Guides and Trips
Trips
This was a summer-is-finally-here loop around the south end of Lake Washington in the sunshine, with a counter-clockwise spin on Mercer Island thrown in for good measure. Mostly a chance to get out, enjoy the sunshine, the waterfront and take a few pictures, it's also proof that we actually can have a summer in the Pacific Northwest (even if its brief).After cutting through Newport Hills, the route follows the south end of...
Summer is finally here, and it's s day early. This ride was an early afternoon Independence Day shuttle through Old Town Issaquah, the Sammamish Plateau and the east side of Lake Washington. I was hoping for warm, sunny and light traffic, and got them - at least mostly, if you discount the always-heavy main drag in Sammamish. Highlights of this ride were the old style handcar rides on the tracks in front...
This ride was an afternoon loop around several of the bike trails in the Seattle metro area. Starting on the Elliott Bay waterfront, the first segment was the 8-mile circuit along the Magnolia Scenic Loop. This stretch has the only real climb, a short one up to 300' on the Magnolia Bluff. This part of the ride has some great views of Elliott Bay and Puget Sound, with Mt. Rainier visible in...
This was a there-and-back ride from Lewis Creek Park to the Kirkland Waterfront on a sunny and warm early summer day on the Eastside, with several detours to take in the hilltop and waterfront views. The route is almost entirely through residential areas but keeps to streets that either have decent shoulders and bike lanes or are low traffic.A few places to highlight that people might otherwise not think about:SE 34th Street...
The very last of the sunny and dry May weather had come to pass - and of course it took two weeks before we had another nice weekend. This ride was a long loop around rural southeast King County. I've recorded this route twice before, one in August of 2010 and again a year later. I suppose I should title this one "Landsburg - Enumclaw Two Years Later"?As before, the ride starts at...
We had a beautiful stretch of weather during May this spring - something like two straight weeks of sunshine and warm weather in the 70s. This ride was a circuit around the Bellevue Scenic Loop, a ride I've taken many times before. I decided to include this trip because I was able to get some nice pics of blue skies, Lake Washington, and clouds over Lake Sammamish and the Cascades Foothills.A perfect...
Hilltop and Somerset - and Thunderstorms
Hilltop, Washington, United States
Road biking | 11.5 miles
Road biking | 11.5 miles
OK, wasn't expecting this: Falling Trees, Thunder, Strong Winds and a Problem Forecast on an afternoon when it looked like it was just blue sky and a few little puffy clouds over to the east. But, our weather is notoriously fickle here in the NW and those little puffy clouds can turn into nice rain-sodden cumulus on a moment's notice. Which is what happened yesterday.This was a late afternoon ride around the top...
Newport Hills, May Valley, Old Town Issaquah
Hilltop, Washington, United States
Road biking | 34 miles
Road biking | 34 miles
This was a short ride around Newport Hills (no pics there, just cruising), through May Valley and on for a loop through old town Issaquah and back. We've had another weekend with sunshine (something like five in a row now - unheard of around here!) and it was a great afternoon for cycling. The rhodies are blooming in force now in downtown Issaquah so the place is awash with color and flower...
This is the century route for the 2012 Tour de Cure ride for Puget Sound. The weather for the ride was absolutely beautiful (albeit a bit chilly at the beginning) - sunny, not a cloud in the sky, with temps ramping up from the mid-40s at ride start to the mid-70s by ride end.The century route starts at Marymoor Park in Redmond and loops north towards the Snohomish valley along the wooded...
This was a short ride around May Valley, Hobart, the Cedar River Valley and East Renton Highlands. The route is a mix of mostly flat terrain through the two valleys, with gentle hills between near Hobart and Lake Francis. The Cedar River leg included a three-mile stretch along Jones Road which provides some really pretty views of horse pastures and is especially green this time of year. A climb is thrown in...
King County Farmlands and Cascade Foothills
Kummer, Washington, United States
Road biking | 53 miles
Road biking | 53 miles
This ride was a long rolling ride through rural South King County framed by geography - two rivers (Green and White) to the north and west and the Cascade foothills to the east. We've had three beautiful weekends in a row, each one better than the previous, and this was probably the jewel of them all so far. 70 degrees, sunny, barely a cloud in the sky and on a Sunday to...
This ride was a wandering loop around the south end of Lake Washington with a few extra detours added in. The first were a couple of hillclimbs in Newport, including one up SE 76th Street in Renton, which is a short (half mile) but steep climb. Some have called it the steepest hill we have in the area, although I think some parts of Squak Mountain would also come close on that...
Yesterday's ride mentioned that we'd had the most beautiful day of the year so far hands down. Until today, that is. Yesterday's sunny and warm was surpassed by today's sunnier and warmer - the third sunny weekend in a row in April! - with temps in the mid-70s.This ride is a long loop around the Sammamish Plateau, and Snoqualmie Valley, with a stop in Marymoor Park thrown in for good measure. The...
This ride was a full loop around Lake Washington on a beautiful sunny spring afternoon, running counter-clockwise (for the admittedly wimpy reason that I wanted to take the hills on the first part of the ride rather than the second half). This was, by the way, probably hands down the most beautiful day of the year we've had so far.The route starts at Lewis Creek Park on the shoulder of Cougar Mountain,...
Hard to decide exactly what to title this ride - It's really Bellevue to Kirkland to Bothell to Redmond to Sammamish to Belleuve, skirting (the west side of) Lake Washington, the Sammamish River via the Sammamish River Trail and Lake Sammamish via East Lake Sammamish Parkway. The route is a mix of some hills in the first half in Bellevue and Kirkland with flats on the second half along the SRT and...
This was a long out and back from Lewis Creek Park on the shoulder of Cougar Mountain to Golden Gardens Park on the shore of the Puget Sound. Highlights along the way included the Washington Park Arboretum, climbing up the hills near Blue Ridge to Carkeek Park, the not-quite-so-fun leg back down through Seattle's city streets near Green Lake, three bridges and a windy trip through Interlaken Park.
This was a repeat of last week's May Valley ride without the flat (there's so much tiny gravel on the sides of the roads now leftover from winter) but with extra clouds. A front was moving through and there was a pretty clear boundary between the blue skies to the west and the rainclouds coming up from the south.If we have a particularly wet spring parts of the valley become standing ponds....
A climb up Cougar Mountain with a pause to take in the views, then a loop around Squak Mtn and through May Valley. Another nice spring day and a great day for a bike ride.
Springtime loop around the South End of Lake Washington, with a slight detour in Renton to get a flat tube replaced.We had another sunny and relatively warm day, and on a Saturday to boot. This was a good chance to get to see the Lake, both sets of mountains and the cherry trees in bloom. As well as the great folks at g.h.y. bikes in Renton.
Another spring afternoon loop around Discovery Park, the Magnolia Scenic Loop and on around the Lake Union (Chesiahud) Loop. I was able to take advantage of Seattle's recent extension of the west end of the Ship Canal Trail to make for a ride that can stick to trails or lightly traveled streets and still stay within shouting distance of water for most of the circuit.The weather was perfect, and the views of...
