I remember Bikecentennial in 1976. Good times, tube socks, homemade trail mix, cooler drivers.
Posted on 02/14/2020 1:12:53 PM PST by rktman
A road trip may be the classic way to traverse the United States, but cyclists will eventually be able to make the cross-country bike trip a reality on a newly created trail system. Once it is completed, the Great American Rail-Trail will connect more than 3,700 miles of repurposed train routes and multi-use trails—all separate from vehicle traffic—across 12 states from Washington, D.C., to Washington State. Here’s everything we know about it so far. Where Will the Route Go?
In May 2019, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) revealed the route that will connect 125 existing trails with another 90 “trail gaps,” or sections that will need to be developed to turn the new Great American Rail-Trail into one contiguous path.
(Excerpt) Read more at getpocket.com ...
Many rural rail routes have disappeared and gone out of business, but in an act of foresight by Congress that surprised me, they passed legislation to keep these “rights of way” open and un-developed for possible future national use - whether again for rails, telecom, pipelines or whatever.
I believe the Feds provided some funding, but its basically up to states and private entities to decide how to use these pathways. Our county is going through this now. With state support (New York) local “rail to trail” groups were encouraged to form and decide what they wanted to have. Bare trails or paved? lights and bathrooms? bikes? foot-travel only? How to pay for upkeep? These sorts of questions.
I hope this eventually becomes a reality. I would love to do it with my wife on one of our tandems, pulling our weinerdog and camping supplies behind us in our little trailer.
My wife and I are very familiar with the parts of the trail that they are showing in Washington State. Unfortunately, it is a little bit misleading if you think that you will be able to ride the parts that we know of on a standard road or even touring bike, because much of it is not actually paved, or very well maintained. And the gaps where you would be expected to ride on the highways are ridiculous in some cases.
For instance the 5 miles of excellent trail that connects the Cedar River Trail in the Maple Valley area to the John Wayne Wayne Trail at Rattle Snake Lake has been closed off by the City of Seattle because it is in their watershed. The trail is not actually near one of their reservoirs other than Rattle Snake Lake which is open to the public anyway.
This means that instead of 5 miles through peaceful wilderness at about a 1% to 2% grade on a trail that is better maintained than the surrounding trail, one has to ride nearly 20 miles on Highway 18 over the top of Tiger Mountain with barely any shoulder which is the most dangerous stretch of highway in the entire state. From there you need to continue on all the way into Snoqualmie where you can finally catch another section of poorly maintained trail. The detour adds over 30 miles along with some very long and in some cases steep hills to your ride. The steepest part is actually between North Bend and Rattle Snake Lake.
That said the ride from Rattle Snake Lake through the two mile long tunnel next to I 90 coming out on the East Side of Snoqualmie Pass is great. But it is only open after the snow melts in late Spring and before the snow starts falling in early Fall which varies from year to year.
Knowing what I do about our local trails I do not trust the article very much. It is interesting to me that Seattle causes this horrendous gap in the trail for almost no reason considering the huge section of their watershed that are already open to the public. My wife and I have actually done it on our mountain bike tandem, but it was not a fun day and that was when we were younger and in better shape. From Renton to the top of Snoqualmie Pass going that way is a heck of a hard ride. Without the detour it would be only about 3000 feet of elevation gain, and around 50 miles, which lots of people could do and there are camping spots along the John Wayne Trail that are really nice.
The detour adds another 3000 feet and 30 more miles. Most people would not be capable of riding it in a day and have the common sense not to ride on the horrendous stretch of Highway 18 that goes over Tiger Mountain. When I was younger and crazier I used to ride up it for training and even back then it was risky.
Here is the current WSDOT camera at the top of the Tiger Mountain Pass which is about the safest part of the whole section of road. But it will give you an idea of how narrow the shoulder is with cars whizzing by at high speed.
https://www.wsdot.com/traffic/cameras/default.aspx?cam=5010
My brother rode around the coast of Australia. All the way around. Nuts.
I remember Bikecentennial in 1976. Good times, tube socks, homemade trail mix, cooler drivers.
I could never do this. I prefer my meat fresh (squirrels, rabbits, snakes) but carrying a 22 on the trail would freak everyone out completely, I would say.
I am glad that you posted that... It is a much better route than what I imagined through this area. The difference is that they are starting further North on the Burke Gillman Trail and connecting to the Trail that goes through Carnation and eventually becomes the John Wayne Trail using less traveled streets. If the route it took the southern Ferry that ends in West Seattle and took the Green River Trail into Renton and got on the Cedar River Trail and could go through the Seattle Watershed it would save 30 to 40 miles, avoid the mess in downtown Seattle and avoid lot of steep climbs on local streets and on the way up to Rattle Snake Lake.... It will never happen because Seattle officials pay lip service only to this type of thing.
We are planning on moving soon, so I just threw out a bunch of bicycling magazines from the mid 70s. Maybe I should have stuck them on eBay?
I grew up in Snoqualmie, you’re talking about all my old haunts! HAHA! I think it was the Burke Gillman Trail that went behind the building where I worked at Union Bay Sportswear in Kent. The trail in Carnation might be a little rough right now with all the flooding.
Snoqualmie is a beautiful area! After the trail went up the hill out of Carnation it became a little rough years ago, but the part of the trail that goes up to Rattlesnake lake was pretty bad in some areas and this was because of water running across the trail in some areas. A lot of the trail has had problems at times. The John Wayne Trail in this area is largely maintained by groups that are mostly made up of horseback riders and they have a different perspective about what type of surface is ideal.
We have a rails to trails system locally although it is not yet connected to the national system.
Lonely isolated, mile and miles of trees and woods. Not a place to go alone. Ever.
Unlike Euro trails and hikes, where you walk from town to town and see homes and neighborhoods along the way, the bike trails are isolated criminal magnets.
Can’t carry in some of those states.
The shoulder is where all the debris is that will slice your tire up. Un-fixable type of cuts in the tire.
Lot’s of rail trail in Park City. Flat and fun!
Well they are on railroad lines... And the rail trails here are seperate from the roads.
You sometimes do have to cross regular roadways however.
There are a lot around here too. Most are pretty nice, and some are very scenic. Good part about repurposed rail routes is there are no steep grades. Great if you’re just out for a leisure ride or training for distance/endurance.
“My brother rode around the coast of Australia. All the way around. Nuts.”
Did he write about it in National Geographic?
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