We haven't visited Bainbridge Island in a while, so let's do that on Saturday, when we are promised nice weather, and while BI's farmers market is active. Also, Thomas Dambo, the Danish artist who led the construction of the troll sculptures, including Pia the Peacekeeper on BI, says he only expects them to last for about three years, so we should visit Pia again. Plus, there is Grand Forest. If we move quickly enough, we might also have time for a visit to Battle Point Park, home of pickleball, our state sport. Or, we can explore more of the Grand Forest trails.
We'll meet at Colman Dock in Seattle, where we'll catch the 8:45am ferry to BI. On BI, we'll start with a walk around the waterfront, then circle back to the farmers market, near BI city hall. Folks may want to get food there, but we won't stop to eat lunch yet, so should get something that can be carried, and eaten cold. ;-)
From there, we'll head up to Sakai Park, to visit Pia the Peacekeeper. Then we can try a path between the nearby high school and elementary school.
To get to Grand Forest, we'll take advantage of a not-so-secret trail, which we've used before several times, that will lead to the official trail into the east part of Grand Forest. We have a possible lunch spot at the east entrance, or, if the time is ok, we can continue on to the Prue's House area.
Depending on how quickly we've been moving, we'll either continue to the trailhead on Miller Rd (a total of about 9 miles), or, if there's time, go on to Battle Point Park (total about 10 miles). We might have time to tag the beach at Fairy Dell, north of Battle Point Park (total about 10.5 miles). There is also an option, for folks who want a shorter in-town walk, to stop north of Sakai Park, after visiting Pia (total 4 miles).
Now, all that "if there's time" is because we'll likely want to catch the BI Ride bus to get us back to the downtown BI area and ferry dock. BI Ride operates til 6pm on Saturdays, but we have to call and request a ride by 4pm. On a previous visit we tried using the Pingo app to request a ride after 4pm, and that did not work. So before 4pm, we need to predict whether we'll end at Miller Rd or at Battle Point Park. We need to be somewhere there's cell service, so we can call BI Ride reservations. We can only request rides for 6 people at a time, so if we have more than that, we'll need some other folks to call. We do have other alternatives. We can walk east from Grand Forest, and catch the #390 bus. Or, we can just walk back to downtown BI, but the route isn't very interesting.
Farmers market: https://www.bainbridgeislandfarmersmarket.com/
Pia the Peacekeeper: https://biparks.org/bainbridge-troll/
Grand Forest map: https://biparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/trail_GF_web_map.pdf
BI Ride: https://www.kitsaptransit.com/service/routed-buses/bi-ride
Pingo (in case folks want to install it): https://www.kitsaptransit.com/pingo
Logistics:
Meet at Colman Dock, in the Bainbridge Island ferry passenger waiting area, by 8:35am. Let's assemble at the seating area just south of the row of turnstiles. The ferry departs at 8:45am, if on schedule. Warning: If you have not been to Colman Dock before, please leave A LOT of extra time to find the BI ferry loading area. There is construction around the dock, car traffic, detours, lots of stairs or elevators and passageways to navigate. Google Maps shows an obsolete layout for the terminal area. Instead, see this map:
https://wsdot.wa.gov/construction-planning/search-projects/ferries-seattle-multimodal-terminal-colman-dock-project
General ferry information, including sections for "First-time rider’s guide" and "Riders with disabilities":
https://wsdot.wa.gov/travel/washington-state-ferries
Ferry walk-on fare is $11.05 for adults (or $5.50 seniors / disabled). You can pay with cash on your Orcacard at the turnstile in the loading area, or buy a ticket online or at the terminal -- leave extra time for that last option, to find the ticket kiosk. There is no walk-on fare for the return trip. More about fares:
https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/fares/faresdetail.aspx?departingterm=7&arrivingterm=3
Bus riders: You can take Link line 1 or 2 to Symphony station, walk to 1st & Marion. From the southwest corner, there is a walkway to the dock. Allow about 15 min to get to the terminal from the Link station. Several bus routes have a stop at Alaskan Way & Columbia St, near Colman Dock: #125, C Line, H Line. You could take Link to a downtown Seattle station, then catch one of those buses to get closer to the dock, but the elevated walkway might be interesting.
Drivers: Don't drive unless you are planning on taking your car onto the ferry -- there is no parking near the dock. And you might not get onto the ferry. Fares for drivers are higher, and there is a fare both directions.
Bring water, lunch (in case you don't find something at the farmers market), snacks. More than half of this is on trails, so wear hiking-appropriate gear.
Use comments to coordinate.
