For June, I decided to try "the other" West Seattle 100K that starts near our house: RUSA route 2597: West Seattle Edgy. Maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was because I started so early that traffic was light for a lot of it, or maybe it was because there were only five controls that were fairly easy to find, but I liked this route a lot more than the first one.
Since the start is an "open" control in Alki Beach, I wanted to begin at 7 am from Top Pot Donuts. But they don't open until 7 am, so instead I was forced to go to Starbucks.
(For those that don't live in Seattle, even though Starbucks began here most of us don't have a high opinion of their coffee. And none of their pastries are as good as a donut from Top Pot.)
Anyway, after most of a fairly "meh" vanilla latte and scone, I hit the trail right at 7 am.
Even though the sun had been up for over two hours, for some reason the streets were not full of cars ... maybe because it was Saturday. Either way, after cruising south on the edge of West Seattle, the route then turned inland ... and up, of course.
After rolling through a series of mostly quiet roads, I hit the first control in Burien. Then, I crossed over Hwy 509 into a few more hilly roads just north of the airport, before crossing Hwy 599 and then I-5 into Tukwila. The route gets on the Interurban Trail for a bit, then you have to wend your way up onto a sidewalk down along SW Grady Way (which seems to be busy even though it is next to I-405) before turning off on another trail for a bit before you enter an industrial park on the outskirts of beautiful downtown Renton.
Renton always seems to me like a slightly angry community ... like they're pissed off because they're not on Puget Sound and are way down at the bottom of Lake Washington where it starts to get swampy. There are a lot of cycling routes on the south side that pass through there, but mostly they seem to just be doing that: Passing through.
So I passed through Renton and got on the Lake Washington Loop, along with apparently another 50 other cyclists.
This is a nice little road with a decent bike lane. Eventually, you get off the bike lane and onto a multi-use trail that follows I-405 up to Factoria (famous for having a sporting goods store where you can get inner tubes) before crossing the trail along I-90 onto Mercer Island.
The route stays on the I-90 trail across Mercer Island, so you don't get to enjoy the loop south on Mercer Way. But looping down that way would have required another control (although an unscrupulous person could easily find a few shortcuts on this route) and would have made the route too long. Instead, you cross over to ride with a bunch of cyclists on the other side of Lake Washington.
South of Seward Park, you climb up and away from the coast again. I get the feeling that there are a lot of really nice homes between the road and the water there, but you can only see them if you're willing to go down steep roads from which you would then have to climb back up. And, to be honest, you probably couldn't see the houses themselves -- just the lovely gates to those houses.
By the time you see water again, you're in Rainier Beach.
Rainier Avenue is a little busy, but has a bike lane. Since it's busy, they don't do a great job of keeping the bike lane clean, so you have to keep an eye out for glass and other debris. But at least it's fairly flat and gets you down to Renton.
Which you, of course, pass through.
Soon, you are back on the Springbrook Trail for a little bit, right next to this gate into the water treatment plant.
I'm not sure if playing Pokemon is also a fire-able offense or not. You could probably claim insanity, since you have a compulsion to "catch 'em all."
After sidewalk wending my way back onto the Interurban Trail, I got on the Green River Trail near Starfire Sports. There were four fields full of fierce young ladies playing lacrosse there, and I had to gingerly pick my way past their screaming parents watching from the edge of the trail. Then, I was briefly free to ride again.
Of course, it being the beginning of nice weather in Seattle, I soon encountered a conflicting event on the Green River and Duwamish Trails: A half-marathon.
For the most part, I was able to get by the runners with no trouble. But my patience failed me in South Park, and that's why I killed Kenny.
Just kidding. Actually, South Park is another open control on this route, and I stopped at a convenience store to get my card signed and buy a Gatorade. A fellow named Mark approached me in the parking lot and asked why I was limping. I told him briefly about breaking my hip last summer, and he asked to pray for me. Sure, I said. So he did.
That's South Park.
From there, I got back on the usual multi-use trails, which had even more of the runners. As I got closer to the finish and caught a whiff of the barn, I decided to skip the madding crowds and get on W. Marginal Way, along which the Duwamish Trail runs. I was just thinking that I could finish the route in less than five hours when I remembered the very bad railroad tracks there, and looked up to see them just in time to hit them hard enough to give me a pinch flat on the back wheel.
Have I ever told you how much I love Mavic Open Pro rims with Continental Gatorskin tires? I can change a tire with those rims in less than five minutes. Every time.
And, no, the bike that I was riding did not have Mavic Open Pro rims, nor Continental Gatorskin tires. Instead, I was using what Jeff Sammons (the RBA from middle Tennessee) would have called "that light-weight racing crap." Which is why I lost 15 minutes changing the tire on the Duwamish Trail, as half-marathoner after half-marathoner shambled past. But at least I was able to change it and ride on back to Alki Beach. I even ran into RandoGirl there, and she joined me for lunch at Blue Moon Burgers.
I liked this route enough to ride it again. But next time I'm going to start a little later, so I can get that donut. And I'll watch out for those railroad tracks.
No comments:
Post a Comment