AND she had a new bike she wanted to try out, so we started off by taking some time fitting her on her new-to-her Terry road bike.
We got a late start and didn't really have much of a plan. In the end had a wonderful wandering 13 hour ride.
Since it was almost noon by the time we started, we had to have lunch and decided to stop in the Central District for lunch at Catfish Corner -- a favorite or mine. It's yummy and very authentic. Run by couple from Greenwood Mississippi. Catfish, hush puppies and fried okra! It was great. You'd think you were in the Mississippi Delta! But Seattle has far more hills and we needed the fuel!
On the floating bridge leaving Seattle
My Bianchi on the trail.
Auri on her new bike on the trail on Mercer Island.
on the trail on Mercer Island
We spent an hour or so at Kent's bike shop. They were very busy, but in the end we got to visit with him for a while.
Kent & Auri at Bicycle Center of Issaquah
We had many options of routes, but we all three (Kent weighed in) agreed that the route home would go via the Cedar River Trail. We grabbed a quick buffet lunch at the grocery store in downtown Issaquah and headed south past the skatepark that the bears like, into the forest.
Issaquah Hobart road from downtown Issaquah down to Landsburg is mostly rural, forest, with a few small villages. It's also quite hilly. I had predicted 8 or 9 miles, it was 12, but felt much longer because we gained almost 1000 feet! Auri's new bike is obviously a good fit, she was dropping me on the hills!
My good friend Nadine lives in this area so i sent her a text message saying hi. Her response said that she was at a picnic with friends. They had been hoping for a warm sunny Saturday, but were enjoying the picnic despite the chill.
Finally we noticed that the streams were flowing south, not north. We'd topped the hill and the trail was close by. We stopped for a quick photo at a bit of roadside artwork.
At the Yellow Submarine in Hobart Washington.
Auri at the Yellow Submarine
From Landsburg, which is a river crossing, a park, and the entrance (on the east) to the City of Seattle watershed, we turned west and got on the Cedar River Trail. The first few miles of this trail are crushed gravel and head through gorgeous rainforest beside the rushing river. It's one of the most wonderful places to ride that i know.
We stopped for a snack and a couple of photos
timer shot photo along the Cedar River
Auri along the Cedar River
Cedar River
In Issaquah Auri had bought a new bell for her new bike and now she found that it dinged all the time, not just when she wanted it to. It was kind of a proximity alert that she was there: ding, ding, ding. It was driving her nuts, so we rigged up a small fix with a little twig.
The effective road fix for the dinging bell.
About this time i got a text from Nadine asking where we were. When i told her, she said their picnic was only a few miles down the trail. In fact she rode out to meet us!
Now this ride, as so many do, was turning into a very diverse experience. That's one of the things i really like about cycling, is that you go through, and interact with, experience, a lot of very different places, often in quick succession.
We had started off in our urban neighborhood of apartment buildings, pedaled through (and had lunch) in an older neighborhood of affordable houses (an area that some people who don't understand it are actually afraid of) -- then we were on the trail along the freeway, with a detour through a wildlife refuge. A climb through sprawling suburban stripmalls, then through a quaint 1950s subdivision, down a forested mountainside to the charming small downtown of Issaquah. Rural farms, and the Cedar River rain forest followed that. Now as we were riding across a crumbling red brick bridge watching someone do donuts in the mud in an SUV in the field next to us Aurilee asked Nadine where we were. Nadine said, "Redneck Country!!"
We went to the picnic, ate some 'smores (fuel for the rest of the ride) and visited. It was very nice. It was a good rest, we were flattered to be invited and we had a good time. But it was about sunset and we needed to get on the road.
We rode an hour or so down the Cedar River Trail in the dark. I have not installed the generator light on my bike yet. That light gives a great cone of light that allows me to ride anywhere. My little LED battery light was ok for riding the trail, Auri's was brighter. It was fun riding along the trail in the dark, and this part of the trail is usually not as much fun, being as it's right beside a busy highway. Very little traffic at that hour though.
Neither of us drank enough water on this ride and were constantly looking to pee as we got more dehydrated and what water we did drink went right through us. I've got to do something about my drinking problem.
Once the trail ended in Renton we pedaled past the skatepark, this was the second or third one of the day, but in this one there were no skateboards. In Issaquah the skate park seemed to be mostly BMX bikes. Here it was all razor scooters.
Some back alleys took us through the city to the airport we had ridden around back in Feburary and up on to Rainier Ave. We felt strong and were going fast as we headed to Rainier Beach. Now we rode through a neighborhood that is active, busy and certainly doesn't have the best reputation. It's considered Seattle's ghetto (we weren't uncomfortable). It was lively in the glow of the neon on a Saturday night when we stopped at a Mexican restaurant to, once again, pee.
We arrived at the light rail station only moments before a train came.
My bike on light rail.
Ok, maybe that's more like it.
Off light rail at Beacon Hill we flew down the hill and climbed the last few blocks to home. It was a great ride, and we saw so much from an active urban ghetto, suburbia, a redneck picnic to a rain forest!
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