University District!