Seattle area training hills

Hi there,

I am new to this forum and I am loving the advice and Northwest presence here!!! I'm originally from California (not all of us were bad drivers, by the way!) and was doing about 250 miles a week down there. For the few years I've been up here, I haven't really ridden because riding in the rain was a foreign concept. We (my husband and I) recently committed to riding the Tour de Cure so it is time to get back into century form!

My husband just got a bike two weeks ago and he immediately put clipless pedals on it (yay, I am proud of that!). We're doing a lot of riding on bike trails but both realize we need hills. Due to my skittishness of cars lately and my husband's newness to riding (and the pedals), I am searching for THE perfect hill for training!

I'm looking for long and gradual with maybe some slightly steeper parts. It should be not heavily traveled or have a fairly substantial bike lane. (Sheesh, I feel like I'm writing a personal ad!) It could be accessible by riding to it (we're in North Seattle) but I/we are willing to drive also. What we need is endurance training but not necessarily a lengthy "standing in the pedals" hill because he is not used to clipping in on a hill if he/we should have to stop.

Any great rides are appreciated also. We've scoured the bike maps and have ridden Green River/Interurban, Burke-Gilman to Sammamish River, and some streets in North Seattle though to be honest, I haven't found anything too decent near the house (115th near Greenwood/Phinney). I hate being a wuss by doing too much trail riding but it's quick and easy and not scary.

If anyone ever wants to meet up and ride, I'm good for 30-50 I think at this point maybe! My average isn't THAT great...14ish when all's said and done. I'm off sun-tues. Oh yeah, and I haven't been doing a lot of hills lately.

hi!

This would take a little driving but there is an excellent training hill up near Snohomish called High Rock Rd. Its about a 4 mile climb, the route dead ends and is out in the country basically so it does not have much traffic. Plus there are nice places to ride in the surrounding area.
I've included a couple of maps - our route is up High Rock until you get to the T, Left onto Lake Fontal Rd stop at the Y in the road - you can continue, but both left and right hand part of the Y are dead ends.
The second image is the surrounding area just so you can get an idea of where it is in relation to the town of Snohomish. Avoid riding on RT 203 as much as possible - it is busy and has little to no shoulder.

Eden,

Thank you so much! I don't mind driving at all. I've never seen that part of Snohomish so it'd be an adventure! I like the fact there aren't many cars also.

Thanks again,

Jane

What about the 520 trail? It's got some good hills too. (Eden, I don't know how you did the map thing; do you know what trail I am talking about?)

Also, go to the redmond cycling club webpage; they have lots of rides with guaranteed hills.

How about Edmonds? There are bike routes/lanes through most of Edmonds because of the ferry terminal. The hill on 3rd (3 blocks from the ocean) from downtown Edmonds south to Algonquin is pretty nifty. You can do hill repeats or follow the bike route to Greenwood. Plus there is coffee in Edmonds on darn near every street, and the BEST Thai food I've ever eaten (Thai Cottage on 5th and Main).

All of Edmonds slopes down to the ocean, so you get plenty of hills. East-west streets (other than Main and Dayton) are minimal traffic, and they have the good hills.

If you wanted to ride from your house, you could take 2nd (connects for the most part paralleling 3rd) or 3rd (connects to 145th, then you have to jog a bit around SCC, then back to 3rd, etc.) to Edmonds. Also, you are very close to Carkeek park, which is nothing but hill! (nearest big intersection is 3rd and 110th or 115th or something) Carkeek is a fun hill to ride from ocean back to 3rd. I managed to do it ONCE without walking. Someday I'll do it again.... Traffic on the road to Carkeek really isn't bad, and you can bounce over to Greenwood for coffee. (coffee plays an important part in all my bike rides! :D )

Have you discovered Chocolati yet? There is one on Greenwood and 84th. Mmmmm. With every coffee you get a little chocolate square, and they have LOVELY truffles! The "Cocoa Beware" with nutmeg is my favorite! You can sneak up on it via 3rd or the streets paralleling 3rd if the traffic is too much on 3rd.

PM me if you want to do a little coffee ride, I don't live very far from you. I'm planning to go for a ride to Diva Espresso (145th and Greenwood) tomorrow morning if the weather is good.

P.S. Oh, and I'm ok with Californians. :p

KnottedYet, PM is on it's way shortly!

No, haven't been to Chocolati yet but I think I've seen it. I have been to Edmonds but ages ago, I'll mapquest it and see the sidestreets that you're talking about. Doesn't Carkeek have steep and windy roads with speedbumps?! I'm hoping Sunday won't be so bad...I could handle bits of rain but wind, ugh. It's my nemesis. I'll also check out the 520 trail, it doesn't sound familiar but I'm sure I can find it from the Redmond site.

Thank you everyone :) It's like I have a brand new toy and it didn't even cost anything!!!

Jane

If you don't mind hopping on a ferry, Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island is a helluva climb and has a beautiful panoramic view of the San Juans, Baker, and the Olympics at the top.

(The location makes this not quite suitable for a frequent training event, though, but well worth the outing!)

There are lots of good hills around. You can find any degree of difficulty you want. For a steady climb in the city, try 8th Ave NW from Leary Way (near the ship canal) up to about 85th St. It's no too steep or long and it has a bike lane most of the way.

Another option is to start near Montlake Playfield and go southeast up Boyer Ave to 24th Ave NE, then go right one block and right again on Interlaken Ave. Then follow Interlaken up to the intersection of 19th Ave NE and East Galer St. From there you can go up 19th a couple of blocks and turn right toward Volunteer Park on top of Capitol Hill. It's a very nice ride.

There are lots of hills to choose from on this ride: http://home.comcast.net/~cheg01/waterworks1.htm
though they tend to be pretty steep and some of it is on high traffic roads

Other good resources:
http://www.bikely.com/listpaths/srchkey/seattle
http://www.routeslip.com/discover/USA/WA/Seattle
(routeslip has distance and elevation)

In the Ballard/North Beach/Blue Ridge area (nearish to where you are):

You can do NW 24th both directions, north and south. If you start down in Ballard near the locks, you get a long gradual hill up to 85th. If you continue on up and over, you end up at the salt water and can turn around and come back up to 85th.

When you are all the way down by the water, if you turn right (east), you can do some harder (shorter) hill repeats in the Blue Ridge neighborhood when you want to go a little harder.

Also, for fun weekend training trips out to the Olympic Peninsula, check out the routes for the ride: Olympic Cycling Classic (I think it is olybikeride.com...but Google will find it for you). We have great hill training and a terrific century in May.

Another nice hill out east of Seattle is along Snoqualmie Ridge Parkway(the SR 18 exit off I-90) between I-90 and SR 202. A nice path climbs from 202 to the top so no traffic to worry about.

Kathy

Thank you, everybody!

I braved the rain last sunday but it was on a bike trail. I look forward to this weekend so I can try out some of these routes, they are appreciated more than you can imagine. It took me a long time in California to figure out good training rides but I had just started riding so the rides developed as I did. Now I'm impatient!!!

Jane

I know you're looking for some routes that have specific attributes, not just hill climbs, but the Cascade Bike Club newspaper used to have a monthly favorite hill route featured. I don't live in Seattle anymore and I am no longer a member...don't know if they still do this.

You might consider doing some of their group rides, whichever is the right pace for you, as a way to find new routes with groups of people who already know their way.

Also, when I lived there, I found a good riding buddy through CBC's online forum.

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Originally Posted by teigyr

Eden,

Thank you so much! I don't mind driving at all. I've never seen that part of Snohomish so it'd be an adventure! I like the fact there aren't many cars also.

Thanks again,

Jane

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Hiya Jane -
this is waaaaaay delayed, but I wanted to respond anyway.
Did you (and Mr. T aka Sean) ever get up to the Snohomish area to ride?
If not, let's plan to ride up there sometime, probably after the 1st of the year. There are a number of good road route options, as Eden noted, as well as the Centennial trail, that goes from Snohomish to Arlington...now the trail starts a block or so from my mandatory post-Snohomish-ride-stop: Snohomish pie company - yum! I've had many a new riding buddy delight in the "recovery meal" choices there!
Tailwinds!
Mary

Where do you live? You can park at Marymoor, head south on West Lake Sammamish, ride up Lakemont Blvd (big steep hill with bike lane), ride around the Cougar Mtn area, back down Lakemont and north on East Lake Sammamish. Pretty much a bike lane the whole way. We use that route for adventure race training.

Thanks again :D

Mary, no we didn't get up to Snohomish but I had challenging days off for riding together. With the Sat-Mon off (keeps fingers crossed that I can hold this for a while!), we have a LOT more time to do stuff. I would love to get together and ride though and I promise not to whine too much!!!

Drtgrl, I will ask DH about Lakemont Blvd. I've ridden East Lake Sammamish and his parents live off that street (on the lake) so he knows the area. There are plenty of steep hills, no doubt! That looks like a good route too.