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| Get outside and enjoy things! |
Cascade Orienteering Club puts on classic orienteering events year-round, including a very nice winter/scholastic series that takes place in parks around Puget Sound. But they go much further afield in the summer, as their events calendar makes clear. Their calendar includes events from all over the Pacific Northwest and beyond (many of which are not put on by Cascade), in case you want to drive to Bend for a weekend or fly to New York for the US Orienteering Championships. But closer to home, they are putting on events in Fishtrap Lake (near Spokane) and Salmon La Sac (near Cle Elum) in June. Both are beautiful locations, although with highly different terrain. I particularly like Fishtrap Lake, located in what is known as the channeled scablands - think Grand Coulee minus the giant dam, and lots of sagebrush. This terrain is much more open than a Northwest forest, so you can typically see a lot of the features from a distance and can more easily judge the best route to where you're going. And it's very pretty.
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| All this, plus mussels |
Much closer to home, Ft. Ebey (near Coupeville on Whidbey Island) is well-known as one of the most scenic (and easily accessible) areas on the Sound, plus they have great shellfish nearby (Penn Cove mussels and oysters).
On Wednesday nights in the summer, the Sammammish Orienteering Club puts on a series of evening events at Eastside Parks. Depending on your tolerance for crossing floating bridges during rush hour, these are usually quite enjoyable events that also usually include a free picnic meal afterwards. My favorite spots are Big Finn Hill Park in Kirkland, partly because there's no floating bridge involved, and Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island: only half a floating bridge to cross (you can take the express lanes from Seattle, because you're going to Mercer Island), plus it takes place at the height of the hot season (ha!) right next to a swimming beach.
Meridian Geographics puts on a number of races, including the Street Scramble series, the Seattle Night and Day Challenge, and at least one rogaine (this year, the Rock Creek Ramble). Rock Creek Ramble is also in the channeled scablands, and Night and Day is hard to pass up, but I'm going to miss both this year. Of the Street Scrambles (urban scavenger hunts, basically), Fremont Oktoberfest should be awesome, since I always set the course. Queen Anne is coming up tomorrow, and should be hilly fun. Either you relish the hills and staircases, or you have to think ahead as to how to avoid them. Gig Harbor is also hilly (and free!), but the most intriguing to me is Anderson Island, a small island in the South Sound. I've never been there, and at roughly 2 x 3 miles in size, it seems like you should be able to cover most of the island in three hours.
Similar to Street Scrambles are the Hood Hunts, which are smaller in scale and (nearly always) free. The season opener is in the North Creek area of Bothell (by UW Bothell, although I'm not sure if that will be part of the map). There will also be two events in Edmonds: May 18 (which is a fundraiser and thus has an entry fee), and August 21 (which is the usual cost: nada). My pick for the best of the Seattle Hood Hunts is Montlake, because it looks like you'll get to explore at least part of the Arboretum.
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