'classic' seattle bike routes
 

hey seattle! i've been contacted by a cycling publication to map out a series of "classic" seattle routes.

here's my list so far; i'd like to have about 10 routes in the end:

1) lake wa loop
2) two lakes loop (variation of #1, adding loop around Sammamish as well)
3) mercer island loop
4) cougar mountain
5) the mountain passes (snoqualmie pass, stevens pass)
6) chilly hilly?

so... what routes would you like to see published as one of "seattle's greatest bike routes?"

they don't need to be crazy, or hard, just popular.

(btw rides like the STP would be nice, but i'd like to have these rides start and end in the seattle area)

The Flying Wheels 25 mile loop around Lake Sam. I love that ride.

A more urban ride would be nice, too:

You can start this loop anywhere, but one version is:

- Start in Seward Park, go up Lake Washington all the way through Madison Park, across the bridge to Burke Gilman trail
- Burke Gilman west through Fremont and Ballard to the Locks. Walk your bike across the locks.
- Up to Discovery Park, do the loop on Magnolia Blvd. around Magnolia
- Down Thorn**** Ave in Magnolioa to catch bike path and head back to downtown to Myrtle Edwards Park
- Visit Olympic Sculpture Garden
- Through downtown along the waterfront, through Pioneer Square, through International District, up the bike path to top of Mt. Baker tunnel, down the hill back to Lake Washington Blvd.

If this is not clear, let me know and I'll map it out on veloroutes.org for you.

I've always thought this would be a cool route for a visiting cycling enthusiast 'cause you can catch a number of interesting bike shops on the way:

- Il Vecchio and that triathlon shop in Leschi
- Recycled Cycles on Boat st.
- Quick detour up to R&E cycles to look at custom Rodriguez
- Back to Burk Gilman, go to Fremont, see FreeRange Cycles
- While in Ballard see that new folding bike/electric bike shop (Folding Bikes West?)
- When back in downtown Seattle visit Elliott Bay Cycles.

Anyone who likes classic bikes would get a kick out of Il Vecchio and Elliott Bay.

I personally like the Interurban Trail going north. There is some art along the way, that's fun to look at while riding--some of the art could turn into "animation" if you ride by fast enough. Some day I'll take the time to ride to Everett and back.

Problem is, it's a trail, then, not a trail and jags over to a trail again, etc. And, I don't know the street names well enough to map it out on veloroutes.org. Maybe there's a linky for it somewhere (I'll look and edit this post if I find it.)

ah yes, the flying wheels routes are nice. thx for the reminder!

i like the bike-shop-tour route! sounds kind of similar to the "five summits of seattle" ride that a friend and i do. i definitely need more urban routes to balance out the riding i usually do (open country roads on the east side)

yes, the trail systems would be good. interurban to the north, and south. i've gotten to know the northern route pretty well, but yeah the off-trail parts are tricky. i don't even know the street names, i just know how to nav it from sight.

thx all for the replies! i can't promise that all of these routes will make it in the 'final cut,' but i definitely wanted to get an outside perspective.

Gas Works Park to Marymoor Park and back via the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish River Trails. It's an easy, flat 50 mile round-trip.

Woodinville - Snohomish - Monroe - Duvall loop. Much of this is on the flying wheels 100 mile route, but not the Lk. Sammammish loop mentioned above. Variations of this are popular with local racing teams on saturday mornings. Obviously there are a million variations, but here's one I like, 45 miles, start and finish at the redhook brewery (allows parking, on the samm. riv. trail, so easy to connect to). Easy to extend north for a loop around Lk. Roesiger or south to come up ames lake, tolt hill or other typical snoq. valley return routes.

Oh, another very popular loop is from Leschi south to renton, then Cedar River Trail to Cedar Grove Road, up to Iss-Hobart and return via May Valley road, coal ck., I-90, always lots of cyclists on that route.

I think your Couger Mt. ride should be a loop, at least, showing descent down lakemont or village park drive.

If you want more urban rides, look up the POS (perimeter of seattle) route that somebody posted on Bikely, 80 odd miles to ride the boundary of the city. I haven't done the whole thing at a shot, but I've done most it at various times and it seems like a very cool urban adventure.

Edmonds express past Shoreline community college and return.

+1

One more in that area -- there are some nice loops out around Black Diamond. you can start in Black Diamond, ride out to the Green Valley Gorge, along the Green River Valley toward Auburn, go to Flaming Geyser State Park, then pick one of several ways to get back up to Black Diamond.

Also, Matt, the maps library at the Seattle Bicycle Touring Club has lots of good routes.

http://www.seattlebiketours.org/

Don't forget the "extra miles" to the Red Hook Brewery.

Ok, ok, so, it might be an extra 0.25 mile RT, but, it is extra. And tasty.

the seattle to alki to the ferry dock to top of west seattle and return is pretty seattle classic as well, include the downtown to ballard locks golden gardens to fremont bridge and return and you've got a seattle classic.

the gasworks to arboretum/seward park is classic seattle ride, but short.

gasworks to Snohomish for pie via BG/ top of the hill in woodinville, Maltby Broadway/ Springetti, return high bridge road to woodinville duvall highway and return to seattle.


if you are writing an article about classic seattle loop rides, the mountain passes are NOT classic rides. those are suffer fests undertaken by randos and the seattle to spokane in a day crowd......

lots of good suggestions.. thanks all!

yes and no.

i didn't mean to say classic as in only the oldest or most popular routes in seattle. what i'm trying to do is show the varied terrain we have out here, maybe even routes people haven't done yet. as well as popular routes.

and the woman i talked to on the phone liked the idea, so i guess we'll just have to let the editor decide.

if i really wanted to be crazy, i'd try to get them to include this ride i'm doing next weekend:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3197/...g?v=1220724093

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...00k-West-Ridge

'trying to show the varied terrain we have here' by misleading the reading public of a national bicycling publication about 'classic rides' out of seattle?


Heres' 3 long but classic Seattle rides

the Hood Canal Loop, Bremerton Ferry to Bainbridge Ferry, 115 miles.

Bainbridge Island to Port Townsend and back is a little over a century and a seattle area 'classic'. Great views, rolling terrain, great out and back to a very classic destination.

And a little shorter, make it 60-70 miles, is Seattle to Edmonds, ferry boat to other side, ride past Chief Seattle' grave, up to Hood Canal Bridge, to Poulsbo (bakery stop) and to Bainbridge island and return. riding past Chief Seattle's Grave makes this an area classic and some rightously fine country road riding as well.


considering the Stevens speedway or Snoqualmies' interstate tedium 'classic Seattle rides?' - come on!!!

Seattle does NOT have good mountain pass riding, Matt. don't make it out like it does, that's misleading.

(you want a route people haven't done yet much over varied terrain within striking distance of Seattle, check out Bon Jon Pass and the Quilcene crossover. about 130 miles r/t from Seattle to Sequim to Quilcene to Seattle

Speaking of Bainbridge Island... the Chilly Hilly ride is a nice 33-ish mile loop tour of the island.

The Gasworks- Fremont bridge - Nickerson - Interbay - Dravus Street - Thorn**** - Magnolia Loop - Locks - Gasworks loop or the reverse is a classic Seattle ride.

Gasworks - Seward Park - Gasworks is good.

U District to Volunteer park via Interlaken is worth a mention.

There's lot's of good riding on Whidbey Island, in fact I think there's a pretty cool loop north from Everett through the Skagit flats over to Deception Pass, down Whidbey Island to Mukilteo and then back to Everett.

Since these are 'classic' routes, I have a question about your Lake Washington Loop. I've always gone through the Arboretum and then down Lake Washington Blvd and Seward Park Ave to connect to Rainier Ave. Isn't this the typical, classic route? Also; what is that little jog at Juanita Bay? Don't you stay on the main road and follow it through rather than making a right on 116th and a left on 98th?

well it depends on who you ask. stand on the BG trail, and yeah few will even know that the passes are ridable. go to Ramrod, and they've probably done one or more of them. and of course randos ride them all the time. consider also that Ramrod & HPC get hundreds of ridres each year; mtn passes are actually pretty popular (ok maybe not 90, but you get my drift). no they aren't the most popular routes around, but they show how awesome our terrain is.

having said that... given that i actually need to ride all the routes in question, i probably can't squeeze in any pass rides anyway, so that pretty much decides it. i'm planning on keeping it in and around the city for the most part.

those are some good routes, thx

that Lake Wa loop route was an old one, not what would be published. the published one would skip Rainier Ave and take Lake Wa Loop through the Seward Park area. and the little jog on the east side was just a mapping error on my part.

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for the record, i really regret ever typing the word 'classic' in this thread. i should have just said "good seattle routes" or something less grand!

i've ridden most of the passes around WA state, matt.

riding interstate 90 over a 3,500 foot pass is not classic seattle riding, it would be pretty hard to call it awesome... nor is stevens pass considered, in any way shape or form, a 'seattle classic' ride.

it's might be a Washington classic- not even a 'classic', but a tedious, busy, narrow shouldered speed zone for most of it... seattle classic it isn't. Why not include Highway 20 as well? - it's got much better scenery.

there's great terrain closer in. take a look at the west sound routes, there are some great classic rides out that aways. check out the Edmonds express, there's a fifty mile an hour descent right there in the city behind the school there.

and definetly theSeattle/BG Woodinville to Snohomish via Maltby/ Broadway and the High Bridge Return to Woodinville/Duvall old road.

CLASSIC!

the peninsula behind bremerton has some good stuff, seabeck belfair area..... kitsap rocks the boat!

(and that pesky Burke-Gilman, well, it is the main gateway to the north and west of the city, I think you'll have to give it a nod (as part of greater rides or as a stand alone)

just trying to help you represent accurately, matt!