Mitch Ishihara reactivated 02577 Sultan Sandy Coffee Run, 129 km. Many of us have already ridden this route as the 125-149 km Rouleur series route.
Geoff Swarts contributed three new routes:
04329 Newport Hills Two Lakes, 107 km. This is an easy circuit of Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish. The new free-start rule should make this a convenient route for many riders in the region.
RUSA Brevet #2134 Redmond, Lakes, Falls, and Trails – features Peet’s Coffee, Granite Falls (multiple bakery, food, and coffee options), Postdoc Brewing Company
The route features low elevation (below 240 meters/790 feet) on rural roads.
From the start in Redmond, make a gradual climb up to Echo Lake passing through a short gravel/dirt trail. Descend down to Tualco Valley and Monroe. Climb up rolling hills to Lake Chaplain. Follow it up with a rolling climb up to Lake Roesiger. Continue with a rolling descent down to Granite Falls with multiple food options (roughly the half-way point). Make a net descent across additional rolling hills out to Arlington. Take a short out and back to Bryant followed by the gradual railroad trail grades on the Centennial Trail to Snohomish. Make one more lumpy climb before finishing on the Sammamish River Trail back to Postdoc Brewing Company in Redmond. All of this packed in against a few scenic peeks of mountains in the distance.
Advance scouting: Mitch Ishihara, John Nguyen, Andy Sapuntzakis, Kevin Smith
Pre-Riders: Mark Thomas, Jan Acuff
RUSA Brevet #2887 Snohomish – La Conner Out & Back – features Looking Glass Coffee (closed for remodel) outside Spada Farmhouse Brewery, La Conner (multiple bakery and coffee options), Spada Farmhouse Brewery
The route features low elevation (below 110 meters/360 feet), gradual railroad trail grades with flat farm pastures, on rural roads against a scenic backdrop of the Cascade foothills and maybe a peek of Mt. Baker.
From the start in Snohomish, make a gentle climb on the Centennial Trail until passing under the HWY 9 overpass. Descend down into Arlington for a restroom pit stop, coffee (off-route one block), or baked goods. Make another gradual climb past Lake McMurray before descending down HWY 534 to Conway. Meander across the flats out to La Conner, with a chance to see Bald Eagles perched in trees. Grab some baked goods (or breakfast/lunch) at La Conner (multiple options). Return back to Snohomish for a finish at Spada Farmhouse Brewery.
Long, gradual 1-2% railroad grades on the Centennial Trail itself and Skagit flats.
Start location @ Spada Farmhouse Brewery
We’ll try to gather in front, on the sidewalk/adjacent lot. There’s also an empty field of green grass across the street (Snohomish Farmers Market) in case we need a larger space.
Centennial Trail
Frequently featured in SIR routes and well-traveled, Centennial Trail provides a shared-use refuge for cyclists and pedestrians. Make note of the bollards though.
Arlington
Restrooms at Legion Memorial Park at around 22 miles / 36 km
The Lounge at Moe’s is off-route one block on Olympic Ave. Take West 5th Street from the Centennial Trail and turn right onto Olympic Ave.
Skagit Flats
Up in the trees and on power poles, you may see Bald Eagles.
Down low in the fields flocks of geese honk.
Out far across the Skagit flats, snow capped mountains hide behind clouds.
49.3 miles / 79.4 km at the end of Morris Street, you’ll arrive at Gilkey Square where the info control can be found. Mark read my mind on a reasonable landmark question. HINT: we won’t be asking you to find a yellow fire hydrant with numbers on it but the actual sign with the info control question will be nearby.
Soak in the view of the Swinomish Channel.
Refuel & Rest
After the info control, there are numerous options in La Conner to refuel, caffeinate, and grab a pint if you like.
The Scone Lady Bakery, 109 N 1st St, La Conner, WA 98257
South:
La Conner Coffee Company, 602 1st St, La Conner, WA 98257
Calico Cupboard Old Town Cafe, 720 1st St, La Conner, WA 98257
East:
Public Restrooms, 302 Morris St, La Conner, WA 98257
NW Fuel Cafe, 313 Morris St #4, La Conner, WA 98257
Pioneer Market, 416 Morris St, La Conner, WA 98257
Stompin Grounds Coffee Co, 603 Morris St, La Conner, WA 98257
And back…
Kevin stashed and encouraged us to Lake McMurray with a hand pie on the return!
CAUTION: Arlington, Centennial Trail is on the sidewalk along 67th AVE NE against the flow of traffic. Automobiles cross trail from side streets. Take note of stop signs. Drivers may not see you.
Weather Forecast
For Snohomish
For La Conner
Epic Ride Weather
Comments Off on 2022 January 29 Rouleur 150-199 km Ride Report: Snohomish – La Conner Out & Back 159K
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.
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).
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.
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
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
Comments Off on Summer 300 km Brevet – Three Volcanoes 2.0
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
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.
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.