Last week when we were scarfing down a huge meal at the Black Diamond Bakery, we were discussing food and riding and got on to the topic of the Maltby Cafe, another longtime favorite of cyclists. We decided that would be a good candidate for another ride. Today was the day.
I started from home by flying down down the screaming steep hill on Denny to downtown. It's a short, very quick run down to the bus stop on 4th & Lenora. I took the bus out to Issaquah and met the group at the park and ride. We met on the fifth floor of the parking garage, got our bikes read, tires aired up and pedaled away.
We stopped at Starbucks for a quick bite on the way out of town, and then headed up the East Lake Sammamish Trail. Emily had not ridden on gravel before and was very nervous about setting out on this lovely trail, but she quickly was enjoying it with the rest of us.
It's a fun trail, but riding on this trail has an additional fun aspect for me. The trail has been open for about 6 years, and it was a huge focus of the efforts at the advocacy agency where worked from 2001 to 2009. So cruising up this lovely trail is more than just fun, it's real word evidence of the hard work we put in!
The East Lake Sammamish Trail is 10 miles from Issaquah to Marymoor Park, there's a connecting trail through the park, and then we were on Sammamish River Trail, a popular, paved trail which starts in Redmond.
Ten more miles later, we turned off the trail at Woodinville. Instead of taking the big, busy main drag through Woodinville, we took a different route to try to get around it. It started out nice, but soon became clear that it was not going to go where we wanted. So we had to explore a little, climb a hill, but we got back on route. Unfortunately in the process i witnessed a car crash caused by some nut case speeding and running a red light, so it took about 45 minutes to give a statement to the police before we were underway again. But then it was a lovely rural rolling ride to Maltby.
We had a massive meal, and Linda got one of the cinnamon rolls that are as big as a pannier!
Once back in Woodinville, i split from the group. They headed back to Issaquah, while i turned right and took the trail back to Seattle, and home.
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