The Washington State Ferry system, I believe, is the largest in the U.S. Cars, trucks, horse trailers, bikes, people use it x,000's of times a day. If you live in "urban" Seattle, you can take the ferry over to Vashon, Bainbridge, Bremerton and be doing rural rides as soon as you get off the ferry.

There is a bike lane on the I90 bridge, not on the 520. You can, however, take your bike on a bus across the 520, or just ride around the Lake.

There are tons of Seattle bike routes on bikely.com or mapmyride.com.

You can get practically anywhere in the region by bike. Just get a bike with fenders and visit REI for some rain gear.

Another really good source of rides is the map "library" at the website of the Seattle Bicycle Touring Club. Just google their site, look for the maps library, and enjoy. It's organized by starting location for the rides.

If you like really long rides, look for the website of the Seattle International Radonneurs. Check out their ride calendars for their schedule of 200k/300k/600k/1200k rides, both scheduled rides and "permanents." They have a lot of creative routes that will get you all over the state of Washington.

I guess if a 1200k isn't long enough for you, you could always string two different 1200k routes together.

I'm learning lots. I should probably hop over to the commuting forum, but are there good waterproof panniers?

.....getting excited, as soon as I get comfortable riding in the wet. Up in the hills around here, sometimes moisture drips from the trees and gets the ground wet. When I go around these curves I slow WAAAAY down.

Good waterproof panniers available from Ortlieb, and REI's house brand (Novara).

I use an Arkel "Bug" commuter backpack. Most days I don't put a cover on it, but if it's really raining I put a little $15 waterproof cover on it.

Fenders + rain jacket + dry feet + warm hands, you can ride all year round.

Oops...I forgot to mention 3 other good local resources:

- Cascade.org, which is the big Seattle cycling club. Many, many links on their website
- King County bike map (available via PDF download or mail)
- City of Seattle bike map (available via PDF download or mail)

If you have the City of Seattle bike map, King County bike map, and the Seattle Bicycle Touring Club ride map you have at least two or three years of rides to do before you run out of ideas.

Seattle is pretty good for N/S routes, but honestly E/W leaves a lot to be desired. Some of that is terrain of course, but going between West Seattle and the aforementioned I-90 bridge is kind of a pain in the ass. Even the King County map conspicuously lacks E/W routes. Vashon Island is nice to ride, I do it frequently, and you can pair it up with Maury Island (linked by an isthmus) for a 50-60 mile ride. White Center is neither white nor central.

which makes it even more funny.

Generally speaking, how is the terrain? I'm sure you can do whatever you want, but if you just went for a 30 mile ride.....would it likely be flat, hilly, or a mix?

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Either hilly, a mix, or very hilly.

There are only a couple of places to do long-ish flat rides -- like one of the MUP trails, like the Burke Gilman, Sammamish River Trail. You can do a few flat miles along the waterfront.

But most is going to be rolling hills to very hilly. There are some steep but short hills in West Seattle, and if you head over to the Eastside suburbs you can do some very hill rides up and around some of the foothills of the Cascade range.

Like this:

https://www.ride4areason.org/cycling/...ap_south.shtml

^^ thanks for the link. looks like fun.

What's "the climb" in the area? Around here mt.diablo is roughly an hour (if you're quick) or in the south bay old la honda "olh" is another, slightly shorter benchmark. near berkeley we also have a 9-14 minute hill (that's work class speed to just a hair slower than me) that we time up. Anything like that around.

also,bengeboy, thanks for taking time to answer questions. I really appreciate it

Depends on your definition of "in the area"

Hurricane Ridge out on the peninsula is supposed to be awesome, though I've never done it. Around Mt. Rainier is a really beautiful area, with plenty of long climbs. Closer in, if you are a fat tire rider as well, you can ride up the gravel road on Tiger Mountain to where the paragliders take off.

any singletrack around there?

Close to White Center which has McClendon's Hardware, El Paisano (best Mexican I've had in the states), Pho 99, Full Tilt. Love it. West Seattle has Elliott Bay Brewery, Mashiko's, C&P Coffee, Bakery Nouveau, Ace Hardware, Farmer's Market.

Terrain in West Seattle can be interesting. But once you are in WS it's mostly flat, with downhills/uphills to water.
https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/steepest.htm
High Point the highest point in the city is near my house. WS also has some of the steepest streets (some are not on this map either as they are secondary streets). Takes me 30-40 min to get to work on the north side of downtown and about 45-50 minutes to get home. Slowed down mostly due to hills/traffic combo. It's a steep ride home, but keeps you in shape. This way I can eat at those places I named above.

Some single track info:
https://www.seattle.net/entertainment...untain_biking/

It's not too bad to get to I-90 from WS. Early in the morning is better than afternoons though due to traffic and upcoming construction issues.
https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/viaduct
Namely this one. But I think if you bicyle commute you won't have too much of an issue. Cyclists are going to have a much easier time navigating the streets than cars/buses IMHO.

Lots of good singletrack, how much again depending on your definition of "in the area". Tiger Mountain is not far from town and has a fair amount of decent trails. If you want something more epic, Kachess Ridge near Snoqualmie pass or the Palisades near Rainier are more in line. Depending on how for you want to travel, I did a really great ride out near Cle Elum last year that I forget the name of, but will look up if you are interested (PM me). For ease of access and fun value though, I usually head to Tolt-McDonald park out in Carnation. Huge network of singletrack and doubletrack where you can ride for hours without duplication of trails. Plus a nice climb to get to the top of the hill where all the trails are.


Also, Bakery Nouveau is RIDICULOUSLY good. I live 3 blocks from it, and its all I can do to not have a pear danish every day.

"Zoo Hill" is one of the more popular climbs in the are. It's about 2.3 miles averaging 9% grade, with some sections probably close to 20%. The average fit rider can get up it in around 20 minutes, and the record is somewhere around 10 minutes, I think.

The name of the ride is Rat-Pac. Fun ride, good hour-long climb on singletrack and fireroads, followed by a ripping singletrack descent.

If end up in West Seattle and want singletrack, you can ride your bike onto the Fauntleroy/Southworth Ferry (which leaves from West Seattle) and a 3 mile ride on the other side will take you to Banner Forest. Nice singletrack, exceptional place to ride if you have a singlespeed mountain bike.

The best place to find Mountain Bike trail information is not the link above - you want to go to the trail wiki on the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance website: www.evergreenmtb.org