Strike 3

I've been trying to find a better way out of Woodinville for this weekend's ride to Vancouver BC.  There are a couple of miles of road that I'd like to avoid if possible because of turning traffic, poor sightlines, or no shoulders.  Today I rode out there to preview my third attempt at finding a better way.

A secondary purpose of today's ride was to get somewhere near 90 miles, with the 200 miles I'll get this weekend on the ride to Canada this will put me over 1000 miles for the month.  Once a common occurrence, this will be my first thousand mile month this year. Most months have been near 200 miles.

As I pedaled out the BG Trail I came across a truck stockpiling chips.

I had an early enough start today that it was still breakfast time at McDonalds in Kenmore.  I stopped for "a Big Breakfast with Hotcakes and a small orange juice, for here please".

After that brief stop I continued the ~4 miles to Wilmot Gateway Park.  I followed my third iteration of  a route northward.  It was an improvement over the previous two attempts, but there were some 20% pitches that I found I could avoid by taking a short gravel pathway between two dead end neighborhood streets. It will have to do, I'm running out of time and patience.  It seems that Woodinville is just not very friendly toward bikes.

I dropped back off the highlands and ended up across the river from Red Hook Brewery.  I crossed the river and got back on the Sammamish River Trail.

My soft plan today was to ride three out and backs, Queen Anne to Red Hook(ish), Fremont to Golden Gardens, and Ballard to Alki Beach.

I pedaled along the Sammamish River Trail to the Burke-Gilman which would take me all the way to  Golden Gardens.  It was a nice day for biking.

As I passed through Fremont I noted these colorful bikes. I have no idea what they were for, they were all penned up with access only from the building to the left.

I got to Golden Gardens quickly, assisted by a tailwind.

Having reached the end of the road in this direction, I turned around and went back to the Hiram Chittenden Locks.  I played tourist for a bit, watching boats passing through the locks and fish swimming through the fish ladder.

At this point I received information that my day to pedal was being cut short. I had been dallying around more than I should have been, and now had to pedal harder to get my miles in.  For a moment I thought about cutting it short, I do have a few days left of the month yet to get the miles, but the sun was shining.  That is never a sure thing this time of year, so I turned up to Magnolia then back around to the Elliot Bay Trail.  I was pedaling into the wind for much of this.  At the Alki Lighthouse I turned around and rode with a tailwind back to the Ship Canal.  I turned at Seattle Pacific University and took the Kralik Way back up the hill.

I had a good ride, and got the miles that I wanted.



.......Road bike........Rollers.......MTB.......Lifecycle....Total
Today........99...............0..............0..............0..............99
Jan..........765.............0..............0..............0.............765
Feb..........248............0..............0..............0..............248
March......183...........0...............0.............0...............183
April........228...........0...............0.............0...............228
May.........200............0..............0.............0...............200
June.........199...........0...............26...........0...............225
July..........246...........0...............0.............0...............246
August.....502...........0...............0.............0...............502
Sept..........760...........0..............44............0...............804
Total........3331.........0...............70............0..............3401