I'm going to have surgery on my foot next week. I'll be immobilized for two weeks and then in a hard cast for two months. I wanted to get one last good, long ride on my bicycle before the surgery. Most cyclists around here would have headed to the Burke Gillman trail, ridden out to Alki, or circled futilely around Greenlake. Not me. While those other trails were swarming with peds and other cyclists, my route was all but deserted. I feel like I know a really good secret and I probably shouldn't share it, but I will. The secret is this: You can get from downtown Seattle to Federal Way almost entirely on trails or bicycle safe roads. I don’t know, maybe I was just the last person to find out.
Riding south of Seattle
I rode over 70 miles and barely encountered anyone on the trails, just a smattering pedestrians and one bizarre group of geriatric cyclists. From my place south of the Ballard Bridge, I followed the Myrtle Edwards/Eliot Bay Park trail to Downtown. The ride along the waterfront can be pleasant in the winter, but the rest of the year, cruise ships belch out disoriented, dyspeptic tourists. I had forgotten this, but wasn’t too hindered by the crowds. When traffizc is bad in downtown Seattle, there is no faster mode of transportation than a bicycle. Still, I should have headed down Second Ave; it’s faster than the waterfront.
Once through Downtown, I worked my way over to Airport Way. I love Airport Way. I had been meaning to photograph all the precious, liminal spaces along Airport Way, and I finally remembered to bring my camera with me. I captured a number of scenes that I dearly love like the street sign for the intersection of Airport Way and Industrial Way, the sign for Elo’s Philly Grill, and the surreal juxtaposition of a massive freeway interchange and reclaimed forest. But, sadly, all my photos of Airport Way were lost.
The stretch of Airport Way from Downtown to Georgetown appears dangerous to cyclists, but I don’t think it really is. For one thing traffic, especially on a Saturday, is generally light. For another, a large proportion of the drivers are professionals. I’ll take my chances with a UPS truck rushing back from a delivery on Airport Way over the typical, self-absorbed, cell-phone talking, amateur driver elsewhere any day. Once I got to Georgetown, though, I could ride on the King Country/Boeing field access road, a very safe, untrafficked road with a 15 mph speed limit. I love riding past Boeing field and sucking in jet fuel fumes. The noise is terrific too—more noise please! It’s all very peaceful to me.
Once past the airport, it gets a little sketchy. While Airport Way sleeps, the other streets are wide awake and screaming. Airport Way terminates at a tumultuous intersection and freeway onramp where East Maringal Way, Hwy 900, and I-5 meet. It’s a tough bit of asphalt to negotiate, but I just close my eyes and hope for the best.
Having survived that nasty bit of traffic, I was once again on a trail. The path along Green River feels like the land time forgot and is the most liminal of liminal spaces. Fifty meters on either side of the river is wild and shaded by trees, another 25 meters and the real world encroaches. Along the Green River the real world manifests itself as rail yards and CAT Tractor depots, although golf courses and ticky-tacky housing developments blight the scenery here and there. Once past Southcenter mall, the trail greens even further. I rode past fishing holes, and small, family parks. South of Kent, light industry gives way to farmland. By the time I made it to Pacific, WA, (between Auburn and Federal Way) I felt as if I had made it to the hinterlands at last. One of my last stops was at a general store. The store was indistinguishable from any you might find on the other side of the mountains or along the coast. I had a hard time finding anything moderately nutritious to sustain me inside, but bait, hooks, and garish knives abounded.
Having pretty well exhausted myself by the time I made it to Pacific, I decided to follow the Interurban Trail all the way back to Tukwilla as it was shorter than crossing over to the Green River Trail in Kent. Both the Green River Trail and the Interurban Trail connect Tukwilla to Kent’s southern border, but the Green River Trail snakes along the river whereas the Interurban makes a crow’s flight seem circuitous. The Interurban is so straight that if you put it in the center of Google Maps, you can follow its course for miles and miles merely by holding down the down-arrow key. The Green River Trail is definitely the more pastoral of the two trails, but it peters out before the Interurban does.
As I mentioned, I lost all of my photos of Airport Way but I managed to keep most of the ones of my ride between Tukwilla and Pacific. None of them have me in the picture, though, so when I came back through Seattle, I asked someone to take my picture. It was apparently prom night for a number of high-schools as the Space Needle and Seattle Center were crawling with rosy cheeked teenagers. I asked a cute couple from Inglemore High School to take my picture in front of the Space Needle. As far as I know this is the only picture of me with the Space Needle, and I’ve lived here practically my whole life! Incidentally, I went to Inglemore’s prom myself almost exactly 20 years ago.
