Medic Zero

Well, if we are going to quibble, I'll point out that in my post where you quoted it and highlighted it, I said "winter and spring", i.e. October, November, and Decembers above historical averages are outside the time period I got quoted. If you want to include the full rainy season, fine, but that doesn't make what I said wrong.

I wish the frost had been heavier in my region, as I saw no need to mount my Hakkapelittas and try them out, and I was itching to do so.

In my experience the Puget Sound is filled with micro-climates. I have a friend who lives in a little valley near Rainier Beach and her weather can be significantly different than the surrounding area for example. I understand that many people relate to being in Seattle, when they are actually not in the downtown metro area proper, but frankly if you don't happen to live right where I do and commute to where I do at the times I do, we are likely to have very different experiences. It probably helps that my 12 hour shifts often have one of my commutes happening near sunset when the weather often calms.

zacster

Hmmm, makes me happy I came back to Brooklyn. (Not really).

I went back to Seattle 2 years ago to a forecast of a week of rain, and sure enough, it rained. When I lived there I just didn't ride in the rain, plus it gets dark pretty early in the winter so no after work rides. I just gave up riding in those months. But when it is possible to ride it is just a beautiful place.

I rode through this winter here in NYC, with only a few weeks with snow where I wouldn't ride. Oh, and this thing about a hurricane. I actually was one of the few people to show up at my office in Midtown immediately after Sandy when I biked in. It was great, no traffic in lower Manhattan after the power went out for almost a week. I know what the apocalypse will look like, it will be hordes of people lining up to charge their cell phones in the few places with power.

Crimsonghost

Since im all settled in now, i figured id post an update. So ive been here going on 2 weeks now and have gotten about 5 rides in. Would like to have gotten more, but ether cant find the time or its been too damn hot! The weather is defiantly interesting, although ive been talking to the locals and they say its pretty uncommon for this time of year. Personally i really like riding in the rain, so all this wetness isnt bothering me at all. In fact i think its getting me out more then i would be normally.

Ive mostly been sticking to this. I live in the central(?) distirict, so ive just been riding down to madison park and taking the lake from there. Think im going to try and do something more adventurous today though.

Overall, its nice here. Most of the riding im doing has very little (if any) traffic, and aside from that little heatwave last week the weather has been great (imo).

Anyway, thanks again for all the suggestions.

Seattle Forrest

Do you have a car, Crimsonghost?

Seattle is a beautiful city (when the weather is clear enough to see), and it took me years of riding every day before it started to get a little "old hat." But eventually you ride every road in town.

We have gorgeous surroundings, too. The roads up Mt Rainier and Mount Baker are fantastic; they're a workout (and a rewarding ride back down) with amazing scenery. There are a lot of quieter mountain roads with beautiful but less iconic surroundings. Highway 101 hugs the northern Pacific and doesn't have much traffic. Chuckanut (sp?) is hugely popular for its views, so is Deception SP. We've got a sagebrush desert a few hours away, coulee country, etc. When you feel like mixing it up, you can put the bike in the back seat and go enjoy a great ride somewhere else.

Crimsonghost

Yeah, I do have a car. Be been looking into doing some driving to rides. Deception looks cool, I'm just not sure I want to drive an hour and a half. Rainer look awesome also, but I'm not really sure where to go (it is a pretty big mountain lol). I think about 45 min to an hour would be the farthest id like to drive.

My my inlaws just bought a house in gig harbor, so I think I'm going to start trying to figure out a good route to get there. Any suggestions?

Seattle Forrest

Gig Harbor is nice. I know there's a way to get from there to Seattle on a bike, but I don't know what it is.

Within 45 to 60 minutes, you can drive to West Seattle and take the Vashon Ferry, then ride a loop around the island. People love it, I did it on a foggy day and didn't get any views, so I don't have much good to say. Or you could catch the Bainbridge Ferry from downtown and do the same, I did the Chilly Hilly and had fun, you can follow the same route minus the crowd (or wait for the end of Feb). You can get to exit 47 (from I-90) pretty quickly, park at the Pratt Lake TH, and ride over Snoqualmie Pass on back roads. Some of the river valleys have nice riding, I think Monroe to Snohomish was really pleasant, and had a nice lunch spot.

But in the spring you really have to drive farther. Around March or April when the sun starts coming out more reliably and the snow begins to melt, you need to do some of the rides outside of Leavenworth, up Teanaway River Road, and on the North Cascades highway. Maybe the Skagit Tulip Flats, too.

zacster

All the years I lived in Seattle I had a car, but now that I think about it I never put the bike in the car to start a ride outside the city. Maybe I missed something there.

Seattle Forrest

Seattle has some very beautiful surroundings, some of them in road bike range, and some of them farther than you can get to and back in a day. Cyclists out here should take their bike for a drive every now and then.

I hope you don't mind a few ride photos from outside of town?

This was the end of Tumwater Canyon in the spring, about two hours drive from Seattle. Spring comes early on the east side, you can usually escape those gloomy days.



Leavenworth is a tourist town on the eastern slope of the Cascades. Some great rides from here go into the Icicle Canyon, a loop to Plain and back, and a loop to Wenatchee and back.



Here's Darrington, maybe an hour and a half from Seattle. If you don't have tires for dirt, there are really only a couple rides from here, but the out-and-back to Rockport, which takes you along the Sauk River.



Somewhere on the way to Wenatchee:



The way back down from Chinook Pass, Mt Rainier, which isn't doable until at least March:



An hour and a half on I-90 gets you to Cle Elum, where you can park and then head up Teanaway River Road.



Here are a couple from the North Cascades Highway, a little more than two hours drive from Ballard.









I'm a mountains kind of guy, the beaches don't excite me. But there's a lot of great waterfront riding, too. Some of it in town, some of it in places like Chuckanut and Deception State Park.

Medic Zero

Yeah. The ferry from Seattle to Bremerton, then the Kitsap Foot Ferry from Bremerton to Port Orchard, then cycle from Port Orchard to Gig Harbor. The ferry to Bremerton is about an hour. The ferry across the harbor from Bremerton to Port Orchard is maybe ten minutes. They've got two or three boats, if you're lucky you'll get the Carlisle II, which dates back to 1917 and is filled with historic pictures, it's basically a floating museum that is also a ferry.

Cycling from Port Orchard ferry dock to Gig Harbor is about 17 miles, but I bet if you followed the coastline it'd be quieter (less traffic) and if it was clear you'd get some great views. If you were looking to put in more miles, following the coastline via Beach Road/ Colchester/ Sedgewick/ Banner/ Crescent/ 160th St/ 14th Ave/ Hallstrom/ Drummond/ Harborview puts you at about 32 miles. Note that Banner Road takes you right past Banner Forest which has mountain biking trails. While these routes are longer than from the West Seattle (Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth) ferry, the ride from the Central District to West Seattle ferry dock is at least 9 miles, while from the Central District to the Colman Ferry Dock (downtown Seattle) is less than 3 miles. Depends on your preferences. I've ridden through West Seattle lots of times, and I don't feel it has much to offer unless you go the long way around Alki Point and follow the coastline as best you can. Going the long way turns that into a 13+ mile ride by itself. No matter which way the wind is blowing, it always seems to be a headwind around Alki and as you turn south I seem to remember feeling like I'm battling with traffic, no matter how light. In order to get out to West Seattle to begin with its an uninteresting ride through the industrial area that I find rather bleak, and I'm normally a fan of industrial architecture and darkness! If time is a factor though, riding to the Fauntleroy ferry dock and then riding from Southworth to Gig Harbor is going to be faster, the ferry ride is a little shorter, even factoring in that it is going to stop on the way at Vashon Island and partially unload and load more, and then your ride from Southworth to Gig Harbor would be shorter too.

I haven't ridden from Port Orchard to Gig Harbor, but I've ridden from Olympia to Seattle, and the way I did it was up to Port Orchard and via ferry from there to Bremerton and on to Seattle. I have been eyeing a route along the coastline there for a ride a couple of times.

For the ferry from Seattle, you pay on the Seattle side and ride your bike on board before all the cars and tie up to the rail at what will be the front of the boat. They have ropes there. The ferry dock to Port Orchard is down below the arrival area at the Bremerton dock. Take the elevator down. The service is technically the "Kitsap Foot Ferry", but I e-mailed them before my trip and they said bikes are welcome. The time I took it I was only one of a handful of people on it, and for the Carlisle you just put your bike wherever convenient in the main area inside. Lay it down so you can check out the pictures throughout the little vessel of the historic "Mosquito Fleet" it was part of! IIRC, the fare was a whopping two dollars. Bikes only pay outbound from Seattle on the Washington State Ferries (same with most (all?) westerly trips from the east side of Puget Sound). For the return trip, ride right past the tollbooths and to where you see the other cyclists gathered, probably near the motorcycles.

https://www.kitsaptransit.com/Footferry.html

Ignore the Annapolis Ferry listing at the bottom, that is a ferry only to and from the Navy Yard for workers there, no public allowed. On the map, it is the ferry dock to the northeast about a mile, don't wait for it on the way back by mistake!

If you are passing through Bremerton, there's a pretty good Navy museum in Bremerton just barely a block or two from the ferry dock, and just a few blocks to the northeast of the ferry terminal there is a Destroyer (the Turner Joy) that is a museum ship as well. Both worth the visit in my opinion. I had visited the Navy museum years ago and it was tiny, but sometime since then they moved into a nice new facility that has a lot more space and displays. Lots of good Rosie the Riveter stuff (from both World Wars) and interesting local shipyard history featured along with the navy stuff.

Medic Zero

You definitely did! It's amazing around here once you get away from the cities. I'm in a similar boat to you, I've lived here for twenty years and any time I got time off work I ended up leaving the state. It is only in the past few years that I started exploring Washington State. Between the train and the ferries you have some other options for getting out of town as well. My girlfriend and I were able to get up to the southern end of Whidbey Island and back between the time she got off work on a Tuesday afternoon and before either of us had to start our evening shifts on a Friday. The ferries make a great way to leapfrog out of the city on a bike.

Medic Zero

Check out my post, two posts up!

Medic Zero

"But when it is possible to ride" - Does not compute! I ride everyday, even when it snows!

zacster

At least I didn't let the rain stop me when I was in Seattle that last time. I left my hotel with my bike rain or shine, but usually only a drizzle, and three times got caught in heavy downpours. I was out at Marymoor one sunny morning, and saw the grey approaching and ended up riding back from Microsoftland to downtown in a driving rain that only let up when I came through the bike tunnel. And of course I got lost in Bellevue, since the roads have changed some since I moved out 25 years ago. (there was no bikeway along 520 when I lived there, and why does it end where it does? It didn't connect to anything.)

woodway

No idea why they ended it there (probably funding), but when the new 520 bridge opens in 2015 we will be able to exit the current trail, ride Northup west to 108th and pick up a new bike path at 108th which will take us across the 520 bridge. Not sure if they plan to fill in the section between the current trail end and 108th, but this is progress.

https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres...dFactSheet.pdf

Seattle Forrest

Sorry. I start to read everything, but I sort of lose focus when a bunch of place names come up and I don't know them well enough to put them in context. You're right, now I've got a nice route on my to-do list.

Medic Zero

Oh please don't be sorry! You just had said you didn't know of other ways to get over there, so I just wanted to make sure you saw my post about another way to get over there, especially since I think it is a pleasant and interesting alternative way to go.

zacster

I just looked at the map of where the 520 path goes and now I see why I was so lost. It leaves you in the corner of the 520/405 interchange and I think I went north instead of south for a bit, only to go back around, plus it was a lot further up than I thought. I thought I was a lot closer to Bellevue, and then the bridge is even further past that. When I lived there I knew all that, but it had been a really long time ago. Plus, to my original point, it was pouring down rain. I spent a good deal of time under the bridge when I got there, eating and drinking, hoping the rain would let up some. Instead it got worse over Mercer Island, another place that looked completely different. I couldn't follow the bike route signs across because of the rain and ended up on the wrong side.

JackoDandy

Ride while you can my friend. The end of October signals the 'wet season' which typically lasts until June. I kid you not Youve had the 'fun Seattle' experience, here comes the WOW factor.

Crimsonghost

This is starting to get depressing. HAHA. Im seeing all these great rides outside of Seattle, but i just don't think ill ever have the time to drive that far for a ride.

Does anyone have any maps/routes they've uploaded? Might make it a little easer for me to figure out where im trying to go. I really want to get out and see some sites, but time/money is a bit of an issue atm.

BTW, great pic Forrest. Keep em coming

daihard 

Ditto!

I've been riding a lot on the three main trails in the area - Interurban, Burke-Gilman and Sammamish River trails - since I started riding in July. I also bike to neigbourhoods like Ballard, Fremont, U-District and what not, as well as commuting to DT 3-4 times a week. Riding on roads has a different fun factor than riding on trails. Both are fun, though.

One place I've been meaning to ride to is the Edmonds waterfront. Seattle Forrest or Magic Zero showed me a good route off the Interurban down there, but I just can't find the directions anymore. Could either of you refresh my memory?

Seattle Forrest

That seems to be pretty common. My mom used to live on Mercer Island (MI), it was often colder, darker, or rainier there than in Seattle proper. There have been a number of times I've taken I-90 out to the mountains and hit rain or fog on MI that wasn't in the city or suburbs. I think it's just that it's surrounded by so much water.

A friend sent me this today:



I spent a slice of the weekend in the North Cascades, it was sunny and warm as far as Darrington, but a few miles to the west it was thick fog out to the coast.

Sometimes you can escape the gloom.

Seattle Forrest

Sorry, daihard, I don't have much good info on Edmonds. I did a ride up there once, but it was kind of random and haphazard. I think the preferred way to go is the Interurban trail. I'm pretty sure it doesn't go by the water front, but you should be able to take back roads to get down there.

How far are you willing to drive?

My answer used to be "zero miles." At this point it's probably up to about 150. There's just so much fantastic country not too far out, and I enjoy covering new ground on the bike. I can send you some GPS data for some routes, I'm not sure if any of it will be stuff you're interested in or not. I really haven't done much riding around the coast, I'm a mountains kind of guy.

Some of the river valleys and farm communities around here are pretty nice, too. There's a loop from Monroe to Sultan and back, another one from Monroe to Snohomish and back, both of these were pretty low key and pleasant. There are some nice rides out of Granite Falls, Arlington, and pretty much all those little towns. They don't have jaw dropping scenery, but they're a lot closer.

Anyway, how far are you willing to drive, what's a good ride length, and what are you out to see? I'll try to come up with some better route suggestions with that.

Medic Zero

Here ya go! -

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...y-from-Seattle

and:

https://forums.mtbr.com/washington/news-japanese-gulch-$2-5m-grant-snohomish-county-875675.html#post10695141

Medic Zero

I don't have any maps uploaded and the only routes I have are basically lists for cue sheets. What neighborhood are you starting from?

Crimsonghost

I think a good starting point would be about 60-70 miles out. Granite falls and Arlington both looks like good starting points for me. Just to get used to actually driving out somewhere and making sure i have the time to do it. And since im still trying to work myself back into good shape, id say any ride under 40 miles would be good. Climbing doesnt bother me at all, so im not afraid of hills.

Think im going to go try a 30mile loop out at Granite today. Guess the only thing i need to figure out is where to park my car (im a city guy, so that stuff always worries me, haha).
@Medic;

Im in central Seattle. Like i said above though, i think about 60-70 miles drive for me would be doable atm. But you have anything leaving from, or passing by my hood, that would be great.

Ill let you know how the ride goes to day.