Duwamish Trail, Green River Trail — Saturday, May. 15, 2021

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!