Some of the best hikes around West Seattle are the various byways you can take down to the beach, and then back up. If, that is, you have any mojo left. Most of the time my mojo is gone after hiking down to the beach, especially if I have refreshed myself with a pint of Guinness at the Celtic Swell. On those occasions, I usually catch the bus back up the hill (please don't tell anyone).

Three of the byways to the beach I once took are no more, either damaged beyond repair or obliterated by development. The first of these is a staircase made impassable by the Nisqually earthquake of 2001. The bottom portal of these steps, halfway up Atlas Place Southwest, remains gated to this day.

I recently wandered the back roads to the 6000 block of 50th to see what's become of the upper entrance. A tall hedge that once made the entrance to the steps a place of mystery has vanished and the stairway below is overgrown with blackberries. Atlas Place itself remains a great way to get down to Beach Drive, but for me it is a walk with odd connotations. Whenever I go that way I think of nuclear annihilation - thoughts I'd rather not take along on a walk. For high on a pole at the top of Atlas Place there once sat an air-raid siren, one that was tested every Wednesday at noon. Luckily it never went off any another time, as that would've meant Russian missiles were on their way to Boeing. I always thought back then that if the Russians were smart they'd attack at noon on Wednesday.

People in the Greenwood neighborhood recently renovated their air-raid siren. I'm glad ours is gone.

Two other byways to the beach I once took have fallen victim not to nature, but man. One of these led down the hill from the houses above Mee Kwa Mooks Park. We would descend the wooded hillside, and then continue down through the earthen remnants of the ponds and gardens that once adorned the Schmitz estate. Houses and fences now block the way.

Another lost path to the beach was near the north end of Lincoln Park. If you follow Othello Street to its west end near View Lane, and then go a block down the hill to the north you'll come to a dead end. Until about 1970 that dead end was the start of a path that went through a tunnel of trees down the hillside. Whenever we were in the mood for adventure we'd wander down that dark track to Lowman Beach. But now it is a route impossible to take without trespassing.

Those routes have disappeared, but many other byways remain.

On the west side of the peninsula the single lane roads of Bonair Drive, and 51st to Halleck Avenue, make wonderful walkabouts down to the sound. And on the east side you can zigzag down Spokane Street (off of 35th), or follow Fairmount Avenue underneath Admiral Way. Spokane Street is usually a traffic-free stroll, and the views of the city are unbeatable. As for Fairmount Ravine, most of the time it is a quiet forest walk. But sometimes you have to dodge speeding cars. An incentive for me to walk down Fairmount is that I can reward myself at the bottom of the hill by indulging in the best bacon-cheeseburger in West Seattle (at the boathouse). If you're reading between the lines you've probably come to the correct conclusion that I sometimes gain more calories on a walk than I burn - but that's half the fun.

The last byway I'd like to mention is Ferry Avenue. Where streetcars once ran down the hill is now a good woodsy walk. Remnants of those long-gone streetcar lines are still to be found all around West Seattle. Their steel rails were cut up and made into handrails for the public stairways, such as that abandoned above Atlas Place, where the siren once sang.

When not traipsing along West Seattle's byways, Marc Calhoun can be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com

Marc Calhoun

Byways to the Beach and Nuclear Annihilation Page 1