The Summer Populaire (106 KM) kicks off the SIR Summer Series in style on July 8, 2017. It’s a lovely mix of familiar roads, trails, pavement, gravel, climbs, descents and even some flat stuff along the way. The ride starts in Columbia City at the Genessee Park and Playground and finishes at Super Six, part of theHawaiian-Korean fusion Marination empire. Cue sheet, map and pre-registration are all on the SIR website.
Organizers Ray Whitlock and Ben Rainbow gathered with pre-riders Hugh Kimball, BJ Moore, Fred Bladsel and Theo Roffe (that’s me) on July 1 to check the route and find questions for the several information controls.
The route avoids the I-90 bridge, passing instead through Renton on the south end of Lake Washington. This leads to a lovely descent (watch the rough pavement) into May Valley Park, past a dead end sign. At the bottom of the hill (where the many grates are), answer the info question and climb to the left. If you keep going straight, like I did, you’ll find a nice gravel trail that doesn’t go anywhere.
From May Valley Park it’s familiar roads with slightly higher traffic to Tiger Mountain Road and the biggest climb of the ride, just shy of 900 ft. It’s got a couple steep pitches, but it’s pretty scenic up there (see image at top of post). Answer the info question at the East Side Fire and Rescue, then enjoy the descent. But watch for cars from the left looking to park at the trailhead just before the T-intersection with Issaquah-Hobart Road.
The next phase of the ride is a bit gravely, but nothing very deep or technical. Just quiet sections of the Cedar River Trail, Cedar River Pipeline and Green River Trail. All of these provide a nice break from car traffic. Don’t get too distracted here, though, as we had to include a few more info controls. The last info is at mile 45, so you can stop messing with your brevet card from there until the finish.
From Maple Valley, it’s back to Renton where some construction interrupts our typical zig-zag back to Perimeter Road (around the airport). Be attentive to cars as construction always seems to make sharing more difficult. The route from Renton essentially backtracks to the start, but turns off on Genessee St (downshift!) and follows a backroads way to the finish.
It’s a fun route and the weather is looking to be most excellent this weekend! Hope to see you there.
And please remember to pre-register! It makes things a lot easier on the admin side.
