100 Mile Walk: Day Seven

[This post is part of a series detailing Cale and my plans for each leg of  our 100 mile walk to Great Wolf. Our goal is to establish a safe route that follows sidewalks and trails as much as possible, and provides good places to stop, refuel, and refresh along the way. We actively solicit your suggestions if you know the area we will be walking through.]

Start: Holiday Inn Express, Lacey
End: Offut Lake Resort
Total distance: 11.8 miles

On Day Seven, Cale and I veer away from I-5, in part because there are no hotels along the highway between Lacey and Great Wolf, and in part because we are excited to stay in a Cozy Cabin on Offut Lake. Today's walk and destination may be our prettiest. It will certainly be our most pastoral. We will need to stock up on water and snacks for the rode, because there is a long stretch where I do not expect us to encounter convenience stores or gas stations. The directions here are slightly more detailed because I worry I might loose cell service along the way (and thus the ability to navigate dynamically as we walk from my phone).

The Morning

Start: Holiday Inn Express, Lacey
End: New Sushi and Teriyaki
Distance: 3.5 miles
Time: 1-1/2 hours (9:00am - 10:30am)

We will grab a quick bite to eat at the hotel (which offers a complimentary breakfast), and then walk a straight 3.5 miles south along College Street to Avery Lane (or 55th Lane SE). We'll then turn right, walk a block, and turn left on Corporate Center Loop to arrive at New Sushi and Teriyaki for an early lunch. We'll know we're on the right track if we pass Hop Jack's (which is always a good fall back if we're in the mood for American food instead of Japanese).

The Afternoon

Start: New Sushi and Teriyaki
End: Offut Lake Resort
Distance: 8.3 miles
Time: 4 hours (11:30am - 3:30pm)

Our afternoon walk is a long one, and takes us off the road. The plan is to pack a snack and stop several times along the way. We will start out by continuing south on College Street. The name will change to Rainier Road when we cross the Yelm Highway, but the direction will continue. There are sidewalks.

After about a mile and a half, as we pass under some railroad tracks, the Chahalis Western Trail will join the road at a right angle -- but the sidewalks seem to disappear. We will follow Rainier Road for a little bit longer, and then split off right to stay on the trail when it leaves the road (shortly after Talcott Ridge Drive SE).

After following the Chahalis Western Trail for 4.2 miles, we will take a slight right onto Stedman Road SE. I'm a little worried Stedman Road won't be marked, so we may miss the turn. One clue that we are at the right intersection is that the trail doesn't hit Stedman Road at a right angle. After the roads cross, trail parallels the rode (on the left hand side) for about half a mile, so if we do miss the turn we should be able to recover. We'll know we've gone to far if we cross Waldrick Road. Fortunately, all we need to do in this case is turn right onto Waldrick.

Places not to turn right:

• Fir Tree Road. This comes fairly early in the walk.
• 89th Avenue SE. Also fairly early in the walk.
• 93rd Ave SE. If we do try to turn right, we'll know we are on the wrong path because it ends in a T immediately (versus after half a mile).

Assuming we do get off onto Stedman Road, the road will T onto Waldrick Road after half a mile, and we will turn right. We'll then take the first left onto Offut Lake Road and follow the road for 1.5 miles. We'll then turn right onto Bronson Street SE and left onto 120th Ave SE to arrive at the Offut Lake Resort at 4005 120th Ave SE in Tenino. There is limited street view available for this area, but we should clearly not expect sidewalks.

The walk for the day is scheduled to be relatively short, so as long as we don't get lost we'll get to the lake with some time to settle in and explore. Check in is between 2:00pm and 7:00pm. The resort has a restaurant called Lady of the Lake, and we will eat dinner there. The restaurant isn't open for breakfast, but there's a general store that opens at 7am where we will eat in the morning and re-stock for our final leg to Great Wolf.