Seattle Bike Blog

Alert 9/16-10/11: Snoqualmie Valley Trail closed north of Rattlesnake Lake – UPDATED

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 9, 2024

Map from King County Parks.
UPDATE 10/3: The closure has been extended an extra week through October 11 after crews found additional “areas of rot” that need to be replaced, according to King County Parks.
King County Parks will close the Snoqualmie Valley Trail between the Riverbend neighborhood and Rattlesnake Lake from September 16 to October 4. Unfortunately, there will be no official detour or temporary biking and walking route.
The closure is needed so crews can repair a timber trail bridge structure memorably named bridge 2178-44. The Snoqualmie Valley Trail is a rail-trail that uses rather old railroad infrastructure. “Parts of the timber trestle structure have areas of rot and need to be replaced for safety,” King County Parks noted in their announcement.
The bridge in question in a remote and particularly beautiful section of the trail, and there are no nearby route alternatives. The best option from what I can tell may be to hop off the trail at SE 145th Street in Riverbend (first street after crossing the river heading southbound) and then wind through the neighborhood to take Cedar Falls Road SE to Rattlesnake Lake. Cedar Falls Road has significant sections without shoulders, and I have never personally ridden on it so I cannot vouch for how safe it feels to bike there. It pretty much only goes to Rattlesnake Lake, so it can’t be that busy, right? If anyone else has experience biking there or has a better route to suggest, please let us know in the comments below.
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8 comments on Alert 9/16-10/11: Snoqualmie Valley Trail closed north of Rattlesnake Lake – UPDATED

tags: Bike Route Alert, rattlesnake lake, snoqualmie valley trail

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Saturday: Cascade will host 3 rides in memory of Steve Hulsman

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 6, 2024

The kind of elevation chart Steve loved. (From the very difficult route option)
Cascade Bicycle Club is hosting a set of memorial rides 9 a.m. Saturday (September 7) “to celebrate the life of Steve Hulsman,” a longtime Cascade ride leader who was killed while biking on Marine View Drive in West Seattle in December.
Hulsman loved riding difficult hills and measured his biking in feet of elevation rather than miles, and as a ride leader he specialized in teaching people the art of climbing on a bike. At the time of his death, he had registered 787,641 feet of climbing to his Strava account.
That’s why Cascade is offering three route options beginning and ending at Lincoln Park Saturday morning. One is on relatively flat roads and trails (though it is still 14 miles), the intermediate/difficult route is 25 miles with 2,473 feet of elevation gain, and the full Hulsman route is 43 miles with more than 4,500 feet of elevation gain (you probably want to be trained up for that one). The intermediate and very difficult routes will both pass through the intersection where he was killed, which is about a mile south of the starting point of the rides (Marine View Drive SW/46th Ave SW).
Everyone is invited whether they knew Steve personally or not. Friends and family will share some words at the start.
More details from Cascade:
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tags: cascade bicycle club, steven hulsman

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Cascade: ‘Vote NO on I-2117 if you love bikes and trails’

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 4, 2024

Read more on the Cascade blog.
One of the most important choices on November’s packed ballot will be rejecting I-2117, an irresponsible initiative backed by a wealthy conservative hedge fund manager that would obliterate funding for a laundry list of great things Washington State invests in like clean air, asthma prevention, wildfire prevention, Safe Routes to School, trails, ferries, public transit and more. Even if you don’t like transit and biking (boo!), this initiative would also cut funding for state road and highway improvements.
Specifically, I-2117 would overturn the 2021 Climate Commitment Act, a so-called cap-and-trade law on carbon emissions that is already baked into the state’s budget including 2022’s Move Ahead Washington transportation funding package. The initiative would also limit the state’s ability to pursue other carbon-reduction strategies in the future. It’s so bad, even the Seattle Times Editorial Board says to vote NO on I-2117.
The initiative would benefit large carbon-emitting businesses at the expense of everybody else. Regular people across Washington will get nothing good from it. If you think that the oil conglomerates are going to lower your gas prices out of the kindness of their hearts as a thank you for passing I-2117, then I’ve got an oil refinery in Anacortes to sell you. The companies will put all their tax savings in their pockets, and you will be left with deteriorating roads, longer ferry lines, and fewer alternatives to driving.
It’s no surprise that Cascade Bicycle Club is strongly against I-2117, and the organization is even hosting an online event 1 p.m. September 17 about the impact on bikes and to help folks get involved in the effort to reject the initiative. They also wrote a blog post outlining their case for voting NO:
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tags: 2024 general election, cascade bicycle club, climate commitment act, i-2117, move ahead washington

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Biking Uphill in the Rain is a finalist for the 2024 Washington State Book Award

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 3, 2024

Image from the Washington Center for the Book announcement.
I am honored to learn that the Washington State Library’s Center for the Book has selected my book Biking Uphill in the Rain: The Story of Seattle from behind the Handlebars as a finalist for the 2024 Washington State Book Awards. It’s one of six books in consideration for the general nonfiction award.
“The Washington State Book Awards honor works of outstanding literary merit by Washington authors,” according to the library. The Washington Center for the Book is an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book. “The award is given based on the strength of the publication’s literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality.” The judges evaluated 292 books in seven categories that were written by Washington writers and published in 2023. The category winners will be announced September 24.
It’s humbling to be on a list with so many talented writers. If you’re looking for fall book recommendations, this is a fantastic list. If you buy a copy of Biking Uphill in the Rain from the Seattle Bike Blog shop, I’ll sign it and throw in a free sticker.
Thanks to all the judges and everyone who has supported this book and suggested it to your friends. I’m quite proud of it, and seeing it on this list of finalists is challenging my imposter syndrome. It sometimes feels like I wrote it in another lifetime. When I re-read sections to get ready for a talk, it sometimes even feels like reading something that somebody else wrote. This happens to me sometimes when I’m researching something for a blog post only to discover my own work from a decade ago. It’s a strange feeling. Writing is an act of creating artifacts.

2 comments on Biking Uphill in the Rain is a finalist for the 2024 Washington State Book Award

tags: biking uphill in the rain, library of congress, washington center for the book, washington state library

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Gone bikin’

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

August 28, 2024

Gone family bike camping. Be back next week!

tags: bike camping

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‘Our kid is biking on MLK!’

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

August 26, 2024

This photo turned out much cooler than I expected when I took it.
The new bike lanes on MLK Jr. Way from S Judkins Street to Mount Baker Station feel like a shortcut. It’s both more direct and more gradual than any of the alternative bike route options previously available. You no longer need to scale the cliffside up to Leschi to get between Franklin High School and the I-90 Trail. While a handful of people would just go ahead and bike on the four-to-five-lane road, it was not an experience for the faint of heart.
Even though I have ridden (and reported about) these new bike lanes previously, watching my six-year-old ride comfortably from Mount Baker Station to Judkins Park was still amazing. When my spouse Kelli yelled out, “Our kid is biking on MLK!” that’s exactly how I was feeling. If she can do it, then that means so many more people can, too. Sure enough, I saw more people biking on MLK in one block than I think I have ever seen biking there previously. I’m not even counting the people biking in the Seattle Neighborhood Greenways family-friendly celebration ride we joined Sunday.
Photo from Gordon Padelford of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.
The investments Seattle is making to create bike routes that children can use are going to keep paying off for generations. My child’s experience of growing up here will involve more independence and freedom than children had in my generation. And so long as Seattle passes the transportation levy in November and continues to build bike lanes like the ones on MLK, the next generation of Seattle kids will have even more freedom than my child. After a century of changes to our roads that pushed kids to the side, keeping them confined to their homes or limited areas like parks or a few indoor recreation spaces, we are finally creating real space for them within the fabric of our city. In the process, we’re creating connections and spaces that are comfortable for everyone.

tags: central district, I-90 trail, mlk way, mount baker station, sdot, seattle neighborhood greenways

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