This weekend my wife and I and our energetic lab, Daisy, tried out the new segment of the Olympia Woodland Trail. This is a conversion of an old railroad grade that parallels I-5 between Eastside Street and Dayton St. (Phase II, now in design and permitting, will extend from Dayton, across Fones Rd., to the Chehalis Western Trail in Lacey.) There's a paved, 10' wide path the whole way and, for most of the way, a 4' gravel path. It's very green and cool, passing through woods and following Indian Creek for part of the way. Just the thing for a hot summer morning (or a drizzly summer day).

Park at the trailhead on Eastside, just south of its bridge over I-5, across the street from the Eastside St. trailhead to Watershed Park. There are covered picnic tables, benches, a drinking fountain, and restrooms.