One thing that prompted me to create this blog was the dearth of knowledge about good biking options up here, and the fact that somebody needed to fill in the blanks. There are few if any marked bike paths, and those that exist are generally too far west (Meridian, on the west side of I-5) to be useful.
The geography of Pinehurst, and really the whole area north of 95th, is largely determined by the Thornton Creek watershed. Thornton Creek has three arms, and I'm not real clear on where they start, diverge, or end. I do know that one major part runs from Northgate Community College, under Northgate Mall, and then east from around 104th and 5th clear out to Lake Washington. There's another portion of it that runs farther north, from the south end of Jackson Park golf course, around 130th and 5th, east by southeast, under 125th around 20th, and then under Lake City Way somewhere close to 105th.
As a result of these tributaries, there's rarely a flat stretch for more than a mile. Terra, the smaller boy, and I wanted to go for a nice bike ride this morning, up to the best coffee in the north end, Hotwire Online Coffee at 177th and 15th. Due to Metro's bus routing and the aforementioned terrain, it's actually quicker to go 2.5 miles north of where we live, into Shoreline, than 2.5 miles south to the Maple Leaf neighborhood of Seattle. Maple Leaf is, more or less, where cultured Seattle ends. This is to say people actually choose to live there because of what it is, and not primarily because rents are cheap or there's quick access to I-5.
Let me tell you first where *not* to bike up here. Forget 125th. It's a death trap, and everyone driving on it acts like they're already on the freeway. From 17th to 23rd is a death-defying downhill stretch (going east) or a real uphill slog (going west), and you don't want to be going 5 miles per hour uphill with no shoulder and two lanes of hell-bent-for-leather SOVs. Pinehurst, which merges into 15th going north, is also one to avoid, as people drive fast on it and it also lacks a shoulder. I say all of this as a fairly aggressive cyclist, and one who knows his rights and rules on the road, and isn't afraid to claim them. People up here just don't seem to think cyclists have a right to be on the road.
Starting at 145th and continuing north to 175th, 15th Ave. NE has a painted and marked bike lane. Shoreline may be a young city, but they make Seattle look like a bunch of chumps when it comes to bike paths and bike friendliness. Anyways, using a combination of my knowledge of local roads and a Google map, I laid out a route that would keep us off main roads or on marked bike paths all the way up to Hotwire.
We started out from 125th & 10th, north to 133rd, over to 11th, north to 135th, crossed 15th over to 17th, north on 17th to 150th, and then into the Fircrest military base. I knew that Fircrest has an entrance at 155th & 15th, but decided to explore a bit. We noodled around a bit and climbed extra hills I wasn't so excited about, before finally arriving at a chained gate separating the north end of Fircrest from Hamlin Park. I was annoyed. I mean, what use is it to have a locked gate there? Don't want the old folks housed in Fircrest makin' a break for the trees! So, disappointed, we turned back and went out the 155th entrance.
From 155th we followed the marked bike path on 15th up to 175th, got a few snacks at Safeway, and then ended up at Hotwire. I've debated hot-linking to their website, but unfortunately the North City Hotwire is treated like an ugly kid-sibling next to the original in West Seattle - there's almost never any content or cool news about the North City one on the website.
The way back was a bit trickier. Simply reversing our outbound route wouldn't work because there's a viciously steep hill from 135th and 15th to 135th and 11th. I worked out a return using Google again. This time we returned via 175th to 10th, 10th to 155th, 155th to 8th, 8th to 145th, 145th to 5th, then south on 5th to Roosevelt (which is basically 130th turning into 125th over a 5 block stretch), Roosevelt to 10th, and then home.
The only tricky bit here was getting psyched out by the three northbound lanes at 145th and 5th, and suddenly thinking there was no way to do a left turn onto 5th. So recumbent tandem with me and small boy astride continued across the overpass, into the left-hand southbound freeway onramp, then I abruptly jumped off and used the crosswalk to get back across. It must have taken about 10 minutes to wait for all the light cycles until we were finally going south on 5th again. There's a pretty nasty uphill going south on 5th, from around 140th to 132nd, and we had to walk that. Otherwise, it was a very pleasant and direct return route.
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