Originally Posted by
MillCreek
I have done this same route many times, both on dual-sport motorcycles and on mountain bikes. You will be fine. You will see that there is a fair amount of vehicular traffic on the road, even on the holiday. A nice loop is to ride up from Granite Falls, do the Mountain Loop to Darrington, then connect to the Whitehorse Trail in Darrington, which then connects to the new expansion of the Centennial Trail. You can then ride Centennial all the way back down to Snohomish.
Depending on if the County has gotten out there yet, be advised that the gravel portion of the Loop can have washouts and significant potholing early in the season.
I tried to spot the Whitehorse trail and it looked TOTALLY unfit or riding. I'm on a touring bike w/ cyclocross tires which is fine travelling through the loop. But back to the Whitehorse. Where do you catch it out of Darrington? Arlington? Is it loose gravel? I've wanted to ride this as the Arlington/Darrington road is pretty dangerous in my view. The first 7 miles or so out of Darrington are ok but then you hit a long stretch there with no shoulders and it's busy as hell. Thus my interest in Whitehorse. Maybe I was looking at the wrong path, but I found an old overgrown path with railroad bridges that were not being used near the Lake Cavennaugh (sp?) Road that was discouraging.