Buddy and I decided to bike the green river trail after work one day. We started at Cecil Moses Park since it seemed to be the safest place to park without risking a ticket. Parked the other car at North Green River park. 

Overall the paved trail is well made and pleasant to ride on. However, much of the trail is very poorly marked so we ended up off the trail dozens of times and had to reference a map constantly. Portions where it goes into a sidewalk but then you're supposed to take a turn that is not Labelled. This was honestly a bit annoying and frustrating as we had to stop and even backtrack a few times. Despite this, it was still pleasant. 

Did 19.53 miles in about 1.5 hours on road bikes. Fairly flat trail and easy trail so the majority of any shifting was due to slowing and speeding up at crossings, stop signs, etc. Pavement in great condition for the most part so bumps were not much of a concern. Better to ride on than the Burke Gilman by a good margin. 

Navigate the construction detour without getting lost and you'll end up back on the trail. 

Be careful when getting to the North green river park as there is a fairly large community of homeless in their RVs along the road to the park. Didn't give us trouble, but don't leave any valuables in view. 

This is a level and paved urban hike. There is a bit of river restoration taking place but the detour is well marked.

I felt really spry after the chai and breakfast I had at Birdhouse, so I decided to bike today so I could get more vitamin D and exercise my quads and glutes; I seem to only really hit my calves and hamstrings when hiking/scrambling.

So, I rode from around Westwood Village past South Seattle College to Pigeon Point to the Duwamish Trail to the Green River Trail. I picked this route down because I didn’t want to deal with the construction mess on Delridge and I didn’t want to go screaming down Highland Park Way or Roxbury St to Olsen (one uneven section of sidewalk and it'd be smattered ngie all over the pavement). On the return I went back along the Green River Trail and part way over the Duwamish Trail, then cut through South Park and went uphill.

Definitely a fun ride, but I seriously wish I had brought cushioning because my “undercarriage” was a bit sore from some of the bumps—especially the large tree roots busting through the Duwamish Trail near South Park :/.

The section between the Duwamish Trail and Green River Trail is a bit hard to navigate since the side walk ends in sections and the signage sucks. There’s also some road riding (about a mile) down E Marginal Way S, which can be really unnerving if you’re not used to cars wizzing by you at 40MPH+. The Burke Gilman Trail might have more intersection crossings, but it’s a lot more bike friendly overall than I thought this route was. The Centennial Trail that starts at Snohomish and goes north of Arlington is probably an even better route for more novice bikers or folks who just want long distance riding without having to worry about tons of cars.

I didn’t do the full length of Green River Trail due to time, but I got to the bridge near Southcenter in an hour and a half (I was doing an average of over 10MPH); I did about the same on the way back. Not bad for using a mountain bike with mountain bike treads! Mountain bikes are heavier than road bikes because of the shocks/heavier frames and mountain bike treads are slower than road bike treads or cross-country bike treads because they require more energy due to their increased surface area contact with the road (I swear I remember some of my physics from college 😛!).

There are some nice buttercups, hydrangeas, and lupine near the bridge. I definitely recommend pausing there before pressing on, as it’s a good midway point down the Green River Trail. This is where I ate the rest of my breakfast :).

Getting back home was definitely hard, given that West Seattle doesn’t have any really good low grade routes to my house. Heh. Here’s to screaming glutes and quads and pushing bikes up 200’+ hills with <5' easements while cars zip by -_-!

Strava claims I did over 25 miles and over 700' gain (I'm not giving more exact numbers for privacy reasons). Gotta love the mechanical advantage one gets from bikes vs walking/running!

Walked the Green River Trail north from Fort Dent, (Starfire Sports,) up to Duwamish Hill and the North Wind’s Weir site on this super nice late fall Sunday morning.  Total mileage with an out and back to the Duwamish Hill site ended up at 9.7 miles with virtually no vertical. Parking at Fort Dent is normally no issue though today there were significant youth soccer events causing crowding and a parking fee.  The only restrooms are at the Starfire Sports center complex. The trail is paved, multi-use the entire distance and there are no issues.  

The exciting opportunity this morning was that the tide was low enough to see the full North Wind’s Weir rocks out in the river - pretty amazing.  They play an integral part of a local native american origin story - https://www.burkemuseum.org/static/misc/story_north_wind_weir.pdf.  Quite a bit of wildlife out along the river, gulls, ducks, heron, king fisher, flicker and even a big sealion way up river just playing around apparently.  The extra walk over to Duwamish Hill is well worth the extra effort - a big chunk of sea floor, 40 million years old - older than Mt. Rainier, full of fossils and also plays a part in the local native american history.  One last bit of news for the future - King County has nearly finished a new trail between Green River over to the Black River Riparian Forest area that runs right along what is left of the Black River and looks like it should be open shortly.  

A beautiful fall morning with lots to see in an area with thousands (millions?) of years of interesting history.