Day 1 · Scheduled earlier
Ridgecrest, Shoreline
Washington
Ridgecrest’s school, theater and neighborhood roots
This day on the route
- Planned date
- The day
- Walking
- Planned walking
- 7.7 miles
Day 1: 7.7 planned walking miles from Montlake to Ridgecrest, Shoreline. Public meeting details are separate from the route destination.
Route overview, not turn-by-turn directions.
The first 7.7 planned walking miles lead from Seattle to Ridgecrest, Shoreline. Its school and movie theater followed the neighborhood’s rapid growth in the 1940s.
Ridgecrest’s name can be traced to a housing plat submitted by Myrick R. and Georgie W. Wood in February 1941 and formally filed that May. The neighborhood history preserved by the Shoreline Historical Museum describes the housing demand that followed wartime employment and the return of veterans. By the later 1940s, the growing number of families was putting pressure on the young Shoreline School District.
Ridgecrest Elementary opened in September 1948. The Crest Theater joined the business district in 1949. A community club formed in 1955, and residents later bought land that became Ridgecrest Park. The school, theater and park gave the growing neighborhood places to learn, watch a film and gather.
The walk’s first day is planned to end here after 7.7 miles from Montlake. Ridgecrest begins the sequence of neighborhoods and towns that follows Seattle around the Salish Sea. The next leg continues toward Martha Lake.
From the road
Day one out of Fred Hutch, and a long way to a bed
She left Fred Hutch on a bright Monday morning and the questions started almost straight away. People stopped her on the road to photograph the sign on the back of her pack, or the tag she wears round her neck with the QR codes on it. A Russian woman. Minash, from India. A crew of firefighters who said they would pass the word on. It was Labor Day, and the city was full of people from everywhere.
The walking was harder than the map made it look. Out of Fred Hutch the hills were steep, and 20th Avenue took her down a footpath, down a long flight of wooden steps and along a trail through the trees before turning up a climb so steep she was afraid the pack would pull her over backwards. For the last ten yards she took it off, swung it ahead of her a few feet at a time, and followed it up.
Finding somewhere to sleep took the rest of the evening. A pastor would have helped and was not allowed to. The police had no vouchers left. A fire station could not put her up, or let her pitch the tent inside its yard. In among all that, a man named Minaj working the counter at a 7-Eleven bought her a coffee and a power bar — he could not simply give them to her, he had to ring them through — and then paid for the car that carried her on. The man driving it was called Mohamed.
It was dark by the time she was back on her route, and she does not like walking in the dark, but there were sidewalks and there were streetlights. She stopped at a place called Sunnie’s Express, where they let her charge her phone and rest her feet until closing, and then she carried on until she found somewhere safe to put the tent.
When I ask if I can stay somewhere, I ask with an openness that allows for any answer.
- Distance walked
- 12.4 miles
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Sources
Local history and background reading for this stop.
- Ridgecrest history — checked Sep 5, 2026
