1337Joined: 22 Jul 2005Posts: 6705Location: right over
weather is looking iffy but even if it's damp it'll still be warm enough to get some mileage in tomorrow. current plan if the weather holds is to head to southworth and come back from tacoma. if we get really tired, we'll roll back via vashon and cut off maybe ten miles or so?
otoh, if we're doing really good for time we can stop for beer at the parkway tavern.
total loop is about 70 miles i think we figured, nearly all of it is unknown terrain to me. i'd advise coming prepared for rain & hills, even if we may get away with neither. if anybody gets in real trouble i heard tacomadude will give us a ride back to seattle in his sweet van.
if the weather is truly shitty we'll do something more abbreviated as to avoid being hypothermic and in tacoma.
Tacoma Dude
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:50 pm
Joined: 06 Dec 2005Posts: 113
lantius wrote:
if anybody gets in real trouble i heard tacomadude will give us a ride back to seattle in his sweet van.
gas grass or ass
no one rides for free
langston
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:00 pm
Joined: 25 Jul 2005Posts: 5547Location: Columbia City
I'm in. I'm bringing my purple bike, with race-blades just in case of deluge.
lantius
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:04 pm
1337Joined: 22 Jul 2005Posts: 6705Location: right over
woot. i think our target time is to hit the 10am ferry to southworth, if you don't want to ride all the way to downtown from west seattle.
Marcus
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:05 pm
Joined: 15 Jul 2006Posts: 173Location: Seattle
the DONUTS is the best part about this
langston
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:43 pm
Joined: 25 Jul 2005Posts: 5547Location: Columbia City
lantius wrote:
woot. i think our target time is to hit the 10am ferry to southworth, if you don't want to ride all the way to downtown from west seattle.
anticipate meeting me at the ferry.
lantius
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:37 pm
1337Joined: 22 Jul 2005Posts: 6705Location: right over
hell yes, we made it. and we can now update gsbarnes' route with full details. it turns out the new bridge is really nice, easy approach and a nicely connected trail & bike route through almost all of tacoma.
Old Crow
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:44 pm
Helen Keller, WHAT?Joined: 30 Sep 2005Posts: 395Location: Ballard
I want details!
DJStroky
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 11:47 pm
Joined: 25 May 2007Posts: 356Location: Downtown Tacoma
lantius wrote:
a nicely connected trail & bike route through almost all of tacoma.
Map it or this doesn't exist.
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lantius
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:57 am
1337Joined: 22 Jul 2005Posts: 6705Location: right over
78 miles, top pot to top pot. (there are two 'fuzzy spots' on the tacoma bike path portion that i can't really remember how the alignment went, but it's something close to that, and at any rate, it's signed with big blue poles.)
we (myself, evilmike, mike's coworker allen, langston, and chris) followed the cue sheet that gsbarnes linked from southworth to gig harbor right down to the lunch stop, although it's a qfc now rather than a thriftway. it's actually a pretty nice route - the bomb from banner down to crescent valley is dang cool and it's purty out there. i wish there was a bit more following the coastline, but oh well.
the left on hunt street is actually signed 64th street, but that was fine. we followed that all the way to where the old bike trail onto the bridge was and had to backtrack up to 24th and cross over sr16. the new bridge has a very nice bike trail and is zomg high. but it puts you from plateau to plateau which is nice after a bunch of climbing.
once we got across the bridge it was a bit of guessing. there's a blue signed bike path that doesn't list all of it's destinations but signs for tacoma community college, we followed that off to the right through a new park and eventually ended up stopping at an ampm for a tacoma/pierce county map. turns out you can basically follow sr16 on this blue signed path halfway across tacoma. it's not the most pleasant riding in the world, being as it's next to a freeway and all, but it's quick, relatively flat, and had brand new pavement. it's not on the google maps satellite photos and the new tacoma bike map doesn't come out until later this year.
the bike path drops you off on 25th which is a pretty quiet neighborhood road. it has a nice big bomb down into downtown, where you can get on the bike lane / path sidewalk / lane on puyallup ave, which turns into 99. traffic was almost non-existent for us going through there at around 230pm on a saturday, ymmv at other times. it's impossibly flat and takes you across the water so i call it a win.
we turned off 99 at porter way and then climbed up across milton through the neighborhoods since we were going about 2mph over the ridge. a better route past that would have been amazing. from the top we bombed down jovita into pacific, where (god bless you josh putnam) we managed to get onto the interurban and zoned out for the next couple hours. allen and mike bonked and cut off at the kent transit station, we were tired enough that when i dropped my water bottle chris crashed into langston and cut his hand up pretty badly, but no other damage. we rolled back into town after stopping at fort dent to eat some wendys (frosty and nuggets! $2.38!) and then hit up the 9lb for a much-needed beer. then a long slog up airport, through downtown, and home.
it was a pretty awesome ride overall. if we'd known about the bike path beforehand (as you all do now) we could have cut out quite a bit of map-checking and debating. i'd like to find a better way from tacoma to the interurban but geography is a bitch. i'd definitely recommend the southworth-first route even though it costs an extra $6 for the ferry. there are some big climbs on the gig harbor side and they're better done with fresher legs. plus, if you're tired there are tons of bailouts in tacoma, auburn, kent, southcenter, georgetown, sodo, etc. on the gig harbor side you're stuck in. i think our total time was 7 hours from when we got off the ferry to drinkin' at the 9lb.
tl;dr: good ride! tacoma bike path! do it!
DJStroky
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:43 pm
Joined: 25 May 2007Posts: 356Location: Downtown Tacoma
Wow! Nice ride. That's cool that you found that bike path in Tacoma. I think I noticed the beginning of it on a similar ride that I did last year.
Again, let me stress that you've gotta do the Sedgwick Bomb!! It's aweome! And after that the road is not that hilly and then there is a long steady downhill to Ollala.
Once in Tacoma, in my ride we hit up a QFC right around mile 55 (there's a little tangent on my map) where me and my bonked friend proceeded to share a whole loaf of bread and a whole chicken. Best meal ever!! I think that road we took through Tacoma (21st) was pretty easy, there was a small climb at the beginning of it, but after that it was fine. Also, I think I hallucinated a bit and made an off-shoot at Proctor - oh wait, the road intersection did something weird there. And then again at 9th, but otherwise if we would've stayed on 21st the whole way it would've been fine and there wasn't a lot of traffic. Plus you get to bike through Downtown Tacoma which is pretty fun.
I don't know much at all about the area between Fife and Seatac. I'll have to do some exploring down there.
_________________ Tacoma isn't that bad... well maybe it is
Old Crow
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 7:42 pm
Helen Keller, WHAT?Joined: 30 Sep 2005Posts: 395Location: Ballard
I want to do this ride badly. Very Badly. Like weaving and falling down a lot badly.
ripper
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:04 pm
evilmikeJoined: 19 Apr 2006Posts: 640Location: Capitalist Hill
Old Crow wrote:
I want to do this ride badly. Very Badly. Like weaving and falling down a lot badly.
I'm ready to do it again.
I was totally up for the full ride home, but my coworker is just getting back into riding, and we pushed him. Now that I can fully remember the route, it'd be easy running.
Also, Milton sucks. That climb is utter crap.
_________________ Some of us like things. Some of us are just joyless, bitter assholes.
gsbarnes
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:37 pm
Joined: 15 Aug 2006Posts: 2666Location: No Fun Town, USA
lantius wrote:
we turned off 99 at porter way and then climbed up across milton through the neighborhoods since we were going about 2mph over the ridge. a better route past that would have been amazing.
Thanks for the report. KingCo bike map suggests continuing on 99 may be the way to go if it's not rush hour:
99 is 'yellow' (heavy traffic, wide shoulder) on the KingCo bike map through the mapped area, as is 260th (the turnoff). Once you get down the hill, you can take the Green River or the Interurban trail.
Looks like even 99 is a climb, but since there is a plateau there, and 99 was the first major highway through, it's likely to be the flattest route. The only 'flat' route I know of is to follow the Puyallup up the White to the Green. That adds a number of extra miles.
Heading in the opposite direction, either Jovita or Lake Fenwick Rd. look like the best routes up from the valley to the ridge. Lake Fenwick isn't as much of a climb, but I think Federal Way is higher than the area to the north or the south, so if you stay south (Jovita -> Milton) you end up climbing less total while still avoiding the wide swing south to Puyallup.
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Chris
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:51 pm
Joined: 18 Aug 2007Posts: 222Location: Seattle (Downtown)
ripper wrote:
Old Crow wrote:
I want to do this ride badly. Very Badly. Like weaving and falling down a lot badly.
I'm ready to do it again.
I was totally up for the full ride home, but my coworker is just getting back into riding, and we pushed him. Now that I can fully remember the route, it'd be easy running.
Also, Milton sucks. That climb is utter crap.
Yeah, I think I was pretty delirious by the time we hit the Milton climb, though I don't remember it being any steeper or more difficult than some of the monster hills in Southworth; of course, around mile 50 or so every hill looks bigger than it is. At least there were a number of places where it reached a plateau, just enough for us to catch our breath. And the sun finally came out in all its glory!
DJStroky
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:29 pm
Joined: 25 May 2007Posts: 356Location: Downtown Tacoma
gsbarnes wrote:
Thanks for the report. KingCo bike map suggests continuing on 99 may be the way to go if it's not rush hour:
Yeah 99 is probably the flattest climb, and I think it may even have a bike lane right around 320th if I'm not mistaken. Also, if you do that, then maybe this route would be a good way home: Pac - 16th - neighborhoods through des moines and then des moines memorial.
I've biked this in reverse a lot of times. I'm a bit sketchy on the desmoines part of the map I posted since I haven't done it before (I'd usually go on 1st). However, I'm going to try this route next time since it seems more interesting. I think 16th is getting bike lanes installed and the route north of des moines follows bus route 132. Des Moines Memorial north of hwy 509 is really bike friendly and has bike lanes once you get north of Seatac.
_________________ Tacoma isn't that bad... well maybe it is
FieryIrie
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:17 pm
Joined: 25 Jun 2007Posts: 554Location: Wallingford
That sounds like a badass ride. And that sounds like a badass route.
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1337
Joined: 22 Jul 2005
Posts: 6705
Location: right over
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Posts: 113
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
Posts: 5547
Location: Columbia City
Joined: 15 Jul 2006
Posts: 173
Location: Seattle
Helen Keller, WHAT?
Joined: 30 Sep 2005
Posts: 395
Location: Ballard
Joined: 25 May 2007
Posts: 356
Location: Downtown Tacoma
evilmike
Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 640
Location: Capitalist Hill
Joined: 15 Aug 2006
Posts: 2666
Location: No Fun Town, USA
Joined: 18 Aug 2007
Posts: 222
Location: Seattle (Downtown)
Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 554
Location: Wallingford
