More Progress Made on USBR 10

By John Pope | Published September 16, 2013

Hwy 20 landslides don’t deter route finding efforts

Washington Bikes board member John Pope spent the summer researching route options for USBR 10 in north central and northeast Washington. He reports on his progress in this blog post.

Destination signs in WinthropNow that the USBR10 route nomination is settled through Skagit County, I packed bike, maps, computer and note paper and left to explore Okanogan and Ferry County sections. On the way I visited with National Parks folks and US Forest Service folks, mayors, chamber directors, trail managers and touring cyclists to get a first impression of the route through north-central Washington.

I had hoped to kick off north-central Washington with an organized meeting of municipal road managers/engineers/planners in Okanogan County, but we were unable to get that to come together in August (duh, vacations affect us all!). I was fortunate to make it over Rainy Pass/Washington Pass less than a week before the first of two slides shut down the North Cascades Highway during August and September.

Some memorable moments:

• A great discussion over a bike repair stand with the mayor of Winthrop (he owns the bike shop near the Winthrop Barn at the west edge of town). He said, “You know there aren’t many options to consider here.” In a five minute discussion we agreed on the best route from Mazama to Twisp, taking advantage of two low traffic back roads.

Winthrop-Twisp Road offers scenic, low-traffic cycling.

Winthrop-Twisp Road offers scenic, low-traffic cycling.

• Nice riding in Twisp on the Twisp-Winthrop Eastside road and the Twisp-Carlton (westside) road (this section could be part of an alternate route).

• Long conversations with the Okanogan city councilman running unopposed for Mayor. Okanogan’s pleasant Lions Park along the Columbia River makes a great camping spot for touring cyclists. We liked following SR215 to old downtown Omak before cutting to the east side of the river at the Stampede Grounds.

• Met a true Trail Angel in Tonasket. Linda Black, director of the Tonasket Visitor and Business Resource Center next to city hall, allows cyclists to camp on the center’s back lawn. The restroom, open all night for campers, has warm showers and the site has WiFi! The campers help stimulate local business and from their registration comments certainly appreciate the town’s hospitality. What a great idea!

• Found some of the most unusual and beautiful country roads in the state while checking on alternates to the Tonasket – Republic stretch on SR20. Havillah, Chesaw, Toroda contain breathtaking “lost in time” stretches and back country splendor with few visitors.

• Rode the Boulder Creek Summit alternate to Sherman Pass. Nearly zero traffic on this forest service road. Not as scenic as Sherman, but not as much elbow burn.

• Fell in love with the Pend Oreille River byway, Le Clerc Road from Ione to Newport/Old Town. It has three FS campgrounds, pleasant and swimmable.

USBR10 is not for the faint of heart. You cover roughly 450 miles and have to negotiate four passes and two major summits. You must be prepared for long distances between water sources, western side wet and alpine weather to eastern side dry heat, seasonal and slide-induced pass closures. But the rewards are incredible. Beautiful North Cascades vistas, refreshing rivers, quiet country towns and friendly residents come with this special territory!

Related Reading

Exploring the Methow Valley on Two Wheels

We’re making progress on USBR 10

Posted in Economic Impact, News, Okanogan County, Stevens County, Tourism, Travel, USBRS | 2 Comments

What to Tell the State Senate About Bike Transportation

By Barb Chamberlain | Published September 12, 2013

This fall citizens who care about transportation have 10 opportunities around the state to tell the state senate what priorities will move our state forward when a transportation revenue package is adopted. In Bellevue, Everett, Wenatchee, Yakima, Tri-Cities, Spokane, Vancouver, Tacoma, Seattle, and Bellingham from Sept. 17-Oct. 15, you need to speak up for smart, healthy, cost-effective transportation networks that mean safety and jobs for all of us.

You can also submit comments at www.senatetranspofeedbackforum.org. You’ll need to enter Biking/Walking in the “Other” field where they ask for your primary transportation concern. (Perhaps your first concern is that it’s an “Other” instead of being on the list!)

If you have your own story about what it means to invest in biking, like the story Stella’s mom told about biking to school in Kirkland or the support from Vancouver to Anacortes for local trail projects or Frank’s success as a teacher getting kids on bikes in Tukwila, tell the legislature. Additional points you can share with the Senate, your own legislators (look them up online and send an email), and Gov. Inslee:

  • Washington only works when all people who bike, walk, take transit, and drive have an equal opportunity to get where we need to go safely and efficiently. We need future-oriented transportation investments that represent our values and share our priorities for safety, jobs, and health.
  • Cost-effective investments in biking and walking transportation are good for drivers too; they increase safety for all while they keep people moving and reduce pollution from Washington’s roadways.
  • Safe, comfortable, complete bike networks attract businesses, a talented workforce, tourists, and home buyers to help grow Washington’s economy.
  • Bikes mean jobs: Biking and walking investments create 40% more jobs per dollar spent than for other transportation projects.
  • Many people can’t or shouldn’t drive—the young, the old, people with disabilities and issues that prevent them from driving, people who can’t afford to own and operate a car. They still need to get to work, to school, to the doctor and the grocery store. Washington needs a transportation system that creates transportation independence and choice for all, not just for some.
  • Investments in Safe Routes to School to help kids walk and bike have improved safety with zero collisions or injuries at all Safe Routes project sites, and have helped our kids get more active and arrive at school ready to learn. We need to keep this up to make the next generation healthier.
  • In Washington driving user fees (gas taxes, licenses, tolls) fund less than half the cost of our streets and roads. We all pay for streets—we should all be able to move freely and safely.
  • The only acceptable transportation revenue proposal is one that includes biking/walking investments and fixes our transportation crises: Fix our crumbling roads and bridges, make our streets safer and cleaner for everyone, keep our buses moving, and finish the job of creating a system with real connections for everyone.

When the legislature comes to your town, show up to show them you care. Speak up to tell them your story. Stand up for biking and walking, for fixing our roads, for investing in the transportation system of the future. It takes every one of us to make sure Washington bikes.

Posted in Advocacy, Alert, Economic Impact, Funding/Policy, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, Kids, Legislature, News, Safe Routes to School, Safety, Tourism, Transportation, WSDOT | 1 Comment

Bike Rides to Keep You Pedaling Into Fall

By Louise McGrody | Published September 11, 2013

It may be football season and the kids are back in school, but keep your bike handy for some weekend riding! These upcoming bike rides support our statewide bike advocacy and education efforts:

This Sunday is the 6th Annual Cycle the WAVE. This women-only bike ride offers a choice of four fun routes that start/end at Issaquah High School, and puts on a festive finish line reception. Look for our booth at the finish line!

Columbia_Lk Roosevelt near Kettle Falls - Blzing Saddles

Columbia River views on Blazing Saddles Bike Ride. Photo: Colville Rotary

Get ready for some heat on September 21 with the 1st Annual Blazing Saddles Bike Ride! Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Colville, this fully supported ride offers century, metric century and 40-mile course options, plus a Family Fun Ride. Riders will get views of Columbia River/Lake Roosevelt as they pedal through the woodlands and agricultural areas of rural northeast Washington. And if the ride doesn’t heat you up enough, sample the entries at the Northwest International Chili Cook-off. Your ride wristband is your admission to this event.

The fun continues into October when the Town of La Conner presents the Boneshaker Bicycle Festival on October 26. This family-friendly, Halloween inspired event is a celebration of all things bicycle. Seven self-guided routes offer Cascade views as you pedal through the scenic Skagit Valley. The festival also includes entertainment, guest speakers, bike rodeo, bike decorating and other crazy contests.

Please check our web calendar for information on upcoming bike rides, meetings and events.

Posted in Events, Rides | Comments Off on Bike Rides to Keep You Pedaling Into Fall

Federal Transportation Plans: Looking Ahead or in the Rearview Mirror?

By Barb Chamberlain | Published September 9, 2013

If you’ve ever participated in any kind of strategic planning exercise you’ve heard about having SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. By that standard the new US Department of Transportation’s draft strategic plan “Transportation for a New Generation” for 2014-2018 needs some serious improvement if it is truly to be the plan for a 21st-century, balanced, multimodal system of transportation for everyone.

USDOT logoThis plan will have real implications for how the Department of Transportation operates over the next five years. If people who bike and walk around the country come together to give constructive suggestions to the Department, we could end up guiding the work of some 57,000 federal employees and heavily influencing some $205 billion of annual spending on highways that in some cases serve as Main Street in a small rural town, and in every case connect with city streets and county roads and affect traffic flows and safety for all of us.

Washington Bikes has signed onto a letter from the Alliance for Biking and Walking to raise our voices for SMART transportation planning. Our letter:

  • Asks the Department to set a goal to reduce bicyclist and pedestrian roadway fatalities by 50% by 2020.
  • Suggests that the Department set a goal to increase bicycle mode share nationally to 5% by 2025 and pedestrian mode share nationally to 25% by 2025.
  • Urges regulators to implement a Complete Streets approach when designing safety measures.

The time is now to comment—by Sept. 10—to say that as a taxpayer you want a forward-looking plan, not one focused on the rearview mirror.

Two ways to participate:

The overriding priorities are ones we can all agree with: making the US transportation system the safest in the world, improving the efficiency and performance of the existing transportation system, and rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure “to meet the needs of the next generation of Americans.” But it will take a different plan to prepare for the next generation.

We’ve worked on a number of specific safety issues around the state that this plan addresses—or doesn’t address. In a number of places the draft plan includes safety strategies for motor vehicle safety but not for bicycle or pedestrian safety. Points you may want to include in your comments drawn from our joint letter with the Alliance:

Safety Performance Goal and Indicators

Suggested goal: Include measurable safety goals for biking and walking.

Suggested indicators: Use metrics based on non-motorized miles traveled in addition to vehicle miles traveled (VMT).

Suggested strategies:

  • Separate active transportation modes from older drivers when considering safety—each issue area deserves unique treatment.
  • Ensure intersection improvements benefit motorists, transit users, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
  • Implement rumble strip policies that improve driver safety but do not create safety hazards for bicyclists.
  • Focus on reducing speed as a crash factor, especially in metropolitan areas.
  • Study alternatives to the common practice of setting speed limits using the 85th percentile speed of free-flowing traffic.
  • Implement MAP-21 performance measures that address non-motorized safety under FHWA Highway Safety funding. (The current proposed strategic plan suggests this strategy for motor vehicle safety but not bicycle and pedestrian safety).
  • Actively encourage investment in bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure that addresses system-wide safety issues.
  • Improve data collection for bicycling and walking. Specifically:
    • Improve data collection and analysis of use and crash data at the municipal, metropolitan planning organization (MPO), and state levels. (In the current proposed strategic plan, this strategy is suggested for motor vehicle safety but not for bicycle and pedestrian safety.)
    • Improve NHTSA’s data collection and analysis system to enhance bicycle and pedestrian crash data. (The proposed plan suggests this strategy for motor vehicle safety but not bicycle and pedestrian safety.)
    • Conduct a bicycle and pedestrian crash causation study to identify contributing factors for bicycle and pedestrian crashes and identify effective countermeasures based on evaluation and analysis of the study data. (There is currently a study on motorcycle crashes underway, but there has not yet been a comparable study for bicycle and pedestrian crashes.)
  • Support, conduct and encourage research on innovative design of bicycle facilities.

Livable Communities Performance Goal and Indicators

The Department performance goal calls for increasing to 65 the number of states, MPOs, and/or plans that improve transportation choices for walking and bicycling by FY 2018. This goal is literally meaningless–there are already over 500 Complete Streets policies and even more bicycle and pedestrian plans already in states, metropolitan planning organizations and communities across the US, including many in Washington state. Having a plan in place is a first step but a more meaningful goal would address actual changes.

Suggested goal: Increase bicycle mode share nationally to 5% by 2025 and pedestrian mode share nationally to 25% by 2025. Mode share goals for urban, suburban and rural communities could vary to take into account the local context.

Suggested performance indicator: Set incremental bicycle and pedestrian mode share goals for the years 2015-2018.

Suggested strategies to ensure that states, regions, and localities around the country maximize livability:

  • Adopt a Complete Street policy to ensure that livability is integrated into every program and project.
  • Create a model system of accountability so that projects programmed with multimodal accommodations in the State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) are built with those components.
  • Research and disseminate best practices for retrofitting urban and suburban transportation facilities to consider all roadway users.

Environmental Sustainability Performance Goal and Indicator

No goals or indicators address bicycling or walking under any of the Environmental Sustainability Strategic Objectives, a glaring omission that we urge the Department to rectify.

Suggested performance goal for environmental sustainability: Institute a Complete Streets policy.

Suggested performance indicator for that goal: Mode share increases in biking, walking and transit.

Suggested strategies to ensure that states, regions, and localities utilize bicycling and walking improvements to mitigate transportation-related impacts to climate, ecosystems and communities:

  • Develop training programs for federal, state and local transportation engineers on Complete Streets policies and practices.
  • Create a clearinghouse of best practices and innovative design for Complete Streets policies and practices.

Organizational Excellence Performance Goal and Indicator

Suggested performance goal: Retrain the next generation of transportation professionals to be truly multimodal.

Suggested performance indicators:

  • Increase to X the percentage of new hires with experience or education in multimodal engineering, planning and so forth. (Each organization needs to set a reasonable percentage for its context.)
  • Increase to X the percentage of existing staff receiving continuing education on designing, planning, and building multimodal projects.

Suggested strategy: Develop and offer training programs in multimodal transportation for US DOT transportation headquarter and regional staff.

The US Department of Transportation’s Strategic Plan must look forward to improve our national transportation system for all users. To do otherwise just wouldn’t be SMART.

Related Reading

Posted in Advocacy, Alert, Commuting, Complete Streets, Federal, Funding/Policy, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, News, Safety, Transportation | Tagged | 1 Comment

Make Your Voice Heard At the Washington State Senate Listening Sessions

By Blake Trask | Published September 5, 2013

Updated to add three more sessions announced Sept. 12 and with change of location for Oct. 2 Spokane event, Oct. 7 Vancouver event, and Oct. 14 Seattle event. See also What to Tell the State Senate About Bike Transportation

Washington State Senate transportation leaders recently announced their schedule to hold bipartisan listening sessions to gather input on what Washingtonians want in a transportation revenue package.

pedbikeimages.org/Carl Sundstrom

pedbikeimages.org/Carl Sundstrom

Now is our time to let them know that Washingtonians want a balanced transportation package that invests in safer streets for our schools, and that investments in walking and biking provide cost-effective and common sense solutions to congestion, improving safety for people who drive, walk, bike, and take transit.

Bicycling is here to stay. We need the Washington state legislature to craft a transportation package that looks forward—not one that keeps us looking in the rearview mirror. Investments in biking and walking infrastructure make streets safer for drivers too, while providing a healthy workforce and children who are ready to concentrate and learn when they get to school. Everyone benefits.

But the state legislature needs to hear from you. They need to hear the message that Washingtonians want the freedom to get around safely and efficiently.

The legislature needs to hear that every community in the state will lose out on the chance to make their streets more inviting, increase their real estate values and thus their local government revenues, make their school zones safer, and support the local businesses that benefit from increased commercial activity when people can walk or bike in a welcoming environment. That’s the real bottom line for the taxpayers.

Join us at one or more of these transportation listening sessions to tell the Washington state legislature you value smart transportation investments in biking, walking and school safety. Each meeting will begin at 6 p.m. and last until 9 p.m. and will include presentations from regional transportation officials, and public comment.

Sept. 17 – Bellevue. Stevenson Elementary School, 14220 NE 8th St., Bellevue, WA 98007

Sept. 18 – Everett. Snohomish County, Robert Drewel Building, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., 1st floor, Everett, WA 98201

Sept. 23 – Wenatchee. Chelan County PUD Auditorium, 327 N Wenatchee Ave, Wenatchee, WA 98801

Sept. 24 – Yakima. Yakima Area Arboretum, Garden View Rm., 1401 Arboretum Dr., Yakima, WA 98901

Sept. 26 – Tri-Cities. Columbia Basin College, 2600 N 20th Ave., Pasco added

Oct. 2 – Spokane. New location! Central Valley High School theater, 821 S Sullivan Rd., Spokane Valley

Oct. 7 – Vancouver. New location! Department of Transportation Southwest Region Office, 11018 Northeast 51st Circle, Vancouver 98682

Oct. 9 – Tacoma. Evergreen Tacoma Campus, Lyceum Hall, 1210 6th Ave., Tacoma, WA 98405

Oct. 14 – Seattle.  New location! First Presbyterian Church at 1013 8th Avenue (8th and Spring) added

Oct. 15 – Bellingham. Port of Bellingham Cruise Terminal, 355 Harris Ave. added

Sign up for our email alerts for continuing updates and stay up-to-date on the hearings via Twitter @BikeWA.

You can also submit comments at senatetranspofeedbackforum.org. You’ll need to enter Biking/Walking in the “Other” field where they ask for your primary transportation concern. (Perhaps your first concern is that it’s an “Other” instead of being on the list!)

Posted in Advocacy, Alert, Complete Streets, Economic Impact, Events, Everett, Funding/Policy, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, News, Politics, Safe Routes to School, Safety, Seattle, Spokane County, Tacoma, Transportation, Vancouver, Wenatchee, WSDOT, Yakima County | 2 Comments

Help count bicyclists and pedestrians in your community!

By Louise McGrody | Published September 4, 2013

How do we gauge the number of people biking and walking to work in Washington? We count them.

Washington State DOT and Cascade Bicycle Club are getting ready to conduct the sixth annual bicycle and pedestrian count, and volunteers are needed all across the state to help tally the numbers. The count will occur October 1 -3 in communities throughout our state. According to WSDOT, about 400 volunteers counted nearly 60,000 bicyclists and pedestrians during the three-day survey in 2012.

Counts will be conducted in at least 38 Washington communities including: Bainbridge Island, Bellevue, Bellingham, Bothell, Bremerton, Burien, Ellensburg, Everett, Federal Way, Ferndale, Gig Harbor, Issaquah, Kelso, Kent, Kirkland, Lake Forest Park, Lakewood, Longview, Lynden, Mercer Island, Milton, Mountlake Terrace, Oak Harbor, Olympia, Orting, Parkland, Puyallup, Redmond, Renton, Richland, Seattle, Shoreline, Spokane, Spokane Valley, Tacoma, Tukwila, University Place, Vancouver, Vashon Island, Walla Walla, Wenatchee, and Yakima.

Counting bicyclists and pedestrians is important. Annual counts give WSDOT an accurate estimate of demand, measure the benefit of investments, and help the agency target safety and mobility projects.

These numbers are valuable to bicycle and pedestrian advocates too. These counts can be shared with your local transportation planners and elected officials to demonstrate the demand and need for trails, bike lanes, sidewalks, and other infrastructure investments that make it easier to bike and walk.

Ready to lend a hand with the count in your community? Follow this link to volunteer online and learn more about the annual bicycle pedestrian count.

Posted in Commuting, Infrastructure, Transportation, WSDOT | Comments Off on Help count bicyclists and pedestrians in your community!

Anacortes Wants The Guemes Channel Trail!

By Blake Trask | Published August 29, 2013

Wow! On a Wednesday morning over 90 residents, business owners, Chamber of Commerce representatives, city staff, and others joined Mayor Dean Maxwell, Representative Kristine Lytton, Anacortes City Councilmembers, representatives from the Samish Indian Nation to welcome Congressman Rick Larsen to the Guemes Channel Trail.

Over 90 attended the Guemes Channel Trail site visit with Congressman Rick Larsen

Over 90 attended the Guemes Channel Trail site visit with Congressman Rick Larsen

Congressman Larsen was invited to the Trail to learn about its benefits for transportation connectivity, tourism, and recreation. He heard from community, civic, and business leaders about their strong work to-date (including a recent $700,000 appropriation in the state capital budget) and what still is needed to “complete the dream” linking the San Juan Ferry Dock to downtown Anacortes (bypassing the narrow-shouldered SR 20) and the Tommy Thompson Trail. Guemes Channel Trail also represents the western terminus of US Bicycle Route 10, which Bicycle Alliance is currently mapping out across northern Washington state.

Washingtonians want trail projects that connect people places, grow economies, and improve safety. As Anacortes Parks Foundation Trustee and co-chair of the Guemes Channel Trail Committee Michele Pope remarked, “people don’t ask if this project should happen, they want to know when we will get it done.”

In his remarks Congressman Larsen expressed his appreciation for the attendees at the Guemes Channel Trail site visit noting that it’s much easier to lead when such strong support for a project exists.

We couldn’t agree more. Over the past week at site visits in Anacortes and Vancouver almost 170 people have joined Bicycle Alliance, elected leaders, business owners and other neighborhood and civic leaders to say they want transportation investments that:

  • grow local economies
  • connect people and places to where they want to go
  • improve safety
  • support new family-friendly recreational opportunities

Bicycle Alliance is excited to help work statewide to connect to our elected leaders to neighbors, mayors, and advocates who want projects that improve biking and walking across Washington state. Join us!

Trail supporters join Rep. Larsen on the Guemes Channel Trail

Trail supporters join Rep. Larsen on the Guemes Channel Trail

Posted in Advocacy, Economic Impact, Events, Ferries, Funding/Policy, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, News, People, Politics, Safety, Skagit County, Tourism, USBRS, WSDOT | 4 Comments

Take the Poll: What Type of Rider Are You?

By Barb Chamberlain | Published August 28, 2013

Interesting new research from McGill University in Montreal describes 4 types of riders, based on 2,000 people who responded to an online poll. Their categories include motivations for riding along with preferences for infrastructure. More and more research indicates the importance of safe, comfortable connected bike networks to get people to try bicycling; the numbers in this study seem to bear that out.

Which would you say comes closest to describing you? Ask your friends to take the poll too.

[socialpoll id=”14254″]

From the article:

Path-using cyclists (36 percent) are motivated by the fun of riding, its convenience, and the identity that cycling gives them. They’d rather use a continuous route, rather than dodge cars. They were actively encouraged by their parents to ride for fitness and to get places.

Dedicated cyclists (24 percent) are motivated by speed, predictability and flexibility that bike trips offer. These cyclists are the least likely to be deterred by the weather. They aren’t as interested in bike paths, and actually enjoy riding in traffic. The researchers say these cyclists consider riding to be an important part of their identity.

Fairweather utilitarians (23 percent) are just that. They like to ride in good weather, and they’ll take another form of transportation in rain or snow. These are also bike path users, and they don’t necessarily see themselves as cyclists.

Leisure cyclists (17 percent) ride because it is fun, and not as much for commuting. They prefer bike paths, don’t like to deal with traffic, and want to feel safe, especially when riding with family members.

For more on the study see Who’s Out There On The Roads? The 4 Types Of Cyclists in Forbes.

Posted in Attitudes, Bike Culture, Commuting, Infrastructure, News, Safety, Transportation | 5 Comments

Congressman Rick Larsen to Visit Guemes Channel Trail With Anacortes Community, Civic, and Business Leaders

By Blake Trask | Published August 27, 2013

Washington Bikes working with supporters to complete the trail; spur tourism and transportation connectivity

As part of his August recess agenda, Congressman Rick Larsen will join Guemes Channel Trail supporters on Wednesday, August 28 at 10 a.m. to learn about the Trail and its benefits for transportation connectivity, tourism, and recreation. He will also hear from community, civic, and business leaders on what it will take to “complete the dream” linking the San Juan Ferry Dock to downtown Anacortes and the Tommy Thompson Trail.

Guemes Channel Trail/ http://www.guemeschanneltrail.com

Guemes Channel Trail/ www.guemeschanneltrail.com

Congressman Larsen will be joined by state representatives Kris Lytton and Jeff Morris, as well as Anacortes Mayor Dean Maxwell. State leadership by the entire 40th Legislative District delegation, along with the strong support of the City of Anacortes, helped secure a $700,000 appropriation from this year’s state capital budget.

Trail supporters, including supporters from the Anacortes Park Foundation, city and business leaders will be on hand to celebrate the recent state legislative success.

The event was jointly planned by supporters of the Anacortes Park Foundation and Washington Bikes. Washington Bikes executive director Barb Chamberlain noted the importance of completing the Guemes Channel Trail, saying, “Bicycle travel and tourism in Washington state is big business. For the gateway to the San Juan Islands—recognized nationally as some of the best bicycling in the entire state—completing the Guemes Channel Trail will further cement Anacortes as a bicycling destination.”

Congressman Rick Larsen

Congressman Rick Larsen

Anacotes Parks Foundation Trustee and co-chair of the Guemes Channel Trail Committee, Michele Pope added, “I am excited & grateful for the efforts of Washington Bikes, City of Anacortes staff, Mayor Dean Maxwell, and our elected representatives as we move forward to complete the dream of a multi-use path connecting Anacortes. We are all part of a dedicated community striving for a healthy way of life in the beautiful setting of Anacortes.”

Trail proponents also plan to thank Congressman Larsen for his recent introduction of legislation titled, “Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery for Cities Underfunded Because of Size (TIGER CUBS) Act of 2013.” This legislation would set aside 20 percent of special transportation infrastructure funding specifically for smaller cities, like Anacortes. This legislation could directly benefit small and medium-sized cities like Anacortes as they work to invest in trail projects like Guemes Channel Trail.

The Guemes Channel Trail site visit with Congressman Larsen will begin at the Edwards Way trailhead. Following a short walk, Mayor Dean Maxwell and site visit organizers will welcome the Congressman, followed by discussion of how to Complete the Dream.

Guemes Channel Trail photo courtesy of Michele Pope

Guemes Channel Trail photo courtesy of Michele Pope

Posted in Advocacy, Economic Impact, Ferries, Funding/Policy, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, News, Safety, Skagit County, Tourism, Trails, Transportation | Comments Off on Congressman Rick Larsen to Visit Guemes Channel Trail With Anacortes Community, Civic, and Business Leaders

8 Lakes Leg Aches: Great name, great ride

By Guest Blogger | Published August 27, 2013

This post was written by our board member Sarah Gelineau of Tonasket. When she and husband Paul are not traveling to bike rides, Sarah keeps busy with home and garden projects, and her involvement with the Tonasket Community Cultural Center.

8 lakes 008

Riding past one of the eight lakes.

8 Lakes Leg Aches. What a great name for a bike ride!  I couldn’t resist and bid to ‘win’ this item at Washington Bikes’s annual auction in 2012. Now living in eastern Washington, having spent decades living in Puget Sound, my husband and I look for bike rides on our side of the mountains as another way to explore new back roads and landscapes.

I felt like a young kid waiting to open a Christmas package. I couldn’t wait.  I kept gazing at the gift certificate we got in November, the ride not until August 3. 8 Lakes Leg Aches. Will our legs really ache? We wanted to make sure we’d be in fine shape and rode the Group Health Inland Empire Century in Richland in May (a beautiful ride along the Columbia River) and the Ann Weatherill Cycling Classic in Walla Walla in June (another gorgeous ride among sweet onion and wheat fields), in addition to our favorite rides near home in the Okanogan Highlands. And I experimented with riding with my left foot unclipped. I believe I have a neuroma and start getting very sharp pain in the ball of my foot at about 22 miles. I can unclip and ride with putting the center of my foot on the pedal and the pain will somewhat subside, but any further clipping back in will revert to an eventual more painful episode. Ibuprofen is pretty much ineffective at any point.

Finally the date arrived.  We chose the 75 mile course which ran from the Airway Heights area in Spokane, south to Cheney, and back again by way of Willow, Granite, Silver, Medical, Clear, Chapman, Kepple and Fish lakes. The route also took us around the enormous Turnbull Wildlife Refuge.

We started the ride about 20 minutes after the official start time, with the majority of the other 75 mile riders ahead of us ( I began the ride with my left foot unclipped). We rode the way we like to ride, in the quiet and feeling like we had the road to ourselves. There was virtually no traffic for the entire day. We love being on the lookout for wildlife and weren’t disappointed. We saw an osprey nest with a mom tending her young, two Does and their respective fawns, a grebe with her brood, and of course California Quail chicks scattering everywhere as they try to get out of the way.

We stopped at each of the 4 reststops and were greeted and treated like we were special, so like all the other bike rides in this state. There’s something special about volunteers at these bike events. The fare included home-baked cookies and breads. Yum!  I love bicycling hard and the guilt-free eating it allows. I made sure to sample each one. It was just an outstanding day. We rode past so many lakes I began to think there may have been more than eight.

This ride is organized by Lutheran Community Services Northwest as a benefit for their Sexual Assault and Family Trauma programs in Spokane. The organizers had traffic control at a major highway crossing and easy to follow route signage. And if that wasn’t enough, there was ice cream, salad and pasta and Roast House coffee at the end of the ride. What could be better? My foot didn’t hurt one bit!

Posted in Adventure, Auction, Guest Blogger, Rides, Spokane County, Tourism | Comments Off on 8 Lakes Leg Aches: Great name, great ride