Pacific Northwest - Bellevue Area

I am going to be in the Bellevue area the week of June 8th. I am interested in suggestions for rides in the 20ish mile range that I can do in the evening when I get out of training.

Any recommendations?

I recommend the Snoqualmie Falls area, not far from Bellevue. We had a junior national championship race there and it was beautiful.

http://www.mapmyride.com/search?txtLocation=snoqualmie%2C+CA&txtKeyword=&lstSortBy=cs.view_count+desc&lstDistanceMin=&lstDistanceMax=&lstRatingMin=&lstRatingMax=&lstRouteTypeID=&btnSearch=SEARCH+%3E

The Lake Sammamish Loop is ~25 miles and passes through Bellevue. You can get the map and cue sheet (http://www.cascade.org/EandR/flying/FW_Details.cfm) at the Cascade Bike Club website.

Snoqualmie Falls is a nice area, but if you're looking for a 20 miler evening ride, it's a good 30 minute drive (without traffic) to get out there.

Depending upon where you start in Bellevue, the loop around Mercer Island (I believe it's close to 13 miles around) will get you close to 20 miles. It's easily accessable from Bellevue and provides a nice assortment of views and terrain.

Two good suggestions above:

1. Ride to Mercer Island, do the loop, back to Bellevue
2. Loop of Lake Sammamish

And, if you have another evening:

3. If you want to do an "out and back" kind of ride, just ride up Lake Washington Boulevard, through downtown Kirkland, to Juanita Bay, keep going until you get up to Kenmore, turn around and head back. There's a pretty good hill in there.
4. If you want to do hills, look on Bikely.com or mampmyride.com for climbs in the Issaquah/Lakemont area...there are some climbs up Zoo Hill, Village Park Drive, or up Squawk Mountain that are fun.

As noted above, it's not worth driving out to Snoqualmie Falls on a weeknight. Plenty of nice rides closer to Bellevue.

If you choose to do the loop around Lake Sammamish, access West Lake Sammamish Pkwy via NE 24 st. There is a hill with a nice runout zone where with little effort, one can top 50 mph. Also, less evening traffic than Bel-Red Road.