Why People Live in Seattle
Q: “How do you know if a Seattlite is dressed up?”
A: “They’re wearing their dress fleece.”
That joke pretty much sums up the sad state of fashion in Seattle. Although the scores of new designer clothes boutiques to open in the last few years indicate some hope for the fashion inclined, it’s a well-observed fact that Seattle natives dress very casually. I call it ‘the Northwest Look’ and I’m sure it has to do with why people live here. The most frequent answer to “Why did you live in Seattle?” I’ve heard is not friends, family, school, culture or a job (or fashion!); it’s an enthusiastic “the ocean and the mountains!” People here love to recreate. They want good jobs but they also want to spend a lot of time in the great outdoors.
This may come as a suprise to people of think of Seattle as Rain City. Our anomolistic geographic circumstance doesn’t extend far…it takes an hour at most in any direction to get a nice change of weather and a contra-urban experience.
Mt. Stewart taken from Longs Pass, photo by Mahalie.
There are a lot of sources to help you recreate maximally while visiting or living in Seattle. If you live here consider joining a club like the Mountaineers, which accepts and helps educate all levels of recreators and has an array of scheduled activities including Alpine Scrambling, Backcountry Skiing, Backpacking, Bicycling, Climbing, First Aid / MOFA, Hiking, Navigation, Photography, Sailing, Sea Kayaking, Snowshoeing and Whitewater Kayaking.
Hikipedia is a new wiki for hikers. That is, it’s a community-written repository for good hiking spots. It also includes a Google mashup that allows you to search for hikes by location. A search for trails within 100 miles of Seattle returns eight hikes (at the time of this writing) but will be revealing more as people contribute to the site.
Washington Trail Association is the official source of trails, though they don’t offer searches in terms of distance from Seattle, they do allow you to filter trails by general region and thier side offers a flora and fauna guide as well.
Seattle is also home to the REI flagship store (an architectural destination unto itself) which will not only supply you with gear and guidebooks but also hosts many clinics and events onsite (view calendar). They also provide this list of hikes near Seattle (PDF) as part of their ‘Kid’s Passport Program’ which encourages parents to aquaint their children with non-televised activities. Other local outdoor gear retailers offer events as well including Feathered Friends and Second Ascent.
That should keep you busy! However, this is by no means an exhaustive list of trail and recreation opportunities near Seattle. Please recommend your favorite sources by leaving comments below - this page will be continually updated.
