Walk #42

After our walk yesterday, an unusually strong storm hit Corvallis. Cali was terrified by the booming thunder. We repeatedly lost power at home. There were hundreds of lightning strikes. It was spectacular! Almost 3 inches of rain fell on Corvallis. The result was a very wet walk this morning - no rain, but lots of wet plants and plenty of puddles for Cali (see the photo under one of the pins).

Today's path was through neighborhoods with a lot of sunflower gardens (another photo under a pin). The chickadees, nuthatches, and finches are loving those right now.

Today's neighborhoods also have a lot of cats. I've learned to try to cross to the other side of the street when I see one before Cali sees it so that we don't have a typical "cat episode" where I end up dragging Cali along to keep moving. But that didn't work today for Jack the Cat. Jack ran across the street to meet us. Cali actually loved it. Jack and Cali did the little circling dance that dogs do when they meet. Cali wasn't aggressive, and Jack wasn't afraid. So Cali has a new friend.

Finally, we passed the fourth Free Little Library (another pinned photo) that we've noticed in Corvallis.

Walk #42 at EveryTrail

Walk #41

As we move into late summer, the weather for walking keeps getting better. Today was overcast and about 64F with storms forecast later in the day.

Walk #41 at EveryTrail

Progress After 40 Walks

Cali and I have completed 40 walks on this project to walk every street in Corvallis. Here is how the map looked after 16 walks:

Here is how it looks after 40 walks:

And here is the EveryTrail animation version:

40th Walk Progress at EveryTrail


We've now completely filled in a few sections of town. We focussed on the area around the OSU campus in the past month, since that area is about to get very busy with students returning for the new academic year.

During our first 40 walks, we've covered 98.8 miles for an average walk of about 2.5 miles. I've burned almost 11,000 calories. On the parts of our walks that covered new streets (as opposed to walking on previously covered streets to reach the new ones), we've walked 86.5 miles. Of course, some of those miles also retrace some parts of some streets. It's impossible to be completely efficient - especially with all of the cul de sacs in Corvallis.

At this point, my guess is that we're about a third of the way toward our goal.

Walk #40

We finished another section of Corvallis this morning on yet another perfect day for walking. We also found another Corvallis Free Little Library (the third one we've noticed) - check the pin for the photo.

Walk #40 at EveryTrail

Walk #39

This was another longer walk from home to complete a few remaining streets within walking reach of our house. Still, we walked almost three miles to cover 1.4 miles of new streets (many of which were cul de sacs or re-tracings). Some parts of Corvallis just aren't easy to complete efficiently.

We did see a family of wild turkeys in the meadow near home, and we found another Little Free Library. The photos are under the pins on the map.

Walk #39 at EveryTrail

Walk #38

We took a longer walk today and covered about 2.5 miles of new streets as part of a 3.5 mile walk from home and back.

Walk #38 at EveryTrail

Walk #37

Today's dog walk with Cali, Matt & Magic included a bit less than a quarter mile of streets for this project, so I'm calling it Walk #37. The whole walk was almost two miles.

Walk #37 at EveryTrail