Oh crappers, I rode yesterday not realizing that the Seahawks play today. Oh yeah, I am not watching the NFL this fall.
Which is good, because if I were might have seen this imbecile make a fool of himself and the NFL by sitting during our anthem and standing during the Mexican anthem. Instead, I enjoyed two, count’em two rides yesterday.
First ride was a nice, sorta windy ride up Galbraith Lane to the towers followed by a rewarding descent down the road, 1 of 3 Pigs trail, some time in the Dog Patch trail and out of the woods. And this was pre-rain, perfect trail condition.
The second ride was short, but sweet…and mildly nostalgic. So I was heading to my sisters after that early ride on Galbraith and was running a bit ahead. So I thought I would check out a nearby area that I used to ride. I figured it would be filled with mini-mansions or condos by now but drove the extra few miles just to take a look anyways.
If you could look into that way back machine in my head, you’d see that I, and a few friends rode in an area of Mukilteo that we knew as “Jap Gulch” which was at that time just a large tree filled gulch with zillions of unmarked, often very steep and very muddy trails. Happily, as I drove by the lower end of the gulch, near the water, I could see a lot of trees and not a lot of houses. I also saw a trailhead…which had a sign mentioning that a portion of the lower trail was closed, but it was a trail and not buildings. So, I went around to the upper end of the gulch and was greeted with a big “impressive” sign.
Jap Gulch was now Japanese Gulch, a real thing. Real, as in trailheads, community gardens, even a dog park at the lower end. But still not so real, as in no trail map nor markings that I could see in the few miles I rode. I was riding along leafy, rooted, rutted trails through unmarked intersection after unmarked intersection. It was like I remembered in the way back machine. There was even that stair stepped rooted section that I think maybe I might have a vague recollection of riding/crashing on. I rode for a mile or so on trails which I had no idea if they were old or new because nothing was marked and most everything was covered in big fall leaves. It was great.
It was also great to know that there were only two ways in and out of the gulch so nobody was going to get really lost. It was also also really great that I had good cell signal and a neat app called Trail Forks on my iPhone which had the whole navigation thing handled.
Japanese Gulch, real thing, real fun, don’t get lost.
