Guest blogger Bill Thorness is the author of Biking Puget Sound: 50 Rides from Olympia to the San Juans. This story and accompanying images originally appeared on his blog, Biking Puget Sound.
The landscape around Puget Sound is connected by bridges, and they can be links to adventure. In my article in this Sunday’s Seattle Times, I briefly explore five of our biggest connecting spans. Here are more tips about riding the bridges discussed in the article, and images to whet your appetite.
I-90
The newer span (on the left) includes a two-way path safely removed from car traffic.
There’s a climb on each end, and on the Seattle side, when you exit the bridge you can either take a tunnel under the Mount Baker neighborhood to stay on the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trail into downtown Seattle, or you can climb a very steep (14 percent) half-block Irving Street and go either north or south to drop down to lakeside riding on Lake Washington Boulevard.
Aurora
A protected sidewalk on each side of the big bridge that connects Queen Anne to Fremont will get you across with thrilling city views.
You will also experience pedestrian or opposite-traveling bicycle traffic, which will cause you to stop and nudge past, because the passage is too narrow. And you’ll hit a couple of jarring steel plates that have heaved on one edge to create quite a bump.
Here are some views from the Ship Canal Trail under the Queen Anne side of the bridge, and one showing the Fremont Bridge and its recently added bike counter, with the Aurora Bridge looming in the background.
Tacoma Narrows
The newer span of the twin Narrows bridges sports a generous multi-use path, which offers great views of Mt. Rainier southbound on a clear day. On the Tacoma side, a short tunnel off the Scott Pierson Trail lets you know you’ve arrived.
Take the trail into Tacoma, or ride through the neighborhood northeast of the bridge up to Point Defiance Park, which has a winding, wooded, five-mile road to ride. From the nearby Ruston neighborhood you can drop down to the water level and ride a path and sidewalks along the water all the way to downtown Tacoma.
Deception Pass
The big attraction on this short bridge isn’t riding the bridge itself, which can be a bit scary; it’s the views from either end. When the oft-seen fog is absent, you’ll gaze down to swirling waters that look impossible to navigate. Scamper under the north end of the bridge on the short pedestrian trail and you can examine the incredible steel superstructure. Tie up your bike at Deception Pass State Park on the south end of the bridge and hike down to the beach for a distant view of the bridge.
When cycling this bridge, wait for a gap in the traffic, then take over the car lane for the short, quarter-mile ride. Don’t even attempt the sidewalk; it is much too narrow for bikes, and there will be plenty of pedestrian traffic on it.
Hood Canal
The bridge most area cyclists have never ridden is also one of the most interesting, and takes you farthest into new territory. It’s a scant eight miles from the Kingston ferry dock, but it feels like you’re exploring distant lands. After a much-needed rebuilding a few years ago, the bridge is now safe and comfortable to ride, if a bit loud with passing traffic. There’s a wide concrete shoulder, and the metal decking is covered with an asphalt carpet in the bike lane, with smooth joints on either end.
Explore the small parks on either end of the bridge, watch the boat traffic and shellfish diggers, and then continue on to Port Townsend, or head south in Kitsap County to Poulsbo or Bainbridge Island.
In the next edition of Biking Puget Sound, which I am researching now, I will include new rides across the Hood Canal and Tacoma Narrows bridges. The second edition has a planned release date of late 2014.
Bicycle advocacy is serious business. We think it’s important to step back every now and then to look at the lighter side of bicycling. It’s been over a year since we’ve done a Bicycling is Funny post, so we are overdue for some chuckles. Like biking, laughter is good for your health!
I ride because it’s fun. It’s also healthy, good for the environment, and my gas budget, but if it weren’t fun, none of that would matter. It’s what gets me on my bike almost every day, even when I’m tired, not feeling my best, or just not in the mood. No other form of “exercise” has equaled it. I used to love to run but I was injury-prone and couldn’t do it every day. I certainly couldn’t jog down to the store and come home with a 6-pound chicken for dinner. Walking is okay but definitely falls around midpoint on the fun scale. I enjoy it, especially when I’m walking with a friend, but I’m not exhilarated by it. Walking won’t get me out on a chilly, wet day like riding will either. I do go to the gym to work on strength training regularly. I’ve done so since I was in my mid 30s, which means I started around the Jurassic period. But until I started riding, it had become increasingly (and alarmingly) easy to blow off going when the mood struck. Now I eagerly look forward to the gym simply because I can get there on my bike.
And I absolutely love getting places by bike. Doesn’t matter where. Drug store, groceries, hair appointment, library, even my doctor’s office (although my doctor would probably prefer me not showing up all sweaty and stinking), all easily within riding distance. Some places I don’t ride to because the trails won’t take me there and the traffic is insanely scary which I hate because Bellingham is a relatively small city and I feel there shouldn’t be anywhere where I can’t go without fearing for my life. Yeah I know, there are cyclists who’d say go anyway, but I’m not having fun if I think I might actually die. But those places are few so I really can’t complain…too much anyway.