How Steep is Finn Hill?

In the bike shop the other day, my friend Ryan and i were chatting about Finn Hill just north of Kirkland along Juanita Dr NE. (For 15 years i called it Juanita Hill thinking for some weird reason that Finn Hill was further east.)

Finn Hill, is a feature on many bike routes. It is one of the only ways to connect downtown Bellevue to the Burke Gillman trail north of the lake on an around-Lake-Washington ride. It's a fairly serious climb on what can usually be a relatively flat ride. I had climbed it south to north on an around-the-lake half century ride a few days before.

Some people curse it, others add it to their ride for the challenge. For me, i ride it to get from here to there. Holmes Point Dr, which drops down to the lake from the south part of the climb and then back up to the summit is one of the steepest streets in the region and is often used by cyclists for training.



I almost always ride it from south to north. Ryan and i started discussing the attributes of the two different directions. I usually am known for having a pretty good ability to estimate distance and climb. Ryan said that he found the southbound climb to be frustrating because it was steeper. I insisted that the northbound climb was steeper. I've ridden that hill dozens of times over a couple of decades and it's always been clear to me that the northbound climb was steeper.

So when i got home i fired up the Topo(tm) software, as i often do after riding.

Here's what i learned:

From the south it's about 3.5 miles to the top, 3% average grade, with a brief max at 8% grade.



and from the north it's about 1.5 miles to the top, 5% average grade, also with a brief max grade at about 8%.


Ryan was right. I was wrong,

I don't know why i always felt like the south way was shorter and steeper. I usually ride from the south, maybe that descent just seemed very long. The last couple of times i have climbed it at sunset and descended in the rain in the dark, which was pretty hairy.