Print 

Author Topic: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)  (Read 2759 times)

Offline BFM_JANE

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 9501
  • Despite the cost of living, it remains popular.
Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« on: January 14, 2016, 09:24:35 PM »
Let's go for a walk!

Disclaimer: It's wintertime here, so these are some very brown and unremarkable pictures. Don't say I didn't warn you. Also, there are lots of words on this hike, feel free to skip them  ;D

Some background: I live in an urban area in a decent-sized city, so it's mostly all paved sidewalks and streets. There are parks around, but they're really just open squares of grass with playgrounds and more sidewalks -- except Kessler Park! It's pretty big considering the area (tucked between the ghetto and an industrial area) and it's a proper park, with trees and stuff :P

A group of guys spent a year digging trails throughout the park. Their main motivation was having a place for mountain biking (or trail biking or nature cycling, IDK what you'd call it) with good parts for "technical riding," i.e. not flat terrain. While some parts can get a little rough, lots of bikeless people walk through.

There are several trails with multiple places to enter/exit. We're going through my favorite one, faved because it's in the wider part of the park (so you can't see the road or city when you get high enough) and it goes across the cliffs (where you can see the city, which is cool at that point). It's also the scariest (further in) and I love it.

Let's do this.

The beginning!

This is where the trail starts, with the Terrace Lake (or Lake Terrace?) beyond the trees. Don't get your hopes up though, it's barely more than a puddle. Its original name was Scummy Pond Filled With Trash Surrounded By A Minefield Of Goose Poop.

Trees and stuff

It really does look better with leaves and grass, and that's the last time I'll apologize for it, I swear!

Getting technical here

I think a tree growing over the trail would add to the technical part of the riding for a cyclist... When they were making the trails, all the trees and stuff they cut out were just tossed to the side, so it's kind of a mess of twigs on either side most the way through. Oh, and trash.

Little bridges

Here's another one of Scummy Pond and some sidewalk bridges over a runoff point. There are a few tiny streams here and there in the park, and maybe they all lead to Scummy Pond.

Mud?! How exciting!

No, I almost died here, I slid a foot on each step! Hard to tell in the picture, but this part (and most of the trail from here) is cut out of a hill. This is where I started thinking I should go back the way I came and stick to the sidewalks for the day...

Caves and trash dumpers

How intriguing! Not the discarded siding, that's annoying, but I really want to look in that cave thing. I've been closer and I'm pretty sure someone lives in there, but I don't want to get closer because I'm pretty sure someone lives in there.

Seriously, what's in there?!

I'm dying to know, but I don't want to die finding out. There's probably someone looking at us right now.

Knotty tree

"Look at this knotty tree. Oh behave!" I make that dumb joke every time I pass this tree. There's nothing interesting about it.

It's all uphill from here

It's been pretty flat for a while, but we're heading up the hills now. We must be two, maybe three feet high! This shows how we're walking on the side of hills most of the time. There have been several more mud patches too. Now would be a good time to exit the trail, while there's a clear space...

Heads up!

They aren't kidding. There is a disc golf course in this part of the park. It covers a huge area, which is probably typical, I don't play. The first flying disc I saw came out of nowhere. There was no one around but I saw this pink thing go past me. Then this guy came over the hill and says "oh hi, that must have looked weird!"

Casual rock climber

This is the beginning of the cliffs that gives Cliff Drive (the scenic road that goes through the park) its name. This guy was part of a group of disc golfers playing through, taking a break to scale a rock wall. It was warm today -- 60F/15C -- and there were lots of people out everywhere.

Very climbable

More rock wall. I can see why people are tempted to climb these.

Walking on a hill

Here's another example of the hills. We're still not too high up, and this part of the trail is flat-ish, but on parts of the trail that slope downward and are muddy, there's really no other option but to carefully cross the mud. Listen to me make excuses! But it gets worse higher up in these hills, believe me.

Chicken exit!

I didn't take another picture of mud, but I slid big time in another mud patch just before this, nearly dying. I probably would've just fallen on my butt and stopped sliding, but it was a fairly steep hill and I got nervous. I'm a long walk from home, too far to risk getting hurt. Also, I didn't want to walk home covered in mud. So on the first clear part I came across, I exited and took the road back.

It's going to be below freezing for several days (or the rest of winter). I'll come back when all this mud is frozen! I did this trail a few days ago after the snow was gone. It was still 28F/-2C but I thought the ground was dry. Nope, frozen.

The Great Stair

A short walk up the road brings us to the first and fastest way out of the park. These steps are behind The Colonnade, a fancy structure in The Concourse. It's a lot of steps, but the road takes you out of the way. You can see the "castle" from there, but it's clearly getting dark and we're still 15 minutes from home. The stairs it is!

Feel the burn!

It's 192 steps, including the steps you have to take on the flat parts. I'll admit it, I'm huffin' and puffin' by the time I get to the top. You can also see another trail. Haven't taken that one yet, but it looks boring. I can tell.

Mystery island

Crossing a bridge to get home, you can see most of Scummy Pond in most of its majesty. You can't see where the floating trash collects around the corner. Don't be deceived, it's not actually that blue. Or blue at all. And the island looks better and more mysterious in the summer, when there are leaves and you can't see the middle of it. And I've bad-mouthed it the whole time, but I actually like this pond. That's not really scum you see now, it's ice. It's been very cold recently, except today.

Aaaaand, you can't see it in this scaled down image (or the huge one), but the high ground on the left is where the reservoir is, which is the reward at the end of the trail. Or it was the first time I went to the end of it. I don't check it out every time, but that reservoir is worth seeing once.

So today was a bust. We'll have to finish in a few days after it's been cold for a while, but before it snows. Look for the continuation soon! We'll get a look at this "castle" and the reservoir and The Colonnade, see if it's worthy of the capital letters.

Offline BFM_Tails

  • Captain
  • *
  • Posts: 1419
  • [VGTG]
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2016, 02:04:25 AM »
Jane! good to see your still alive

Nice pics, maybe ill upload a farm tour for you all one day

here is one in the meantime, foggy cold miserable day in the middle of summer. Thought it would make a nice picture  :)


Offline BFM_Fuzzy

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 2104
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2016, 01:18:09 PM »
Nothing like a classic JANE post!  Keep 'em coming JANE, we love your detailed accounts.  :)

Neat farm post Tails. Maybe you should make a thread too.  :)

Offline BFM_Crimson

  • BFM Admin
  • *
  • Posts: 1630
    • I'm copying JANE...
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2016, 04:20:00 PM »
Jane in da hood yo
                                                           
.       Thanks JANE, LËÕ, Lucky, MiG and Tails for rendering signature services!

Offline BFM_JANE

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 9501
  • Despite the cost of living, it remains popular.
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2016, 09:46:33 PM »
Looking forward to a farm tour now, Tails! With baby cows

Offline BFM_Kiwi

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 9174
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2016, 12:43:55 PM »
I always rock climb in a plaid shirt and skin colored pants - all the passers-by stop and point and ask where the heck did that guy's trousers go?  And take pictures.



Offline BFM_JANE

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 9501
  • Despite the cost of living, it remains popular.
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2016, 01:26:47 PM »
Never let your weekend wear keep you from reaching new heights. "Because it's there" isn't just for Everest!

(I'm going to embroider that on a pillow)

Offline BFM_JANE

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 9501
  • Despite the cost of living, it remains popular.
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2016, 09:05:43 PM »
The beginning again!

▲ Now with snow! It's fluffy enough, we can finish this walk today. It's an invigorating 8° f / -13° c. We'll skip ahead to after the chicken exit from last time. Less commentary, more walking!






Lookout point
Nice place to have a rest. They should put a bench up here. Maybe I'll carry one up one day, a whole bench.
I tried making this some kind of panorama from three pictures, but apparently something went horribly wrong when taking them and they won't match up. Oh well! This is overlooking the East Bottoms, decidedly one of the dumpier parts of the city. A small residential area tucked between a large industrial area.
left
center
right



▲ Two roads diverged in a wood.. Let's go right.



▲ This is the Christopher S. Bond Bridge, AKA The Paseo Bridge. Kinda cool.



▲ An outcropping that almost looks safe enough to walk out on. Almost. There are quite a few of them along this trail.






▲ The end! That's the bottom of some stairs that lead up to part of the disc golf course and the reservoir in the middle of it.

The reservoir
If I recall, it was used between 1920-1925 to supply water to area fire hydrants. Then they found some other solution and it's been a big concrete hole in the ground ever since. It's bigger than a football field (NFL) and split in the middle by a walkway. Not sure if people are supposed to go in, but I wasn't the first one to do it. I'm innocent!




▲ This is the walkway through the middle. Both sides are the same


▲ Some unsafe stairs. They're narrow, and the steps are smaller than regular steps. My huge feet were hanging off quite a bit.


▲ Both sides have a water tower base in the middle of the area. I guess it was for a water tower...


▲ Not climbing up there.


▲ This is one side of the walkway.


▲ And the other side, leaning over the walkway rail. Wherever there was space, including the ground in some places, there was graffiti.


And here's zoomed in pic of that castle and the two neat houses next to it: http://i.imgur.com/QD8a97h.jpg

Offline BFM_Kiwi

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 9174
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2016, 01:24:05 AM »
Fun pictures!

I was however, so disappointed in the failed pano that I trudged up the hill and took another set for you.  Brrr it was cold





Offline BFM_JANE

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 9501
  • Despite the cost of living, it remains popular.
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2016, 07:58:55 AM »
Awesome! I tried for almost an hour to get those pictures to line up but no matter how I rotated and moved and shrunk, everything ended up in a U shape. "How can this beeee?!" It was tearing-out-my-hair frustrating :P

Offline BFM_Kiwi

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 9174
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2016, 11:55:51 AM »
Does GIMP do pano stitching? I have photoshop, so click, click, click, done.  Easy peasy.

Sorry about your hair


Offline BFM_JANE

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 9501
  • Despite the cost of living, it remains popular.
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2016, 04:36:31 PM »
I bet there's an add-on for it, now that you mention it. The whole GIMP community is all about making those, and some are actually useful.

But really, I should have been able to just line up the horizons and fit the images together like a puzzle. I wondered if it had something to do with the curvature of the earth, or if I'd stepped into another dimension. Both seemed likely after an hour

Offline BFM_Kiwi

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 9174
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #12 on: January 18, 2016, 04:50:51 PM »
after all those steps, it probably felt like you'd be able to see the curvature of the earth.  but it's parallax error I think. 

you can overlay the images side by side and line up the horizons, but everything closer to the camera moves much more as you pan left and right, so a stitching program has to distort/stretch to get all the common features to line up.  which does produce a curvy result, which it then straightens back out. 

if GIMP doesn't do it, there's something called hugin which does.




Offline BFM_JANE

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 9501
  • Despite the cost of living, it remains popular.
Re: Hiking in the 'hood (IMG warning, lots of pics)
« Reply #13 on: January 18, 2016, 07:24:46 PM »
Thanks, good to know!  I probably should have googled it, I know better. Next time!

Print