I'm not a mountain biker and I'm not looking for the gnarliest, steepest, hardest trails on the eastside of Seattle.

I'm a randonneur and I'd like to do a little bit more gravel road, dirt road, crushed lime, and hardpack trail riding than I'm currently doing. I roll on 32mm Pasela TG tires, if that gives people an idea of what I'm looking for.
What trails and/or logging road areas are good for this? For example: I'm riding the Mountain Loop 200k this weekend, which includes the 14 mile gravel section of the Mountain Loop Hwy in Granite Falls. On my commute home, I'll often ride the Redmond Ridge Trail, which varies between dirt, packed stone and mulch/chips.

Right down the hill from you, so to speak, the Snoqulamie Valley Regional Trail and the Tolt Pipeline Trail come to mind.

Have you done the Iron Horse Trail? Sadly the tunnel is closed through Snoqualmie Pass, but, still, the trail ranges from dirt to loose rocks that are too big to call gravel. And it's very scenic.

1) John Wayne Trail up Snoqualmie Pass (Rattlesnake Lake to the Tunnel). Note: I think the tunnel is closed.
2) John Wayne Trail Snoqualmie Pass to Ellensburg

3) I've never ridden it, but I think the Cedar River Trail at Maple Valley turns to gravel and will allow you to go all the way to Rattlesnake Lake via the old RR grade. If this is true, you could make a very large loop out of it from Redmond to Renton to Rattlesnake Lake back to Redmond.

Hope this helps.

oh, you could start at marymoor and ride to The Tolt, to the SVT, to the Iron Horse to the pass, and return iron horse to the svt to northbend and then via snoq falls to the the railroad connectors to issaquah and the eastside sammammish to marymoor makes for a nice big ride with an awfully high proportion of gravel.

i do a gravel mixed surface century trail ride out of seattle that goes Burke-Gilman to the Tolt, to the SVT, then to Snoqualmie Falls and the trestle over the river, then back down to snoqualmie, then along the preston connectors down to Issaquah to the eastlake Sammammish trail and return to seattle.

90 percent off road, maybe 60 percent gravel? Starting in Marymoor and including the Iron horse option and maybe a little wandering towards black diamond could get you to a 200k i suspect with a lot of out there. i think the iron horse alone is over 60k round trip from rattlesnake lane to the tunnel.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I took a quick zip around some of the Redmond Ridge trail network last night, from the Pipeline trail at the crest of Novelty Hill connecting to the Watershed trail which put me out on 133rd near Lake of the Woods subdivision. What a great series of trails, and my 32mm tires didn't have a bit of problem with it.

Bek - do you have a cue sheet for that century ride? I'd love to add some miles to it and make a 'mostly trails' 200k route for SiR.

naw, no que sheets, i just ride it. but its very straightforward as there are very few turns on the trails .

an alternate i do starting out of seattle is the i-90 corridor to issaquah, then the preston connectors to snoqualmie & up to the falls, then to the continuance of the svt to the iron horse, up to camp (used to ride thru and wind up in Cle Elum on some overnighters snoqpassultralite.jpg and on the way back to seattle take the svt from north bend back to the Tolt or at least the woodinville-duvall road to get back to the Burke and return to seattle.

Thats an under 100 mile loop from seattle to the tunnel entrance from from my recollections.

Hey Clifton - the trails up on the ridge are part of the world-famous "Thrilla" route, from the "Thrilla in Woodinvilla":

https://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.p...:Thrilla_Route

There is a regular thursday night group that rides this route, leaving from the Kiosk at the intersection of the SVT and the Puget Power Trail. Always room for one more with this group.

Another place to get your grunt in is the fire roads at Tiger Mountain. Map here:

https://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.p...Tiger_Mountain

Bek's route is a good one.

Take a look at this map (caution, it's big).

https://your.kingcounty.gov/ftp/gis/W...8_complete.pdf

From SRT:

Tolt Pipeline East
Drop down to West Snoqualmie Valley Road go right and then left on 124th across the river.
Pick up the Snoqualmie Valley Trail on the other side of the valley
Ride the trail till it ends at Tokul road. Climb up to the road, go right, left on Millpond and then left on Reining Road. Look for a set of stairs back up to the trail on your right.
At Rattlesnake Lake, pick up the Iron Horse Trail for as far as you want to go.
On your way back, instead of taking the Snoqualmie Valley Trail all the way back, drop down (off Millpond) at Snoq. Falls to 202, cross the river and take the Snoqualmie Ridge and Whitaker Trails over to the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail to the Issaquah-Preston Trail to the East Lake Sammamish Trail.

It's a great training ride.

That's a lot of water. Do you think a purifier might simplify things for you? They make UV ones that destroy DNA & RNA; it takes about 90 seconds to make a bottle full of some river drinkable. I wouldn't use it to drink out of Lake Union, but the streams up in the Cascades, near where your photo was shot, are fine. And I don't think you'd go more than a bottle or two before finding somewhere to fill up ... but then I haven't biked east of Lost Lake.

when you're bike touring in the summer, a gallon of water is not a lot. i prefer to stop less, and be able to carry more water.

i've been running wild in the woods since the 1970's and i understand issues of water and wilderness comprehensively. I'd bring a MIOX for cascades water or aquamira. or bleach but you have to titrate that so well.. i do often bring a filter, for an ultralite trip like the picture? not a chance.

i don't run the fork waterbottles on a day ride, btw. just for serious off hinterland wandering. but I do usually run standard water bottles on the forks on tours. how quickly can you go thru water bottles on a hot summer day riding doing mountain pass riding on a loaded bicycle?

exactly.

for a big mileage day with a lot of fun gravel, riding seattle to edmonds ferry, to sequim, or at least the seven cedars casino, then into the dungeness drainage and up over Bon Jon Pass and down to Quilcene, and return.


one of my favorite mixed surface rides in the state but i've always done it as an overnighter from Seattle.

There is also Duthie Hill Park in Issaquah. I have not been there before but I am checking it out this weekend! Supposedly there are 4 nice shortish xc loops.

I have ridden at Duthie (even helped build some of those trails), and I am pretty sure that's not exactly what Clifton is looking for. I would not bring a CX or rando bike in there...

If you are going there this weekend, I would suggest sunday, as there is a XC Mountain Bike race out there on saturday.

https://evergreenmtb.org/recreation/c...?event_id=8390

The 14 miles of gravel I did with one of the other randos last Saturday was exactly what I was looking for. The climb to Barlow Pass on the Mtn. Loop Highway 200k was excellent.