The first part of the ride was through downtown Bellingham from our hotel to the bayview trail on the waterfront. We stopped just before the boardwalk at a cafe for some coffee and a small breakfast. Our route tried to get us to follow the bayview trail after the boardwalk but due to a trail closure for construction we were rerouted onto some nicely shouldered surface streets. We reached Chuckanut drive and rode with traffic for a mile or so before reaching Bellingham’s Interurban trail.
The Interurban trail had a beautiful gravel surface and felt great with my 40mm tires. There were a few dips and hills where there had clearly been a bridge from when this trail was a rail line. We then merged onto Chuckanut drive for a bit of climbing and then a fast descent into Skagit valley. Edison was an adorable slow little town with an excellent bakery called Breadfarm, as well as the Terramar Brewstillery where we got a pizza and some pours of beer. We then entered the most enjoyable part of the ride, the segment between Edison was through the Skagit valley farmland on small low-traffic roads.
The Shore trail, just south of Bayview, was a very nice, grade separated trail with a compacted gravel surface suitable even for road bikes. It seemed that the trail was somewhat of a levee, with a water level on our right that was higher than the farmland to our left. We passed through Whitney and then reached La Conner where we stopped for a rest and a beer at La Conner brewing Co. We passed Stanwood without stopping and the got to experience not only the best road of the trip, but probably one of the top three roads I’ve ever ridden on; Miller road. A closed wooden ramp brought us down there from Pioneer highway and we emerged from the light tree cover into the farmland
After the beautiful section through the farms we had to take a short but slightly harrowing road to our AirBnb on lake Goodwin. Uphill with no shoulder and fairly constant traffic, not the best after a full day of riding.
The second day started with more non-existent shoulder riding as we made our way inland to the Centennial rail trail. We had initially planned to continue south from the lake and go through Everett but when we discovered the rail trail to our east we decided the detour to get there was worth the extra few miles. While the trail was very nice, the slog through the suburbs to get there and then back was probably worse than just taking the Interurban trail from Everett, but we got to do some exploring! We happened across someone’s art studio that was participating in the Snohomish studio tour, and stopped to see their art and they kindly offered us snacks and a water refill.
We finally made it to the mire that is the Burke-Gilman trail and locked in for the last few miles. The total distance was 130 miles over the two days with just over four thousand feet of cumulative climbing. Then it was time for recovery at Ladd & Lass brewing with tortas from the mexican food truck next door.
A great ride, and the section through the Skagit valley was the absolute highlight. Alternative routes to skip the suburban hellscape surrounding Seattle would be considered next time, perhaps a detour down Whidbey island or even across the Olympic Peninsula and down Kitsap to one of the ferries.
8/10