A former Seattle resident revisits her favorite winter walks around Puget Sound

The Orange County Register (MCT) - Seattle's woods in winter hold treasures and miracles for those brave enough to venture out.

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The woods beckon and the air is crisp and clean. Streams, lined with green watercress, tinkle and gurgle down the ravine. Birds trill in the trees. Little boys might take you for a walk.

Seattle has the reputation (richly deserved) of being gloomy and rainy and forbidding in winter.

But one thing I learned during my 17 years there is that I couldn't let the rain keep me from doing anything I wanted to do. My group of friends defied the gloom and went on regular foul-weather picnics.

We visited the tulip fields in Skagit Valley in February. We grilled hot dogs and ate them sitting on an inch of ice in a park overlooking Lake Washington. We sat in slickers and boots watching my 2-year-old son and his friends stomp in puddles until they were soaked and giggling.

Now that I live in sunny California, I'm sure my tush couldn't sit on an inch of ice. But I discovered on a recent winter trip that I can still appreciate winter on Puget Sound. And little boys can still help you appreciate the weather.

I've married into a wonderful family and am visiting my new grandchildren for the first time. The best hike I take is with Reagan, 2 ˝, and Landon, 18 months. It is a stroll after dinner and before bath time. Landon rides in the stroller and Reagan helps me push. We head to Richmond Beach Park, just blocks from their home.

Should I admit here that I'm avoiding dirty dishes and scattered toys and the stressful end of a family day? Grandmas get to do that, right?

But the best part is that Reagan calls me "honey." When I get up from reading a book on the floor he asks, "Can we go for a walk, honey?"

We amble through their neighborhood to the park at the end of the road. We gaze across water to the Olympic Mountains range in her winter whites. Tugs and barges and ferries ply Puget Sound, soundlessly. Waves lap at the flat beach. We stand on the edge of our known universe and talk about the things little boys care about: birds and peeling bark and dog poop and skipping stones. We watch the sunset as the colors sing _ first a chorus, then the blues, and finally a lullaby.

It is time to go home to bed.

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On this trip I discover and rediscover a number of winter walks. The first is Yost Park in Edmonds, close to the B&B where my husband and I are staying just north of Seattle.

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Our hosts, Helon and Marion Wilkinson, at The Maple Tree Bed and Breakfast, tell us they've seen people entering a park on Main Street, but they've never been inside. We are stuffed with Helon's homemade waffles, and we need a walk, so we stab around the neighborhoods until we see someone emerging from the dense brush.

Sure enough, there are miles of paths inside, along Shell Creek.

It's a miraculously sunny winter day. Light filters through the bare trees. We follow the trail _ some of it compacted, some boardwalk, and a few muddy patches. It's easy, just enough up and down to give the thighs a nice stretch. Midway, we see the city's pool and realize that we could have parked in an adjacent lot and taken the marked trail at 96th Avenue and West Bowdoin Way.

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One of my favorite walks in any season in Seattle is through Ravenna Park just north of the University of Washington. It's one of many parks accessible from several neighborhoods. We take the stairs at Northeast 62nd Street and Brooklyn Avenue Northeast and descend immediately into dense woods. Up above, 15th Avenue Northeast is a major arterial taking folks into the University District. But down here, it is a graceful arch, and the noise just wind in the trees.

We are 50 feet below the rat race.

The woods inspire calm. A couple of guys sit in a patch of sunlight eating lunch. Two big dogs stand knee-deep in a stream lapping up cold water.

Intrepid Seattle joggers spring by in T-shirts and shorts. I'm wearing jeans and fleece hoodie, vest, hat and gloves. I'm cozy and can't imagine having bare limbs in 40-degree weather. But anytime the sun is out, it's summer to a Seattle native.

Several trails traverse the park. The south trail climbs enough to get my heart pumping, which feels good in the clean, cold air.

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A beautiful place for a hike and a winter picnic overlooking Puget Sound is Carkeek Park in the Greenwood area in northwest Seattle.

This is another park accessible from a number of neighborhoods. We enter at Northwest 117th Street and Shoreline Avenue Northwest at a gate tucked between two houses. Years ago, a friend living in the neighborhood took me for a hike here, or I would not have known it existed. But it also has a main entrance on Carkeek Park Road near Northwest 116th.

We walk through tall trees on well-maintained trails edged by sword ferns, salal and mossy logs.

On this lovely, crisp morning, we don't see another soul during our hourlong walk. The steep climb to the top of the bluff affords a breathtaking view of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains, still lacy with snow.

When we get to the bluffs, we find restrooms, picnic tables and a children's play area that includes a slide shaped like a giant salmon and some tiny caves to explore.

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Discovery Park in the Magnolia area has a 2.8-mile loop trail that leads through woods to bluffs that yield a view of the sound _ the snowy mountains dazzling against the cobalt blue of the water on a sunny day. Sailboats float on the water like linen handkerchiefs. The smell in the woods is rich with last year's fallen leaves, and mushrooms pushing up from snags. Sword ferns line the top of a horizontal branch like a green mohawk.

On the trails, winter gives you glimpses of the vista, because the big-leaf maples are bare and sunlight pours through the open branches. The deciduous trees and shrubs are beginning to think about setting buds. They turn not green, but rosy, as if blushing at their nakedness.

We pass tourists speaking German and then another group speaking Swedish. People from cooler climes know Seattle's and the rest of the Northwest's charms, even in winter. And families with little boys and girls eager to take a walk in the woods.

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IF YOU GO:

LODGING: The Maple Tree Bed & Breakfast is a restored older home, with landscaped grounds and a view of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. It only has one guest suite, so call early. Homemade waffles are a specialty. 425-774-8420 or www.bedandbreakfast.com (type "The Maple Tree" in the search field).

DINING: The Sunlight Cafe, 6403 Roosevelt Way NE, is just blocks from Ravenna Park. It has been serving "hearty vegetarian grub" for about 22 years. It's a great place to warm up with some coffee or hot chocolate and lunch or a dessert. Sitting at a window table reading the paper is one of the great treats on a Seattle winter day.

HIKING: REI has books about local hikes and hiking trails. Other accessible trails include: Burke-Gilman, an 18-mile paved walking and biking path that goes from Shilshole Bay in Seattle to the city of Bothell north of Lake Washington; the Green Lake Trail, a 2.8-mile walk around the urban lake; and Seward Park at the south end of the lake, which has 300 acres of forest and a 2 ˝-mile walking and biking path.

MORE INFO: www.cityofseattle.net/parksor www.metrokc.gov/parks/trails

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Rebecca Allen: rallen@ocregister.com

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© 2008, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).