First traverse

I walked the length of the traverse today, with no equipment, not camera, no maps... just to see how it went. I started about 2:20 at Central Ave and ended at the Mississippi River about 3:20.

From memory:
• 12th Ave from Central, crosses the railorad tracks by the Waterbury Building. To the north is the Purity Oats plant.
• Way is blocked by the Minneapolis Public Schools building (though there are back doors...). If you walk around the building you can see roughly where the parallel point on Quincy is.
• Both 12th, Jackson and Quincy all have distinctive red brick pavers.
• Crossing the parking lot west of Quincy, finding the garage from the alley for 1201 Monroe. If 12th Ave is the 45°line, then those addresses are pretty close. They're what I used as markers for most of the rest of this traverse.
• I went south to Broadway and back up the front of Monroe. Crossing Monroe at 1201, there's a convenient break in the parking lot hedge.
• The line in Logan Park appears to go through the wading pool, and now through the two ice rinks. These are mudrinks at the moment, so I walked around...
• The next several streets (Between Jefferson and University) have no convenient cross street. So, it's up the street, down the alley, up the street... I had two brief conversations with passers-by. One was intriwued (lived in 1205 Jefferson), and one looked like I must be off my meds, nodding and smiling. The streets vary widely in terms of condition of the houses, the race and apparent social class of the passersby. A very diverse neighborhood. I walked by my friends Margo and Demetri's houses, which was nice.
• The line seems to go though the playground equipment for Sheridan School, and through the back part of the school building (Cafeteria? Gym? never been inside).
• On the othe side of University from Sheridan School, 12th Ave resumes. GoogleMaps puts the line right through the houses facing 12th on the north side of the street. Again a WIDE range of housing, from early 20th-century apartment and frame buildings, to a late-vintage rambler and a side-by-side duplex (met the owner, Stan, who is a contractor).
• At the end of 12th at Main St, we cross the northern corner of the Northeast Bank property, and then a broad, barren space that was recently cleared for a condo project which subsequently was abandoned. It is now fenced and inaccessible.
• The line intersects with the street intersection of Marshall and 13th Ave. At Main, the street grid turns to run parallel to the river, so we are crossing the grid at a diagonal now. We are in the old Grain Belt Brewing complex. The line goes through the Bottling House and Warehouse buildings (and the rail line between them), then crosses the wide parking lot beyond, and reaches the new Sheridan Memorial Park, which has been bulldozed but not completed. There is riprap and banking in place as we reach the river...

My next trip in December will be with a GPS to more precisely record proprty and right-of-way crossing points.