Author: Jerry

This Article is mainly about an extension to the estuary trail in Marysville, but it has a teaser in it about an offshoot to the Centennial Trail.  I invested some time in finding a way from downtown Marysville over to the Centennial Trail because I wasn’t happy with the return to the trail from Silvana.  I realized that I could ride around Kayak Point and get down to Marysville and then ride highway 529 into Everett and never have to jog over to the Centennial Trail at all.  Odette and I did that route – once.  SR 529 is not a fun route.  I did several exploratory rides looking for an alternative and decided that Sunnyside over to Homeacres worked.  To do that as a loop from Snohomish I needed to ride up the Centennial to Marysville and then cut over…

 

I remember 84th as a really busy road, so a trail along it would be welcome.  I favored 60th (at the South end of Lake Cassidy) but might have opted for 84th if I were doing a loop out of Arlington.  either way I think Whiskey Ridge is a pretty good climb and the way I ended up doing it was fairly steep.

 

On a related matter, note that WDOT is rebuilding the Highway 2 Hewitt Ave. trestle which will likely mess up the access to 20th from Sunnyside.  Now if they would just put that estuary trail through to Homeacres…

Yesterday I rode the East Lake Sammamish trail again – the first time since the South Sammamish Segment A opened on January 17.  They did a good job on the trail, it is wide and smooth and attractively landscaped.  Now the only unpaved segment is the South Sammamish Segment B which is 3.6 miles long.  When the whole thing is done it will be much better than riding the parkway.

Most of the railroad right-of-way is 100 ft. wide, but the segment that isn’t done yet has a bunch of spots that are narrower than that.  I guess that it isn’t surprising that this was the last part to be done – some people are going to have to pay for special use permits and are still going to end up with a nice attractively landscaped trail running through their back yard.

 

Now, at the other end of the trail, in Issaquah, there is a major construction project that will have the trail closed until late 2018.  No detours, either, and the parkway where it goes under I-5 is no place to ride a bike.  If only they would provide a reasonable way across Gilman Blvd. I’d forgive them.

 

And some interesting appropriations from the PSRC Executive Board on January 25:

• King County Parks – East Lake Sammamish Trail North Extension, PE/Design and Construction, $2,318,683
• Seattle – Bell St. Protected Bike Lane, Construction, $1,349,521
• Seattle – Cowen Park Historic Bridge, Construction, $2,409,859
• Bainbridge Island – Olympic Drive Non-Motorized Improvement Project, Construction, $878,320
• Issaquah – Newport Way Non-Motorized Improvement Project – SR 900 to SE 54th St., PE/Design, $1,550,888
• Tacoma – Pipeline Trail, Phase III Construction, Construction, $1,936,057
• Lynnwood – 44th Ave. W/I-5 Underpass Improvements, PE/Design, $255,672
• Sultan – Sultan Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge, Construction, $2,500,000

clipped from BikingBis with some items of local interest bolded:

“One of the biggest projects is for acquisition of land along the John Wayne Pioneer Trail. The budget allows $2 million for land acquisition, as long as adjacent landowners can cross or drive on the trail for agricultural purposes. Future costs are projected at $8 million. The long-sought rehabilitation of the Renslow Trestle across I-90 east of Ellensburg is also in the budget. The abandoned trestle was part of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad that later became the John Wayne Pioneer Trail through Iron Horse State Park. When the railroad abandoned railroad corridor in the 1980s, it dismantled part of the bridge. Trail users must take a detour on local roads to avoid the bridge where it crosses I-90. The Iron Horse Renslow Trestle Decking and Railing project is funded for $1.2 million.

Another big project is work on the Whitehorse Trail in Snohomish County, funded at $1.1 million. The 9.4-mile trail runs from Arlington to Darrington along the Skykomish River and through Oso landslide zone. The Centennial Trail Coalition says the money will pay for installing a new packed gravel surface this year. Meanwhile, another $1 million went toward the project to extend Centennial Trail southward from its trailhead in Snohomish.

The restoration of an abandoned railroad tunnel on the Spruce Railroad Trail in Clallam County is getting $649,000 in the state budget. The trail is part of an abandoned railroad that ran along the north side of Lake Crescent near Port Angeles. Railroad owners dynamited the tunnels to close them after abandoning the corridor. It’s part of the Olympic Discovery Trail that will eventually run between Forks and Port Townsend.

Other trail projects

Trail and bridge development for the Foothills Trail in King County received $2.8 million. The project would extend the Foothills Trail from its current terminus south of Enumclaw to meet up with the trail in Buckley, Pierce County. The project includes a crossing over the White River.

The Klickitat Trail Bridging the Final Gap — $1.202 million
Willapa Hills Trail Develop Safe Multi-Use Trail Crossing at SR 6 — $401,000
Appleway Trail Amenities (Spokane Valley) — $556,000
Columbia River Trail (Washougal) — $1 million
Ebey Waterfront Trail and Shoreline Access (Marysville) 1,000
South Gorge Trail (Spokane) — $250,000
Willows Road Regional Trail Connection (Kirkland) — $1.4 million
Lake to Sound Trail Development (Wilburton Trestle, King County) — $500,000
North Creek Regional Trail (Snohomish County) — $1 million
Ferry County Rail Trail Phase 4 (Ferry County) — $82,000
South Gorge Trail (Spokane) — $307,000″

Cycling from Chengdu to Lhasa by the national highway G318, the total distance is about 2154km. And there are two mountains over 5000 meters and ten mountains with altitude of over 4000 meters to cross over by highway. The bike ride on this route will take over 20 days to finish, and need to climb one mountain by highway in every 2 days. Difficult as it is, the road abounds with extraordinary natural scenery from plain to plateau, from forest to snow-capped mountain, and deep gorge, etc. The raging torrent from Qinghai-Tibet plateau will accompany you all the way.

 

https://www.tibettravel.org/tibet-tour/chengdu-to-lhasa-biking.html

King County lies.  For months they’ve been sending me emails promising that the southern section of the ERC would be open by the end of 2017.  I gave them the benefit of the doubt in figuring that it was my mistake that the Bellevue – Cross Kirkland section wasn’t going to be accessible until February, but there was no mistake about the promise on the southern segment.

Well, in late January you can ride it.  There are short patches where they’ve laid down fine gravel and rolled it well so the ride is pretty good.  Most of it is coarse gravel and mud, though, and there are construction vehicles parked in the middle of it which makes it feel less than open.

The crowning stupidity is that there are two bridges – one short, one a longer curving trestle – and instead of installing solid decks they’ve left the rails in place and fenced them off!  “Open” means a two-foot wide wooden walkway with high chainlink fencing on either side.  I was worried that my trekking bars would be too wide to fit.  I don’t think that two pedestrians will be able to get past each other, let alone anybody getting past a cyclist.

You can’t get to the ERC from Gene Coulon Park – the trails in the park still have “no bike” signs and it isn’t clear that they connect to the ERC even for pedestrians.  The first street access is from 33rd, meaning that the trail doesn’t eliminate the last two climbs north of the park.  I know that BNSF held onto the track next to the park to use as a siding when they wanted to turn around trains at the Boeing plant but the County said they were talking to them about transferring that section.  At the other end of the segment the ERC ends at the road crossing, not at the Newcastle Beach Park. I imagine that eventually this will get worked out, but I’m disappointed that they are acting like it isn’t even an issue.

The weather is going to get better in a couple months and there will be a million cyclists investigating King counties promises.  Won’t they be surprised!

Strava

The Riley Creek Slough Bridge on Tualco Rd. will be replaced in 2019 or 2020.

 

One of 4 remaining deficient county bridges to be replaced

 

(The list of deficient bridges in Snohomish County includes the Swamp creek bridge on Locust Way and a couple of bridges we know on the Mountain Loop Highway out of Granite Falls.)

All fall King county was busy telling us how they were going to open the southern section of the ERC and the mile of ERC between the 520 trail and the Cross Kirkland Connector by the end of the year.

So early in the morning on New Year’s Day I rode across the 520 bridge and picked up the ERC on 120th.  Despite what is shown on Google Maps, this is still BNSF track, not ERC.  They haven’t even removed the rails yet.  I rode it anyway, frosty conditions and all, and it will be nice when it is done.

 

When I got home I looked at their website and they’ve backed off the end-of-the-year stuff and are now saying “spring 2018.”  I can’t exactly tell what they’re planning, but it looks like you’ll be able to get onto the trail from the bike lanes on Northrup at the bottom of the hill below the old part of the 520 trail.  Next, we need to get going on the segment between Totem Lake and Wilmot Gateway.

Rode the tolt pipeline today and thought about how awesome it would be if that trail connected to the Burke Gilman!

Seattle Times says it’s going to happen:

King County has offered to design, construct and maintain trail connections from the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish River trails through both the Front 9 and Back 9, which could connect the park to Blyth Park and the Tolt Pipeline Trail.