Juanita Park, Kirkland/North Lake Washington Loop

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In New York, a “routine” ride often means a quick jaunt to Piermont and Bunbury’s — a 40ish-mile round trip to a lovely small town with an excellent bakery (often jammed with like-minded cyclists) at the midpoint. (One of about a zillion ways to get there is here.)  Our Seattle equivalent has become the 40-mile RT North Lake Washington Loop, with a park, beach and ice cream shop in Kirkland at the midpoint.

After a few miles winding our way down (think 20 percent grades DOWN) from our apartment through lovely neighborhood streets, we hit the famed Burke-Gilman Trail and ride its last 10 miles to Kenmore. Unlike familiar NYC trails (Hudson Greenway, for example) this trail is wide enough to ride comfortably while sharing with many (but not too many) other people on bikes, on foot and in strollers. It’s blissful.

Then it’s on to Juanita Drive and a 2-mile climb with 4 to 7 percent grades, enough to make it worthwhile.  After a fun descent and a few more short climbs and descents,  we arrive at Juanita Beach Park.  This place is idyllic (as is so much of this area). Sparkling water, charming scenes of people enjoying their lives, boats, ducks, paddle boards. And ice cream. And hot dogs.

We linger there for awhile, then head on to the second half. This part features a bit of neighborhood meandering but also a fair amount of decent straightaway type riding where we can get a good pace going. Not quite like 9W for speed, but also much prettier.

We still miss Piermont and Bunbury’s. But this loop is a lovely alternative.

Recovery Ride: Toy Boats, Fish & Chips at Gene Coulon

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One Sunday morning in early May, we made our way from Seattle to Bellevue and on down to Renton, where we made what we thought would be a quick stop at Gene Coulon Park.

Wait, not so fast!

Here we were fascinated to discover some VERY competitive toy boat races — these folks were intense — and, for breakfast at 10:30 a.m., some luscious fish ‘n’ chips from Ivar’s.

We soaked up the sun, admired the blue sky and blue water, and thought: What better way to spend a Sunday morning?

 

Orcas Island: The Rest of the Trip

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We managed to do a few other things besides climbing Mount Constitution twice … but not really all that much.

We stayed all four days of our San Juan Islands trip on Orcas, thanks to a Groupon deal for the lodging.  That proved a little much, especially in still-rainy April. Much better would have been to spend some of those nights on at least one of the other San Juan islands, for variety’s sake. Gorgeous as the Orcas roads are, there aren’t that many of them, and we ended up retracing our routes much of the time (and not just up and down that mountain).

We practically had the island to ourselves at that time of year — great because it was so peaceful; not so great because maybe it was a little too peaceful over four days.

Now that we’ve seen more of Bainbridge and Whidbey, with Vashon looking good on the radar, we’d perhaps opt for any of those over Orcas.  Easier to get to, more diversity both on and off the bike, and you still get a ferry ride.  Of course, we still have to hit the other San Juans …

And the scene is entirely different in the warmer months. Whale watching, kayaking and whatever else normal people do would be fun. Next time!