[mike]

[Chief Joseph]

Broke the law and hiked the Marten Creek trail today, saw 3 other hikers, hit snow about 2800 ft, turned around at the trails obvious end at about 3k, quite a lot of snow toward the end and a bit of post holing. Good workout.

[flatsqwerl]

Chief...where is Marten creek?

[Chief Joseph]

Out on the mountain loop prior to Silverton. It climbs the entire time for 2 miles or so, the trail used to continue on through Granite pass and on to Darrington.

[neek]

Did some peakbagging today...by bike, close to home. Using the standard Lake WA loop as a template, I found the nearby high points on peakbagger and looped in as many as feasible. The ride ended up looking like this:

Overall a fun activity. Got to ride a bunch of quiet neighborhood streets I would otherwise never have discovered, although it's hard to build up much speed on them. My brake pads suffered considerable wear. Some of the high points were nice (parks, views) and others were pretty pathetic (Renton's is in the middle of a 4 lane highway). Many of course were in people's yards so not quite reachable. Routefinding was a bit of a challenge. A cue sheet would have been ridiculously long, and juggling paper maps would have been tedious. Strava limits the number of points it displays on the route, leading to lines going diagonally across streets so that on a large complex route you often can't tell where exactly to turn. I used Gaia to show the plan and track progress, but it bogged down horribly the farther I went. When an app starts acting all choppy like that you can bet it's using a ton of CPU, therefore power. I only kept the screen on for a few seconds at a time to memorize the next few turns, but still ran out of juice near Seward Park. So from there I made a beeline home and skipped the remaining high points I had planned. Total distance ended up being about 95 miles, with as much as 9700 ft gain (or as little as 9000, depending on which app you use to measure it). Ran out of water so was pretty parched and hungry when I got home.

Nice filling station at Horizon View Park, but I didn't need water yet

Norway Hill

Water towers were a theme, no surprise

McAuliffe Park

Done

A short neighborhood connector

Seriously, strava?

Kirkland Connector, on for just a few seconds

Pedestrian bridge over 405 in Kirkland

Bellevue

View from Hilltop (Factoria)

Trillium on Hilltop

"Peaks" visited: North City Hill Horizon View Northshore Summit Bothell High Point Beckstrom Hill Norway Hill Inglemoor Benchmark North Finn Hill Juanita Hill Kirkland Highlands Norkirk Benchmark Kirkland High Point Clyde Hill Cedar Crest Woodridge Hill Somerset Hill Somerset Hilltop Sommerset-The Summit Anti Aircraft Peak Renton High Point Black River Benchmark Jahn Benchmark Rainier View Bangor Hill Graham Hill Beacon Hill Cherry Hill (sort of)

[Riverside Laker]

RideWithGPS is great for routing stuff like this.

[williswall]

Neek, that’s a seriously cool ride, well done!

[Cyclopath]

[Malachai Constant]

Lopez is generally the easiest biking as it is flattest. Not too many happy hours these days. The ride up to the top of Mount Constitution on Orcas is the most challenging but has amazing views if clear. There may be some seasonal restrictions as it is steep and narrow with many sharp curves. San Juan has fun destinations but like all the islands the roads are often narrow with few shoulders, accommodations are mostly shut down. Currently the logistics can be challenging as locals do not want many visitors due to limited medical care. The only island with much camping is Orcas and the state park is closed for the time being. One small crowded campground on San Juan by English Camp which I am sure is closed.

[Malachai Constant]

5 to 6 mile loop on Squak with masks and distancing walked from home many trilliums and wood violets. Few views it was , on saw other couple. Signage said use social distance but did not say trail closed.

[Fletcher]

I only have experience biking on San Juan. The shoulders are a little narrow on the busier roads, but most cars give me a wide birth. There are many secondary roads on the island with really limited traffic currently, although there aren’t many cars on any of the roads right now. By the way, I am in now way endorsing a trip to the San Juan’s right now. Please do not come here until this is all over.

[Randito]

May Valley bike loop from my TH with my wife. The Issaquah-Hobart road is a bit busy, but except for section passing the Poo Poo TH it has a reasonable shoulder. The May Valley road typically lacks any shoulder, but traffic is light and the speed limit is 25.

[neek]

Took the 'yak out on the lake today for a change of pace.

Middle section of Lake WA

And they laughed when I got this setup...

So smooth

Leaving Matthews Beach

Off leash dogs! Grr!

Slums of Kirkland

Rainier SUP

Olympics

Cormorant

Lunch spot

?

Yarrow Bay

Under 520

South side of 520

Sheriff chopper

Road to nowhere

Magnuson

Sound garden

NOAA

Sailboat

15 miles, 0 ft gain

[Anne Elk]

I'm surprised to see the Fairweather on Lake Washington, Neek. Not because her home port is in Alaska, but b/c she's in Lake WA for any reason. Back in the day, the neighbors had a conniption about having the west coast fleet at Sandpoint, so NOAA rented the offices & docks on Eastlake. Do you have a good lockup system for your bike & trailer when paddling, or just feel lucky? I've enjoyed you're around-town pics. Thanks!

[neek]

Thanks AE, I wasn't aware of that history. Remember seeing the ship there a few years ago too. I lock up the bike but just leave the cart somewhere out of the way. Lame, but it can't really be locked up. Actually the important part could be now that I think about it.