Don’t Try This At Home…Cycling the John Wayne Trail

It’s inevitable. Despite years of playing in the outdoors and embarking on adventure photography trips from as far as Patagonia to remote sections of coastal British Columbia, I occasionally find myself questioning my decision-making skills. Case in point: my mini bike-tour from Roslyn to Seattle the other day, a 100-mile jaunt that started on the John Wayne Trail (also known as Iron Horse State park) and finished with some winding back-roads from North Bend to Seattle.

Click the photo thumbnails below for a short tour of the John Wayne Trail
(unlike most of my photographs, these were all shot with a newly acquired Canon 850IS point & shoot camera…review coming soon)

[View with PicLens]

This should have been a relatively easy ride, which started on a compact and gravel rail trail and finished on pavement. Unfortunately I made the decision to tow my BOB trailer (carrying camera gear) with my mountain bike. Great for the first 50 miles of gravel trail, but the next half of the bike ride on pavement really sucked. A hate inefficiencies (which is why I try not to drive much) and here I was, acting out my biggest pet peeve.

Regardless of how I felt at hour 6 (which was not good) I was happy to have finally experienced part of this historic rail trail. It’s a pretty amazing outdoor recreational resource for anyone who lives in or around Seattle and central Washington (The trail runs all the way to the Columbia Gorge with plans to extend it as far as Idaho.) and the riding overall is very easy; the heat on the east side of the mountains is probably your biggest concern. Oh, and don’t forget your headlamp! If you plan on getting past Snoqualmie Pass you’ll have to pass through the very dark, damp and cold 2.3 mile-long Snoqualmie Tunnel.

NOTE: I was just listening to NPR and was happy to hear there is now a Snoqualmie Pass shuttle, provided by the Washington State Parks, that will take cyclists and hikers from North Bend up to Snoqualmie Pass. Go to http://busup90.com for more info.

If you have any questions about cycling the John Wayne Trail or a map of this section of Iron Horse State Park, please feel free to contact me at ian[at]mackieimages[dot]com

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Posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 10:55 am. Filed under: Blog, Recent Photos Tags: bike touring, iron horse state park, john wayne trail, rail trail, seattle cycling, washington bike touring RSS 2.0 feed.