My TrailLink

Olympic Discovery Trail West Central - Lake and Foothills Section
Port Angeles to end of Lake Crescent

My wife and I have really been interested in the rail trails, even the unpaved ones and we were really excited to read that this section of the ODT was rideable. Well, it's not all rideable, at least not by a trike, and probably not by a road bike either. There is about a 4 mile section at lake crescent that is not complete and the trail is mountain bike trail only. The Finished parts are awesome, we did enjoy our rides on those, however, a better descriptive is in order as of this date to prevent any disgruntled riders! The ODT from Sequim stops in Port Angeles almost at the Coho ferry. So we parked close to the end of that section to see how the connecting trails/roads work to get to Lake Crescent. Parking in P.A. is difficult, having a lot of pay spots. We moved further towards the hook and found free parking along the street. On the map, it has you following the P.A. Waterfront trail, leading you to believe you are on a well kept bicycle trail. However, from downtown, it is mainly street side with a little wider 'bike' path at the side of the street as you near the hook. There is nothing on the route at this section which lets you know you are on shared path with the ODT. In fact, we went past Hill street (the road connector to the Elwha section) the first time and realized we were headed out on the hook and turned back. We found Hill street and climbed (17% grade up?) to the top where you switch to 4th, then Milwaukee which leads to the ODT at the end. This was marked well. At this point the trail is nice. It shares the dirt rail grade with a access road after a bit and back to trail. This is a recent completion which is very nice. The trail is very freshly under construction further down past the Airfield where it joins Milwaukee again. Well done and from then on you have beautiful paved path to the Elwa bridge. There is no trail after the bridge so we decided to go back to the truck giving us 14 miles and drive to where we stopped and continue to where we could find the trail again. Well, if you are going to do the ODT, you have choices at this point. The road is heavily used by traffic so it's quiet but there are some very narrow points with no shoulder. Pick your poison, more heavily populated roads or less populated but minimal to no shoulder. We followed the recommended path to the Spruce RR Trail and were immediately confronted with the reality that this trail cannot be used by trikes or road bikes. We took pictures of the east end of trail for you to see what we mean. So, we got in the car and decided to take the bike and find the west starting point and come back in and see how far the trail is completed. Well, this is tricky as well. After rounding the lake, we followed a sign that said spruce RR trailhead and following a very primitive road over 4 miles only to find that this leads to another dirt trail that is not trike/road bike friendly. We did see portions of the paved trail from the road at times so we knew we didn't find the west end so we went back out of the road and continued up Hwy 101 to try and find the beginning of the trail. Well, we came to Sol-duc road and on the side of the road was rudimentary pull out and a paved trail that lead down into the woods. No sign. We asked someone who rode up out of the trail if it was the ODT, they said no it was the spruce RR trail. (good enough for me). Our time was limited, we have a reservation for the P.T. Ferry to get back to whidbey so we broke the speed limit on the trail so we could give an accurate scouting report. This portion of the trail is awesome! Starting where we did however, has us going very very fast down the grade, and very very slow coming back up the grade! This portion of the trail was however about a 12 1/2 mile round trip so a decent portion completed (6+ miles). new Trestles across, etc. This leaves about a 4 miles section of the lake not completed. We loved the sections we were able to bike but don't be deceived. You cannot take this route successfully on a road bike or trike recumbent! To take the 7 and 6 mile completed sections however for a day ride is well worth it.

Milwaukee Road Rail-Trail (Pearson to Calder)
An Adventure but worth the trip!

It was sad to us that that most end the journey in the Bitterroots at the Hiawatha and shuttle back. We loved this segment of the Bitterroot loop. I will say though, you need the tires for it. We have a tandem trike with 1.75 stock tires and it handled it well, including the rough Old Milwaukee Alternate route after leaving the road on the way to Avery. We have a more thorough explanation on http://tandemriding.blogspot.com plus a video of our Terratrike Rover tandem going down the Old Milwaukee Alternate route. Avery and it's inhabitants were a highlight of the trip, don't miss this section of the trail!

Snoqualmie Valley Trail
Without the Alternate work arounds would of been better than great!

(pictures and details at http://tandemriding.blogspot.com/2012/07/snoqualmie-valley-trail.html) We just took the trail Jul28 from the Duvall Police station to Rattlesnake Lake and back. Longer than we usually like to try in one day but the downhill trek back was fast making it worthwhile. We are on a tandem trike so some of the work-arounds mentioned by others we thought may not be appropriate if you are triking? One, the single lane track which continues under the culvert at Tokul road, I wouldn't take again. We took it on the way up, but carefully brought the trike back down the slope at the side of the culvert on the way back. Then I think it's better for a trike to cross at Meadowbrook Way, the bridge is single lane but the walking path across the bridge is wide enough for a trike allowing you to cross without having to get off the trike. You only miss a portion of the trail (taking a left on Park after crossing the bridge, continuing into the golf course where you meet the trail again).

Cascade Trail
Fabulous Ride!

We just rode the entire trail from Concrete to Sedro Woolley (after riding the S.Skagit Hwy from Sedro Woolley to Concrete) and the trail was fabulous. There was of course the water mentioned on the trail when in the wetlands area but it was only an inch or so for 50 feet? and then a bit deeper of a pool at the end before done. We had fun, trail was nice. We have pics on a blog http://tandemriding.blogspot.com/2012/07/cascade-railtrailold-skagit-highway-50m.html.