Tag Archives: outdoors

$1.4B King County Parks levy renewal to appear on August ballot

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Redmon’s Marymoor Park (Image: King County Parks)

The King County Council last week finalized legislation that will put a $1.4 billion renewal of the county’s park levy on the August ballot.

“Over the life of the six-year levy, it is estimated it would generate $1.4 billion,” the announcement from the council reads. “The initial levy rate of 23.29 cents per $1,000 of assessed value would cost the owner of a median-valued home ($844,000) about $16.33 per month.”

The levy, first approved by voters in 2003, provides all funding to operate and maintain King County’s regional and local parks, trails and open space system, the council says. Continue reading →

Make some ‘outdoorsy friends’ — Gearhouse and its Basecamp Cafe are now open on Capitol Hill

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Evan Maynard’s Gearhouse commute just got a lot better

Its Basecamp Cafe is established on Capitol Hill’s E Thomas just off Broadway and Gearhouse is now ready to outfit you with the equipment you need for a Pacific Northwest weekend. It is celebrating with a grand opening Thursday night.

Come join us to celebrate as we launch a summer of adventure with Gearhouse. We’ll be making coffee drinks, pouring beers, and serving apps from our new cafe, Basecamp. Gearhouse and Basecamp Cafe is your third place for finding outdoorsy friends.

CHS reported here on Capitol Hill resident Evan Maynard’s plans to bring his growing outdoor gear rental and community company to his home neighborhood as Gearhouse marks its first expansion from its South Lake Union birthplace.

Now a short walk from the former Blue Origin rocket engineer’s Capitol Hill apartment, Maynard and his team hope to help new members turn “a chore into a social experience” with the 2,800-square-foot Gearhouse’s mix of rental equipment, organized hikes and outings, education, and its overhaul of a shuttered cafe/retail experiment from AT&T into the new Basecamp Cafe and hangout with caffeine and beer and plenty of space to bring your laptop. Badger Coffee is ready to serve members — and anybody else who wants to hang out or get some work done in the new cafe.

Its opening joins another in the neighborhood outdoor gear space. Need some outdoor fashion for your trip? Windthrow is newly opened with outdoor apparel and accessories just off 15th Ave E.

At Gearhouse, membership provides access to the gear library which can be rented piecemeal but can also be curated based on what adventure you have planned. Maynard says Gearhouse is set up to provide personalized recommendations and gear packages — describe an adventure you’re about to take, and they’ll recommend a gear set to suit your needs.

He says the model helps members have a better time exploring the outdoors and the sturdier, higher quality gear keeps people from churning through disposable alternatives that end up in the trash. Continue reading →

The Capitol Hill (bus) passes are clear: The Broadway-Mt. Si trail reopens Saturday

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(Image: King County)

Crews worked overnight to clear Broadway (Image: CHS)

Like the mountain passes cleared of snow, a key hiking route connecting Capitol Hill to Mt. Si will reopen this weekend.

This year, there will be more nearby opportunities to gear up.

King County Metro’s Trailhead Direct route is back with weekend and holiday service connecting Capitol Hill Station to an area of the county’s most popular — and most car-overwhelmed — trails.

Now in its sixth season, the Metro service will be solely focused on one main route in 2023 with Broadway as its core trailhead: Continue reading →

In a neighborhood with REI roots, Windthrow part of new expeditions in Capitol Hill outdoor retail and community

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(Image: Windthrow)

“NOT VERY FLEXIBLE but enjoying this beautiful planet we get to live on. Happy Earth Day,” Windthrow says

By Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero

This summer, trails around the PNW will be crowded with Capitol Hill hikers — if new ventures like Windthrow have anything to do with it. The new gear shop just opened its doors at 15th and Harrison, aiming to build a community hub for outdoor lovers at the top of Capitol Hill.

Windthrow owner Nate Hoe is setting out to merge retail with community building by selling high quality outdoor apparel and accessories and create a fun, safe, space for people to hang out and exchange ideas. Growing up in the outdoors and with a background in outdoor fashion, he is starting the hike with gear he knows well, curating a selection of brands from across the globe to provide gear that mixes style and fashion with performance and functionality.

“Almost everything I carried was stuff I already loved before,” Hoe said.

Windthrow is part of another club — new outdoor ventures on Capitol Hill. The neighborhood’s REI history seems to be repeating. Just off Broadway, Seattle outdoor gear rental and community company Gearhouse is preparing for an opening this month in founder Evan Maynard’s home neighborhood. Gearhouse has grown as “Seattle’s only social club for outdoorsy people” with a unique mix of hiking, camping, and adventure gear rental, events and education, and community. Gearhouse is planning a May 18th grand opening on E Thomas near Braodway.

Building community has also been the driving force behind Hoe’s vision of creating an outdoor gear shop. The most rewarding part about his experience has been seeing people’s excitement when they walk into the store and the support he’s received from the community. Continue reading →

Gearhouse gears up for Capitol Hill: ‘You never want to have gear regret’

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(Image: Gearhouse)

Come May, if you are looking for well equipped outdoorsy types with a taste for Pacific Northwest adventure, Capitol Hill will have a hangout spot where hikers, bikers, kayakers, and climbers meet to gear up, team up, maybe do a little email and enjoy a coffee or a beer before heading out for the mountains, trails, and waters of the Puget Sound.

“You never want to have gear regret,” Gearhouse founder Evan Maynard tells CHS.

CHS reported here in March on the plans for Maynard to bring his growing outdoor gear rental and community company to his home neighborhood to E Thomas just off Broadway as Gearhouse marks its first expansion from its South Lake Union birthplace. There, Gearhouse has grown as “Seattle’s only social club for outdoorsy people” with a unique mix of hiking, camping, and adventure gear rental, events and education, and community.

“Gearhouse turns a chore into a social experience,” Maynard said this week as the new E Thomas location is geared up for a May 18th grand opening on Capitol Hill.

When it opens next month, Gearhouse Capitol Hill will mark the next step in Maynard and the small company’s efforts to make Gearhouse more than just a place to rent snowshoes or a tent. The subscription service’s expansion to Capitol Hill will be an even more social location with coffee and beer designed to make the new Gearhouse a neighborhood destination to also get some work done or meet with friends to plan your next hike.

If nothing else, the new cafe work space, gear rental space, and hangout will give Maynard a place to work near his Capitol Hill apartment. It could all just end up being that he is creating a really expensive “working from home” office space, Maynard quips.

But that seems unlikely. Gearhouse and the thousands of nearby Capitol Hill apartment dwellers and the thousands more people traveling through nearby Capitol Hill Station seem like a natural fit. Continue reading →

‘Seattle’s only social club for outdoorsy people,’ hiking and adventure equipment rental company Gearhouse setting up camp on Capitol Hill

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(Image: Gearhouse)

Evan Maynard (Image: Gearhouse)

It will be a short hike for the founder of Seattle outdoor gear rental and community startup Gearhouse to the company’s coming Capitol Hill expansion.

CHS has learned the three-year-old hiking, camping, and adventure gear and events community is planning an expansion to E Thomas just off Broadway in the former space where AT&T tested out a short-lived coffee and retail experiment.

The 2,800-square-foot space is being readied as a new outlet for the growing company that provides unlimited gear rental to members along with access to events, classes, and resources like repair, maps, and guidebooks. Permits also indicate the new Gearhouse will offer beer and wine.

“We want Gearhouse to be a place where you can get gear, knowledge and a friend base if you don’t have that network at work or in your apartment building,” founder Evan Maynard told the Seattle Times in 2021.

At the time, the former Blue Origin rocket engineer was growing the South Lake Union headquarters of Gearhouse after starting the business from his “overstuffed” Capitol Hill apartment and a van used in the beginning to deliver gear building to building and door to door, the Times reported. Continue reading →

Metro’s trail from Broadway to Mt. Si reopens Memorial Day weekend

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Hiking chic on Broadway (Image: King County Metro)

The Capitol Hill trail to Mt Si reopens Memorial Day weekend. King County Metro’s Trailhead Direct service returns with rides to the county’s most popular trails starting Saturday.

Broadway will again be the start point for weekend and holiday service every 30 minutes connecting Capitol Hill Station to Mount Si, Little Si, and Mount Teneriffe. You can also hop on or off at stops downtown at 4th and Spring, at the Eastgate Freeway Station, or at the North Bend park-and-ride. Continue reading →

Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival returns to Volunteer Park with mission to make Shakespeare as accessible as the Mariners

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Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival organizer Ken Holmes says that the weekend of outdoor drama in Volunteer Park is outdoors and donation-based because theater should be an accessible form of entertainment like going to a baseball game.

“That’s part of our mission — to provide theater that anyone can go and see,” Holmes tells CHS. Continue reading →