An Unpaved Adventure Close to Home

This last week someone posted a message on the Seattle Randonneurs Google group saying they would be visiting the Seattle area and asking for suggestions for good gravel road rides while they're in the area. Several members of the group, of course responded with great suggestions. It got me to thinking that my rides have gotten a bit repetitive and boring lately, and I could use a good gravel road adventure to spice things up. So I picked one of the suggested routes that looked interesting and was close to home.

The route had recently been used for a cyclo-cross race and included a mix of paved roads, paved and unpaved multi-use trails, gravel roads and even a few miles of single-track. I didn't really keep track, but I'd guess that about 35 miles of the route were unpaved, and most of the paved sections were very quiet back roads with little or no traffic.

I started early enough that even the Sammamish River Trail was deserted as I passed through Woodinville to the real start of the route near Redmond. Later in the day on my return trip, this stretch of trail would look like WA-520 at rush hour with walkers, joggers, dog-walkers, stroller-pushers, toddling toddlers, roller-bladers, and cyclists all out enjoying the sunny day and competing for trail space.

Apparently the balloonists get an early start. I saw four in the skies over the Sammamish Valley and could hear the roar of their burners as I rode by.

The first couple miles after leaving the trail were on quiet roads, but before long I was on the Power Line trail. In spite of the high voltage lines overhead, there are beautiful stretches of well maintained trail reminiscent of narrow English country lanes.

And then there are other sections that aren't quite as scenic and you're reminded why the trail was here in the first place.

The Power Line trail connects with the Regional Pipe Line trail on Redmond Ridge which offers a couple miles of perfectly maintained twisting and turning single track. The only other bikes I saw out here were mountain bikes, but it was all very rideable on a drop-bar road bike with wide-ish tires.

From the Regional Pipe Line trail I connected with the Tolt Pipeline trail and followed it east of Duvall a few miles before turning off near Lake Joy and following traffic-free gravel roads back into Carnation.

The Snoqualmie Valley trail between Carnation and Duvall is unpaved, but it's so flat and smooth I was able to ride as fast as if I was on brand new pavement.

From Duvall it's a straight shot on the Tolt Pipeline trail back to the Sammamish Valley trail. And when I say straight shot, I mean literally, as the crow flies. The pipeline trail makes one gentle turn to the left between the Snoqualmie Valley and the Sammamish Valley but otherwise makes no attempts to go around or switchback gently when the hills get steep. It goes straight up and and over some wicked hills. I'm sure the pipeline engineers were just being efficient, but it makes for a great workout in the last few miles of the route, and the last descent into the Sammamish Valley is a screamer on a road bike as the trail drops 300' in less than a quarter mile.

I finished the ride feeling like I had had a real adventure, even though for most of the trip I was still within the suburbs and never more than a few miles from a good latte.