Category Archives: Uncategorized

by | April 12, 2023 · 10:24 am

Centennial Trail to Mukilteo

A Sleepy Randonneur’s Guide

The 2023 Spring 400K starts on Whidbey Island and finishes in Mukilteo. All riders will be riding the last 20K at night, many will be doing it well after midnight. There will be very little traffic because of this, but randonneurs navigating this for the first time can be confused with all the turns, one way streets, and road furniture. Becoming familiar with this beforehand will hopefully ease your way to the finish.

17K after the control in Arlington, leave the Centennial Trail by making a right on 60th St NE, one of the many cross streets on the trail. There is a sign on the trail calling out the 60th St intersection as well as a stop sign.

Quiet roads will take you through Lake Stevens, where you will turn right on SR-204 at km 384.5 and go down the hill to US-2. Stay on SR-204 past the onramp to US-2 continuing to the stop sign at 20th St SE. You will turn right on to 20th St SE- there is a bike lane on the left side of 20th St and it will look like you’re going the wrong way on this one-way street.

Stay in the bike lane to the left as it crosses a bridge over Ebey Slough

After the bridge at km 388.4, stay to the left as the road passes underneath the trestle.

At the next intersection (km 388.6) turn right then left to go under the trestle and get on the ‘right’ side of 20th St.

After a kilometer at the stop sign, turn left on Homeacres Rd

At the T intersection at km 390.6 turn right on 43rd Ave SE and the trail over the Snohomish River.

The trail ends at km 392.1 at Hewitt Ave. The route crosses Hewitt Ave to get on Chestnut St. The raised lane divider blocks direct access to Chestnut St. Your choices are to (A) continue on Hewitt Ave past the lane divider to turn on to Hewitt Ave or (B) use crosswalk to access Hewitt Ave past raised divider.

The route to Mukilteo is straightforward from here, passing through Everett to E Mukilteo Blvd and one last climb before the descent to the finish by the ferry terminal. You’re done!

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by | July 31, 2022 · 7:59 pm

Arlington – Washington Pass 400K

Last Saturday (7/30), Mick set off on the Summer 400K pre-ride from the Best Western Arlington (3721 172nd St NE, Arlington). In short, this is a beautiful and challenging 400K (I know, all 400K’s are challenging), which will require planning to ensure riders have enough calories, electrolytes and water. Mick had two bottles and a camelback, and needed all of that capacity.

I’ll expand on this below, but here are the significant points where riders will have to opportunity to take on fluids and calories:
Darrington (55K)- store, restaurant
Marblemount (100K)- store, restaurant
Newhalem (123K)- water, toilets at Info Ctr
Colonial Creek (139K)- water, toilets in campground
Canyon Creek Trailhead (156K)- water, toilets (SIR staffed)
Washington Pass Overlook (191K)- water, toilets, snacks (SIR staffed)
Colonial Creek (242K)- water, toilets in campground
Newhalem (259K)- water, toilets at Info Ctr
Marblemount (282K)- store, restaurant

Concrete (310K)- store (10pm),  restaurant

Clear Lake (353K) Clear Lake Market (10:30pm), Evelyn’s Tavern (midnight)

Big Lake (362K) Big Lake Grocery (10:00pm)

The start takes us out on Smokey Pt. Blvd, and within 5K we’re on WA-530. There were wisps of fog still in the fields on our way to Oso and Darrington, and not much traffic at that hour. The store at the gas station in Darrington is at 55K, at the left turn to stay on WA-530, but some riders may choose to wait to refuel until Marblemount (100K, 100m off course).

It’s river grade climbing following the Skagit river to Newhalem, where everyone should stop to take on water for the climbing to follow. There will only be water available at the Info Ctr, the store there is closed.

After Newhalem, the climbing starts in earnest. Earlier in the day, much of the climb is shaded. Take advantage of the occasional waterfall close by the road to cool off! There will be water and toilets available at Colonial Creek Campground, 100m from entrance on either side of the road. We will also have water available at the Canyon Creek Trailhead, in a shaded gravel parking area.

The turnaround is at the Washington Pass Overlook. There are toilets, and it will be SIR- staffed with water and snacks. Mick arrived there with approximately 9 hours on the clock for his first half of the ride.

Riders should be able to make better time getting back to Marblemount, possibly stopping for water at Colonial Creek and/or Newhalem. All riders should find a couple choices for food and restaurants in Marblemount (282K) and Concrete (310K). 

In Concrete, we’ll take  Concrete- Sauk Valley Rd and S. Skagit Hwy, shadier and quieter alternatives to WA-20. Near Sedro Woolley, we’ll take WA-9 to the Nakashima Barn and the Centennial Trail back to Arlington. Note that most of the stores after Concrete close by 10 or 10:30.

The finish is back at the Best Western where cold beer and pizza will be waiting for you. I hope to see you at the 0500 start on 8/6! Registration is online here.

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by | March 3, 2022 · 1:01 pm

Permanent Route Updates

Route 01234 Wayne’s Choice is reinstated with new routing on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail in place of the closed bridge on Fish Hatchery Rd.

Longing for warm dry weather? Try the new Death Valley routes (be careful what you wish for!). Both start in Furnace Creek 180 ft below sea level:

Closures

Middle Fork Rd is closed due to a slide. No other information is available at present.

The usual roads are flooded in the Duvall-Carnation-Fall City area. https://gismaps.kingcounty.gov/mycommute/

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by | January 27, 2022 · 10:49 am

Event Registration Changes

Beginning with the Winter 200K on Feb 5, we’ve made some changes to the event registration process to (hopefully) make it easier for people to register. These are listed below.


1. Email verification: This requirement has been dropped (yay!!), so people will no longer need to respond to the verification email from SmartWaiver. The waiver already includes the event name and date so riders will not need to add this information, but but you will need to include all other required information 

2. Riders need to initial the waiver to confirm that they understand its terms. 

waiverInitial.png

3. You will need to click the ‘Register Now’ button twice. The first click will open the waiver in a new window or tab (you may need to allow your browser to open popup windows).

registerNow.png

Once you have completed the waiver, close the tab containing the waiver and click the ‘Register Now’ button again to proceed with the registration process.

The ClubExpress platform used by the club and the SmartWaiver product required by RUSA don’t always play well together, but we’ve added some programmatic duct tape to make the process a little easier. If you have any questions or problems with your registration, please send an email to webm…@seattlerando.org. Include as much information as possible (screenshot, device, browser) to help us understand the situation.

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by | January 18, 2022 · 9:31 pm

2022 January 22 Rouleur 125-149 km Pre-Ride Report

Pre-riders: Mitch Ishihara and John Nguyen

Distance: 130K (0.1 km gravel), 81 miles
[The finishing time of 8h 40m is based on the official distance of 130 km. Detours may make the actual route longer. You will still have to finish in 8h 40m.]

Elevation (max / accumulative): 173 m / 1090 m, 567 feet / 3576 feet

Brevet #: 2876 

Name: Sultan Bakery Sandy Coffee Sumerian Beer

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/38225020
[The route may be updated Thursday night/Friday morning depending on the status of flooded roads.]

Features: Sultan Bakery, Sandy’s Espresso, Sumerian Brewing Company

SIR Event Listing

There is a perpetually flooded road through a wetland. Detour required.

These people did not make it through.

Tualco Valley had barns and farm stubble.

There were water-over-roadway signs (but not closed).

Automobiles successfully crossed.

So did we. Too much fun.

Snow decorated the mountain backdrops.

Snow decorated the side of the road too… but melting.

We ate lunch at a bakery.

There were a enough tough hills.

More roads were closed. Detours required.

Rivers ran full.

Sandy’s Espresso was open.

We climbed up Tolt Hill Road above the flooded River Road.

There were nice views from up high.

We rode through a fancy neighborhood.

We saw blue skies and sunsets.

We drank beer.

Good times!

The weather forecast for January 22nd looks promising.

For Woodinville, WA

And for the route…

Aerial view of the route with some photos on Relive.

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by | January 8, 2022 · 3:55 pm

Summer 300 km Brevet – Three Volcanoes 2.0

Mt Adams from road 2329

Update 5/6/22: The new owners of Hotel Packwood intend to begin taking bookings in June. We will attempt to reserve a block of rooms for riders.

Preliminary route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/30755658

It has been a long decade since the Three Volcanoes route was last run. (Four Volcanoes is best left unmentioned.) Road washouts and then a plague scrubbed the route. With some luck things will go well enough in 2022 for us to revisit the wild country between Mts Rainier, Adams, and St Helens.

The route has been altered in several places from the old version of Three Volcanoes. We will spend less time on road 23, which carries most of the auto traffic between Randle and Trout Lake. The route visits spectacular Takhlakh Lake beneath Mt Adams. To keep the distance to a manageable 314 km the southern side of the route uses road 30.

In all there are four gravel segments totaling 37 km. Historically the route has been manageable on 28 mm tires. Road 30 has not been evaluated yet.

The ride is based in Packwood, WA. The start will be at dawn, 0500, July 23.

In the past Hotel Packwood has offered economical accommodations. The hotel is being renovated and no one is answering the telephone. We will attempt to reserve a block of rooms but at present riders should make their own overnight reservations elsewhere.

Mt Adams outside Trout Lake

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by | December 18, 2021 · 11:15 am

Bridge News

West Seattle Low Bridge Closures

The Spokane St bridge aka the West Seattle Low Bridge will have planned maintenance closures tomorrow, Dec 19, and on four Sundays in January. Closures may last up to 30 minutes. Planned times are around 9AM, 1PM, and 5PM. In January closures will be on January 9, 16, 23, and 30. SDOT project page.

Tukwila Bridge is (almost) falling down

Image
Tukwila Police Dept

The 42nd Ave S bridge was hit by a truck. Currently it is closed pending evaluation. While we have no routes that cross the bridge, the Green River Trail passes under the bridge. Presently the trail remains open.

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by | December 16, 2021 · 11:00 am

Permanent Route Updates

End of the Carbon River Rd, Dec 15, 2021

The Carbon River permanents (2144 MI-Carbon River and 2100 Sumner-Carbon River) are reinstated. The road is closed about 100 yards before the old turnaround point, so even with slight shortening both still qualify as 200 and 100 km routes, respectively. Access is not permitted beyond the closure. The Park Service is exploring building a temporary trail on the adjacent private land. Long-term the Park Service intends to rebuild the road to reopen access to the trails.

Note the snow in the photo! A person might not expect snow at 1800 feet. In winter it pays to check snow conditions for the higher-elevation lowland routes. The Carbon River Rd has a couple of bridges that were entirely iced over on the 15th.

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by | December 4, 2021 · 1:21 pm

Permanent Route Updates

Frenchman Coulee

04291 Basin’s Edge, 202 km, was created from the popular Basin’s Edge 200k brevet.

Suspended Routes

02100 Sumner-Carbon River and 02214 Mercer Island-Carbon River have been suspended due to flood damage on the Carbon River entrance road.

01234 Wayne’s Choice has been suspended due to permanent removal of a small bridge on Fish Hatchery Rd. Alternative routings are being considered.

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by | November 27, 2021 · 1:04 am

Permanent Route Updates

Lake Wenatchee

Two new routes were recently added:

04283 Seattle Lakes & Rivers Cruise, 117 km. Mike McHale designed this route. From Factoria it loops through Issaquah out to Carnation, then through Redmond and across the 520 bridge to Seattle, then south through Renton and back to Factoria. The controls offer convenient starting locations for many Seattle and Eastside riders.

04272 Phat Ferry, 100 km. Robert Hendry designed this route. Its 4500 ft of climbing should burn off the calories you consume at the four bakeries along this route as you ride from Bainbridge to Bremerton and back.

In the Almost a New Route department:

01002 Wenatchee-White River, 208 km. Formerly named E Wenatchee-Lake Wenatchee, this is a major reworking of the route to avoid riding on US-2 as much as possible. From Wenatchee the route climbs to Plain, visits Lake Wenatchee State Park for a view of the lake, cruises up to the end of the pavement on White River Rd, and returns through Plain and Leavenworth to Wenatchee.

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