Bellingham Walks

Before I begin, please notice that I have installed a navigation widget on the sidebar of my blog where I placed all the posts from our Erie Canal Walk in chronological order. This is very exciting for a couple reasons. First, the navigation menu makes it easier for readers to read the posts in order, without all the troublesome scrolling and secondly, I figured out how to install the widget all on my own, acquiring some new terminology along the way. ( :

Also, you can always open the blog to your browser by clicking on the title. (You probably know this!) You can also open the video to full screen, which just makes me so very happy every time I watch it…about 100 times so far!

The Cheshiahud Lake Union Loop Walk

This walk is PURE JOY, especially when you walk it on a gloriously beautiful day as we did a couple days before Thanksgiving this year. We were going to Seattle to see David Sedaris at Beneroya Hall and decided to take an extra day to do this walk…again. We had walked it a year earlier and I was hoping to return in order to share it with you.

Since the walk is a loop, you can hop on at any point but I believe beginning at Lake Union Park at the southern tip of Lake Union, where you’ll find the Museum of History and Industry, is the perfect ‘putting in’ spot. From there, you can see the entire lake laid out before you and attain a sense of where you will be going. We were staying downtown with about a 20 minute walk to the lake. We walked in a clockwise direction and, for the most part, paralleled Westlake, Northlake, and then Eastlake Boulevards as we circumnavigated the lake.

The loop is 6 miles around. You can pack a lunch or grab some on the route. At about 2 miles, if traveling clockwise, the trail takes you right through the Fremont neighborhood, which has numerous restaurants including the Fremont Brewery, a PCC (Puget Community Coop), Starbucks, etc. You will cross the historic Fremont Draw Bridge (it went up right after we crossed!) and the University Bridge. You will go under the Hiway 99 and I-5 Bridges. The trail connects numerous neighborhoods and parks, some huge and rolling like Gasworks Park and some tiny and unassuming, no bigger than my living room…these are very special and a testament to why Lake Union is affectionately referred to as “A Lake at the Heart of a City.” The lake slightly resembles a heart…

Before I end and leave you with an awesome video collage of our walk, I have one piece of advice: you must be diligent in looking for the trail signs, especially once you get to Fremont on the north and then coming down the eastern shore of the lake. There is so much to see on this urban walk that one could easily miss a sign. The upside is that if you just keep the lake on your right (or left if you’re traveling anticlockwise), you’ll be fine. Download map here!

Happy Walking!

~Ann