Fourteen miles round trip on the Interurban Trail in Bellingham, WA, USA, this lovely day!
The ride began inauspiciously when I stepped in a pile of dog poop - which I didn't notice until dismounting to walk around some roots/stones on the single track from the parking lot to the main trail, when I smeared it into the down tube of my beautiful bike
! Yuck!!! Got the bike and my shoe cleaned up as well as possible, then continued. Fortunately, the ride only got better from that point!
The trail is the railbed of the former Bellingham and Skagit Interurban Railway, an electric line that ran from 1912 to 1930.
It's a mostly level packed gravel trail through second growth forest
With a few spectacular views out over Bellingham Bay
Though mostly level, there were a couple of fairly decent hills. The bike did a great job assisting, except for one hill where I got on the wrong side of my husband and my front tire dug into some loose gravel, coming to a dead halt. Ended up using walk assist to get up that one!
Around 4 miles in, we had to leave the trail and ride the road - Chuckanut Drive - for a bit to get around the section passing through Arroyo Park. A missing (since 1930!!!) trestle there requires single track mountain biking .75 miles down, then back up, a very steep canyon with Chuckanut Creek running through the bottom. No, thank you! The last time I ride this trail, over 30 years ago, I took a spill in that section that was the beginning of my chronic knee problem!
Husband rode part of that on the way back - here's some of the steep, twisty boardwalk trail
Once past the detour, the trail continues past Fairhaven Park, and turns into paved surface as it runs through a neighborhood to Marine Park, adjacent to the Alaska Ferry Terminal complex and the Amtrak station
Had a rest, snack, and photo with the bike, then retraced our route back down to Larrabee on the trail
Beautiful day, beautiful ride!
So warm to you is 79F and warm to me is 59F!
