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Best Bike Rides Seattle
Best Bike Rides Seattle describes 41 of the greatest recreational rides in Seattle. Road rides, rail trails, bike paths, and single-track mountain bike rides all get included. Most rides are in the 5 to 30 mile range, allowing for great afternoon outings and family adventures.
320 pages, Paperback
First published May 6, 2014
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January 29, 2022
I always resisted getting something like this, since I know these guidebooks go out of date quickly, and most of the information can be cobbled together online. But I found myself reading the entires and paging through for about 15 minutes on the bookstore floor so I just grabbed it.
This contains a good mix of road, mountain, and hybrid trails, so there's something for everyone. Each entry contains vital stats, a map, a narrative description, historical highlights, sometimes B&W photos. Bike shops and restrooms along the way are very prudent inclusions. The main draw of this book are the interesting trail narrations, where the author points out interesting scenes and good rest stops. It also goes far beyond "Seattle", with loops of the islands in the Sound and the more wild trails that lead as far as North Bend and Snoqualmie.
This edition from 2014 is already out of date in some pretty significant ways: this was published before the SR99 tunnel was completed, before the bike-ped lane on the 520 bridge, before paving around Lake Sammamish, and so on. Some pretty major connections. But! I kind of like that. It's a snapshot of a time past, it doesn't really harm the core of any of the routes, and it's interesting to read about the old routes and detours.
One point of discussion I thought was missing was why some of the loops go the direction they do, or why they are prescribed to start in a certain spot. The Mercer Island loop is straightforward enough, but he prescribes a counter-clockwise loop with no discussion about why. It's not trivial to just say "well reverse the directions" because sometimes there are missing crossings or a narrow shoulder on the other side—but also, sometimes both ways are the same. If there's a good reason I have to go counter-clockwise on Mercer, I want to know why. He also simply says "start here" for most of the trails without regard to where you're coming from. If I—coming from Seattle—am riding any part of the Sammamish River Trail, I'm not going to start at Marymoor park. And start point isn't just a matter of where you're coming from, for example I prefer to start at the bottom of a climbing route, so that the return is a descent. These could use more discussion.
Speaking of climbs, the biggest miss in the book is its casual discussion of elevation. The vital stats of the trails are given at the beginning, like length in miles and potential hazards. But elevation is treated very casually, and trails are described as "hilly" or "mostly flat". Ride #5, the North Lake Washington Loop (pre-520 bridge lane), takes you through Juanita/Big Finn Hill. The ride overall is just described as "mostly hilly". In the narration, Big Finn Hill is described as "a 2-mile climb, the first of four notable climbs coming up". Big Finn Hill is not just "a 2-mile climb", it is a punishing cat3 climb, of +400 ft gain over those 2 miles, with a grade of more than 8%. Coming from the other Juanita side, it's 'easier' but still a difficult cat4 climb. It is deceptive and dangerous to send a cyclist off into something like that by saying it's "a notable climb". I ride on average 40 miles a week in the colder seasons, more in summer, but when I first accidentally did Big Finn Hill I had to consider stopping and calling for a pickup. The elevation should've been presented with numbers of how much gain over the distance, ideally with an elevation profile too to identify the problem spots. This was a big miss.
Other than that, it is an enjoyable read, and it really does get me excited to go out and ride more.
This contains a good mix of road, mountain, and hybrid trails, so there's something for everyone. Each entry contains vital stats, a map, a narrative description, historical highlights, sometimes B&W photos. Bike shops and restrooms along the way are very prudent inclusions. The main draw of this book are the interesting trail narrations, where the author points out interesting scenes and good rest stops. It also goes far beyond "Seattle", with loops of the islands in the Sound and the more wild trails that lead as far as North Bend and Snoqualmie.
This edition from 2014 is already out of date in some pretty significant ways: this was published before the SR99 tunnel was completed, before the bike-ped lane on the 520 bridge, before paving around Lake Sammamish, and so on. Some pretty major connections. But! I kind of like that. It's a snapshot of a time past, it doesn't really harm the core of any of the routes, and it's interesting to read about the old routes and detours.
One point of discussion I thought was missing was why some of the loops go the direction they do, or why they are prescribed to start in a certain spot. The Mercer Island loop is straightforward enough, but he prescribes a counter-clockwise loop with no discussion about why. It's not trivial to just say "well reverse the directions" because sometimes there are missing crossings or a narrow shoulder on the other side—but also, sometimes both ways are the same. If there's a good reason I have to go counter-clockwise on Mercer, I want to know why. He also simply says "start here" for most of the trails without regard to where you're coming from. If I—coming from Seattle—am riding any part of the Sammamish River Trail, I'm not going to start at Marymoor park. And start point isn't just a matter of where you're coming from, for example I prefer to start at the bottom of a climbing route, so that the return is a descent. These could use more discussion.
Speaking of climbs, the biggest miss in the book is its casual discussion of elevation. The vital stats of the trails are given at the beginning, like length in miles and potential hazards. But elevation is treated very casually, and trails are described as "hilly" or "mostly flat". Ride #5, the North Lake Washington Loop (pre-520 bridge lane), takes you through Juanita/Big Finn Hill. The ride overall is just described as "mostly hilly". In the narration, Big Finn Hill is described as "a 2-mile climb, the first of four notable climbs coming up". Big Finn Hill is not just "a 2-mile climb", it is a punishing cat3 climb, of +400 ft gain over those 2 miles, with a grade of more than 8%. Coming from the other Juanita side, it's 'easier' but still a difficult cat4 climb. It is deceptive and dangerous to send a cyclist off into something like that by saying it's "a notable climb". I ride on average 40 miles a week in the colder seasons, more in summer, but when I first accidentally did Big Finn Hill I had to consider stopping and calling for a pickup. The elevation should've been presented with numbers of how much gain over the distance, ideally with an elevation profile too to identify the problem spots. This was a big miss.
Other than that, it is an enjoyable read, and it really does get me excited to go out and ride more.
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