Tag Archives: bikes

Reflections on a year of biking for 2024

Everywhere I’ve ridden my bike in the PNW in 2024.

Since shortly after moving to Seattle in July 2022, I have not driven a car. I’ve gotten around by bike and public transit. During 2023, I stayed mostly in the Seattle region, with the exception of a trip to Victoria BC for Tour de Victoria and back to Seattle by bike. In the fall of 2023, after leaving Shopify, I decided to try to explore everywhere I could in the Pacific Northwest (and a bit elsewhere) by bike during 2024.

I researched and signed up for many organized ride events mainly as a way to have a specific destination and date to work against, which greatly increased my chances of making the trip. In total, that ended up being 23 organized ride events, adding up to 1,447 miles of riding in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario.

As a matter of personal beliefs, I decided to only participate in events where I can do so by riding my bike to the start, or taking public transit. (That is, I don’t believe in driving a bike somewhere to ride it.) In many cases that meant combining an event with a solo self-supported trip by bike, and sometimes combining multiple events in a single trip for convenience and efficiency. To get to the events further afield, where I didn’t bike directly, I used one or more of bus, light rail, train, ferry, event-chartered bus, or (in two cases) plane.

During the year, I rode in 9 of the Critical Mass and 8 of the Bike Disco monthly events. These have proven to be really great rides for meeting people, lifting spirits, and causing a bit of good trouble. I was sad to have missed 7 of the 24 events – but participating in Saturday morning events in far-flung places when you don’t drive generally means staying nearby the on the Friday before.

Of course I still mostly get around for everything else I need to do by bike, I have continued my weekly volunteering by bike, and rode a lot of miles around Seattle for fun, alone or with friends. Altogether, I rode more than 7,880 miles in 2024, split between more than 5,110 miles on non-e-bikes (mostly my Specialized Diverge), and more than 2,770 miles on e-bikes (mostly my Urban Arrow Family, and mostly towing a trailer or two). My longest single ride recorded was 109.8 miles, and I had 7 recorded rides over 100 miles and two more over 95 miles.

Volunteering by bike

Home Delivery for White Center Food Bank

I volunteered for 34 of the weekly Thursday home delivery opportunities for White Center Food Bank through the Pedaling Relief Project, delivering bags of groceries packed at the food bank to folks that can’t come into the food bank due to mobility or accessibility challenges. I delivered a total of 590 bags of groceries (295 deliveries of two bags each). Each bag weighs typically 10-15 lbs, so that is a total of 5,900-8,850 lbs of food delivered to families White Center, Seattle, and Burien, and 388 miles ridden.

Home Delivery for University District Food Bank

In order to pick up some slack from folks unable to volunteer during the holiday season or the day-of-week rescheduling, I joined 2 of the weekly Wednesday home delivery routes (actually rescheduled to Monday) from University District Food Bank through the Pedaling Relief Project. I delivered a total of 21 bags of food delivered to families in Seattle in and around the U District neighborhood for a total of 64 miles ridden.

Food Rescue for Food Not Bombs

I volunteered for 24 of the weekly Sunday food rescue opportunities for Emerald Sea Food Not Bombs in collaboration with University District Food Bank through the Pedaling Relief Project. In total, that’s an estimated 5,200 lbs of food rescued and delivered it to the direct distribution in SODO, and 790 miles ridden.

Food Rescue for University District Food Bank

I volunteered for 3 of the weekly Friday food rescue opportunities for University District Food Bank directly through the Pedaling Relief Project. In total, that’s an estimated 950 lbs of food rescued and delivered to the food bank’s warehouse, and 94 miles ridden.

Cleanup work with Adopt-a-Street and/or A Cleaner Alki

I went out on 29 different days and spent a total of around 120 hours doing various cleanup work by bike, picking up litter, removing/taming vegetation, cleaning up leaves, and otherwise making Seattle better. Many of these days I went out on my own to clean something up (working with Adopt-a-Street for supplies and disposal), but I also joined many cleanup events run by A Cleaner Alki. I collected around 145 bags of litter myself, and transported several tons of illegally dumped materials and others’ collected bags by bike trailer.

Recurring group rides

Critical Mass Seattle

Critical Mass Seattle is, as with with the other global Critical Mass events, held on the last Friday of every month. It is a loosely-organized protest ride starting in the core of downtown at Westlake Park (4th and Pine) and riding wherever the rider leader takes us, as a rolling roadblock. I generally participate by helping the ride move safely through the city, corking intersections and marshaling riders. I rode in 9 of the 12 monthly rides, missing April, May, and September’s rides due to travel conflicts with organized ride events.

Strava Rides:

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Seattle Bike Disco

Seattle Bike Disco is like Critical Mass, but “more party, less protest”, and many riders have colorful lights, music, and costumes. It is held one one of the middle Fridays of each month (often two weeks before Critical Mass, but the schedule is published on Instagram) starting at UW’s Red Square and riding a route planned and tested by organizers. The ride always features stops for music/dancing and socializing, and often ends with a bonfire somewhere. Several rides this year also had a live DJ at the last stop. Like Critical Mass, I generally participate by helping the ride move safely through the city, corking intersections and marshaling riders. I rode in 8 of the 12 monthly rides, missing May, July, August, and September’s rides due to travel conflicts with organized ride events.

Strava Rides:

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Masse Critique Montréal

Masse Critique Montréal is Critical Mass in Montréal, Québec, which I attended in May 2024 (hence missing Critical Mass Seattle which was on the same day). I really wanted to attend Critical Mass in another city for comparison purposes, and Montréal was a great choice. The timing coinciding with Tour la Nuit and a few days before Tour de l’Île de Montréal was exceptionally good for my trip to Montréal. Masse Critique was well organized, well attended, welcoming (despite being 95% in French), and fun. I mostly just attended and observed, since I would not be able to answer, explain, or argue with car drivers in French, but I did participate in a couple of corkings where some help was needed.

One takeaway from Montréal that I brought back to Seattle was that they are far more proactive about allowing pedestrians through the mass, calling “piéton!” will cause everyone to stop and let pedestrians cross.

Strava Ride: May

Organized ride events

I rode in a total of 23 organized ride events (25 days) in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario. These rides vary from really beautiful to boring, high camaraderie to isolating, and laid-back-hippy to pro-lycra-cyclist. Personally, I enjoyed the more chill rides with laid back folks moving slowly through beautiful settings… but the more intense rides were more physically challenging.

Chilly Hilly

For Seattle-area cyclists, Cascade’s Chilly Hilly is marketed as the “start of the riding season” ride (and maybe a bit before the season for most, as the weather can vary from sunny and beautiful to snow covered). Most riders start in Seattle and one of a few morning ferries to Bainbridge, which makes for some fun ferry crossings with hundreds of bikes sprawled out on the car decks. This year the weather was quite decent: cold, of course, but no real rain or snow. This was the only organized ride event where I rode an e-bike, my Giant Explore E+.

Worst Day of the Year Ride (“Urban Route”)

ORBike’s Worst Day of the Year Ride in Portland is another early season ride with somewhat unpredictable weather, but with a humorous approach (and name), with many people dressing up in costumes. It’s a relatively short urban ride around the Portland metro area. It wouldn’t really be worth going to Portland for, but I wanted to include as many rides in Portland as I could and get more familiar with their cycling infrastructure and approach, and meet some folks. Liam and I took Amtrak there, and stayed overnight the night before, planning to return the evening after the ride.

Amtrak canceled baggage service (and thus bike carrying service) on our train back and all others for the day were fully booked, so we had to stay overnight an extra night. We took the opportunity of an extra day in Portland to take a leisurely bike ride to Vancouver, WA, around Fort Vancouver, and back to Portland.

Ride for Major Taylor (63 mi)

Cascade’s Ride for Major Taylor is a fundraising ride for the Major Taylor Project with a choice between a shorter and a longer route. I rode with Greg and Liam on the longer (metric century) route, but interestingly they included ferry miles in the route length so it only ended up at 56.7 miles without the ferries, not actually reaching a metric century. The ride starts in White Center, goes through Tacoma, by ferry to Vashon Island, across the island, by ferry back to West Seattle, and back to White Center.

On Vashon Island, we got absolutely soaked in a brief rain storm, while mostly unprepared, so the ferry and last part of the ride were very squishy and cold.

Tour de Lopez

The Tour de Lopez is organized by the Lopez Island Chamber of Commerce to drive tourism and awareness of the island and its amenities, so it has a bit different vibe than rides organized by bike clubs. I arrived the day before (see the trip description below!) and stayed overnight at The Edenwild in Lopez Village, 4 miles from the ferry terminal, and right across the street from the Tour de Lopez start. I explored the island a bit the day before, trying to mostly avoid the ride route. Biking on Lopez Island was nice and quiet and while not car-free, mostly out of conflict with cars. The ride itself was a bit short (the island is small!) but fun and quite scenic. It rained a bit throughout the day and was overcast, but classic PNW weather.

McClinchy Camano Classic Century (50 mi)

The McClinchy Camano Classic Century is a bike club challenge ride around Camano Island. I rode from Lopez Island for the Tour de Lopez the day before (see the trip description below!) and stayed overnight at an Airbnb near Stanwood. I opted for the 50 mile route, as the longer routes spent all those extra miles on the mainland. The route starts in Stanwood, which is on the mainland, but it is almost entirely circumnavigating Camano Island, which is connected to the mainland by bridge. Due to being accessible without a ferry, the island has more car traffic than other islands, and that traffic tended to act more aggressively. Nice ride and good views.

Emerald City Ride

A late addition to the year’s event schedule, but a very worthy ride: Cascade’s Emerald City Ride took riders across a temporarily-closed West Seattle Bridge (the high bridge) and circumnavigated most of West Seattle before returning across the Spokane Street Bridge (the low bridge). Due to the street and bridge closure permit requirements, the ride started quite early in the morning and had a very specific window for everyone to cross the West Seattle Bridge. It continued around Alki, down to Fauntleroy, east to White Center, and then back up north (passing almost right by my house). Aside from climbing the bridge span and climbing out of Fauntleroy (a quite challenging hill!) it was pretty flat. I was worried about West Seattle drivers’ reactions to the ride, but it was mostly reasonable.

Skagit Spring Classic (65 mi)

The Skagit Bicycle Club’s Skagit Spring Classic heads north for views (and climbs!) along Samish Bay and Chuckanut Bay before heading inland on the east side of Lake Samish and then returning to the coast along Padilla Bay before heading back to the finish. It was incredibly green and lush everywhere across the farmland and forest, and beautiful.

To get to Burlington, Liam and I took Amtrak to Mt Vernon and rode 4 miles to a hotel in Burlington. The evening we arrived happened to be the peak aurora borealis event on May 10, so we decided to ride out to Padilla Bay and along the Padilla Bay Shore Trail to see the aurora (good choice!), forgoing a lot of sleep before the early morning ride start the next day.

Mighty-O Tour de Donut

  • May 25, 2024
  • Seattle, WA
  • Mighty-O Donuts
  • 11.5 mi
  • Strava Ride (including a ride along Lake Washington Blvd before going home)
  • With Liam Cole, Greg Harbin, Bob Svercl

A quirky and fun little semi-organized ride, the Mighty-O Tour de Donut had riders visiting each of the Seattle Might-O locations to get free donuts. There was a Google Maps route showing the locations, but it wasn’t suitable for navigation, so in practice everyone ended up following different routes, making the ride less organized and less fun (didn’t see as many other riders along the way as we could have) than it might have otherwise been. After the ride, we rode down Lake Washington Blvd to Seward Park because it was a closed-to-cars weekend.

Tour la Nuit

Vélo Québec’s Tour la Nuit is a relatively short 15-mile loop, almost flat, on entirely closed streets, with a fun family-friendly atmosphere. There were something like 13,000 participants, and it was wild! The route overlaps somewhat with the Tour de l’Île de Montréal, but in the dark. The start point was the same place as the Masse Critique Montréal start/end point, and they were coordinated so that you roll from one straight into the next. I met Douglas and several of his friends and we all rode together.

Tour de l’Île de Montréal (100 km)

Vélo Québec’s Tour de l’Île de Montréal circumnavigates the island of Montréal passing through many neighborhoods surrounding Montréal itself. The first parts of the 100 km ride downtown were on closed streets, then it used many open streets for much of the circumnavigation, before joining up with the other shorter routes and most of the families and children while heading to the finish. The vibe was amazing, and seeing so many people on bikes is incredible.

Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour (Day 1, “Classic Route”)

Ottawa Bicycle Club’s Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour is actually a two-day ride, from Ottawa to Kingston, staying overnight at the dorms at Queen’s University, and returning to Ottawa the following day by reversing the same route. I planned to ride onwards to Montréal, so I only rode the first day. Prior to the ride, I rode 7 miles to the start point, making the full day more than 114 miles. I found the route to be overall fairly uninteresting, passing through suburban and rural areas, farm fields, and forests. I rode with José, and along the way we met Jordan who was looking for some slower people to ride with. We were among the last to finish the ride, only passing a group of three others near the very end to save ourselves from being dead last.

Petal Pedal (50 mi)

ORBike’s Petal Pedal explores the Willamette Valley, departing from Silverton (near Salem) and making several excursions to the northeast and northwest. In theory some flowers should have been seen. In practice, we basically saw no flowers. Lots of generic farm fields. One famous covered bridge.

STP: Seattle to Portland (two days)

Cascade’s Seattle to Portland (STP) ride is probably the most famous bike ride event in the Pacific Northwest, and certainly the biggest of Cascade’s lineup. It was a 206-mile two-day one-way ride from the University of Washington in Seattle to Holladay Park in Portland, with an overnight stop at Centralia College in Centralia (although many riders stay at other locations around Centralia and Chehalis, and some ride it in only one day) I stayed at the official Centralia College stop, in one of the pre-setup tents rented by Alaska Airlines.

This ride frankly scared me, but I wanted to prove that I could do it (and more). The week before, it was incredibly hot (enough that I was pondering what temperatures might make me cancel), but it mercifully cooled off before the weekend, and the weather for the ride hot but quite tolerable. I rode from home down to SODO station and took the light rail to UW, departing the start just after 6am in the nice cool morning air. Departing Seattle was a lot I’d seen before, but riding with so many others was novel.

I got dinner, showered, and camped at Centralia College, where everyone was tired, maybe a bit scared for the next day, but overall excited. Between sleeping on the ground and a tent-neighbor who snored very loudly, I didn’t end up getting very much sleep, just a few hours at most. I started the day just after 6am again, a slightly warmer second day and a lot of highway 30 miles ahead.

Overall, the ride was hard, but easier than I expected. The sheer number of riders is actually a feature, since it’s easy to find people to pace or draft with. The energy of the group is high and inspires you to push on. Seeing friends along the way helps.

I opted to stay overnight in Portland and take Amtrak back to Seattle, so I could look forward to sleeping soundly in a real bed after getting to Portland, rather than hopping in a hot and sweaty bus.

Tour de Whatcom (“Metric Century”)

The Tour de Whatcom is a tourism event promoting Whatcom county, starting in Bellingham. Liam and I took Amtrak to Bellingham the day before, and took the opportunity to explore the area, heading out to Lummi Island (definitely recommended!) before settling in in Bellingham. The ride itself was typical farmland and highways, with views of Mt Baker popping in and out. Mallard Ice Cream in Bellingham was probably the highlight.

Tour de Lavender (“Metric Century”)

The Tour de Lavender is a tourism ride promoting the Olympic Peninsula, the Olympic Discovery Trail, and the area around Sequim famous for Lavender farming. To get there, we took the ferry to Bainbridge and the Strait Shot bus to Sequim. Unlike many themed rides, this one really delivered on the theme: lavender! We stopped at all the lavender farm rest stops, everything was in bloom and smelled amazing, we bought some gifts containing lavender, and even tried lavender ice cream (don’t really recommend…). It was actually great, and quite relaxing. The following day, we rode from Sequim to Kingston, took the ferry to Edmonds, rode from Edmonds to Northgate, took the light rail to SODO, and biked home from there.

Summit to Sound (Hyak start)

  • August 10, 2024
  • Hyak, WA to Seattle, WA
  • Peace Peloton
  • 75.7 mi / 2,136 ft
  • Strava Ride (riding home rather than to the finish line due to time)
  • With Robert Cole

Peace Peloton’s Summit to Sound (S2S) started at the Hyak trailhead just east of the Snoqualmie Tunnel, so it starts with going through the tunnel (the main reason I wanted to do this ride) and then continues through about 20 miles of gravel descent on the Palouse to Cascades Trail before joining the Snoqualmie Valley Trail at Rattlesnake Lake (all new to me up to this point). From that point on we used a mix of trails, streets, and bike lanes to make our way back to West Seattle. The actual ride ended on Alki, but Rob, Liam, and I had a train to catch to Portland for the Providence Bridge Pedal the next day, so we broke off from the group and went home directly instead of going to the finish line and afterparty. The event was run a bit like a group/friends ride, divided into several pace groups of riders of different speeds, which stayed together.

Providence Bridge Pedal (“Fremont Express”)

Providence Health’s Providence Bridge Pedal is a large-scale fun/tourism ride on closed streets and crossing most of the bridges in Portland, including the I-405 (Fremont) interstate bridge, which was the main attraction for me. Rob, Liam, and I opted for the “Fremont Express” option which started early in the morning (7am!) with food provided on the middle of the bridge. We grabbed some donuts with a few thousand others, and headed off on a loop of Portland. It was a relatively short route, so we finished early and had brunch afterwards.

Tour de Victoria (“Nordic Fencing 60 km”)

The Tour de Victoria has quickly become one of my favorite rides of the year, not the least because it demands a trip to Victoria which provides many more opportunities for cycling. I rode with Liam and Rob again this year, and we took the ferry from Seattle to spend a few days around Victoria. We rode the “Nordic Fencing” 60 km route, which is a bit on the shorter side at 36 miles, but the longer routes include a lot of egregious climbing, and the 60 km route includes all the urban parts of Victoria that are great to explore. It’s a large ride with thousands of riders, which is overall good vibes.

RSVP: Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party (two days)

Cascade’s Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party (RSVP) is the second-most popular cycling event run by Cascade and one of the more famous ones in the PNW. It’s slightly shorter than STP, but hillier. Due to the support requirements for the border crossing, the only official option is to do the ride in two days, and the overnight stop is in Bellingham, where there was a mid-point party.

I biked to the SODO light rail station and took the train to UW for the start, and it was raining already from the moment I left home. The rain didn’t let up for the first 80 miles or so of the ride, so I got absolutely soaked. Many registered didn’t ride due to the rain, or joined from Bellingham or other points along the way. Riding with soaked clothing, rain paints, etc., caused a lot more chafing than usual, which sucked.

The second day was much better than the first, and was even much warmer than I expected – I started off very overdressed and had to pull over and strip off half of my clothes within 5 minutes of leaving the start. It was quick work getting to the border. Crossing into Canada was very efficient, taking only a few minutes with the border agent checking my passport card against his list. Aside from the lingering effects of the chafing from the day before, the ride was quite pleasant and at only 82 miles felt like a short day. There was a nice finish line party with food trucks and after having some food, I found myself falling asleep on a park bench and figured I should head back to the hotel.

After staying overnight in Vancouver, I made my own way back to Seattle instead of taking the RSVP charter bus, see the trip description below for more on that!

Woodinville Wine Ride

Cascade’s Woodinville Wine Ride is a bit different than Cascade’s other rides; it’s basically a short bike ride punctuated by day drinking. The ride itself was relatively flat and pleasant, but for one hill, and the usual amount of trouble mixing with cars since the ride was on entirely open roads. While the ride itself was short, I rode from home to and from Woodinville, making the day’s ride total 78.6 miles. The wine was good, but it was not a lot.

Harvest Century (“The Century”)

ORBike’s Harvest Century is ostensibly a ride through farmland during harvest season, although there wasn’t much happening in the way of harvest. It started from Molalla, so I rode from Portland to Molalla via Oregon City, about 35 miles the day before. I rode part of the ride with a few folks from Portland after we passed each other back and forth a few times and I asked if I could just tag along instead. That was nice!

Reach the Beach Washington (Lacey start)

American Lung Association’s Reach the Beach Washington was a fundraising ride from Lacey (near Olympia) to Westport at the Pacific Ocean. I wanted to ride it totally by bike, so included an extra day to ride from Seattle to Lacey (via Bremerton), and three days to ride from Westport back to Seattle via the Willapa Hills Trail. Definitely one of the most beautiful rides of the year, and I was strong enough by late September that it wasn’t so challenging as to be painful. The ride along the coast from Westport to Raymond was awesome, and the Willapa Hills Trail begs me to come back.

Kitsap Color Classic (Hansville and Poulsbo loops)

Cascade’s Kitsap Color Classic is advertised as the “end of the season”, which is kind of funny for folks like myself who ride year-round. In theory this event would ride through trees with fall colors on their leaves around the Kitsap peninsula, but in actuality, like last year, very few trees had any interesting colors. (The photo above is pretty much the only colorful trees we saw.) In order to get to the ride Liam and I rode to the SODO light rail station and took the light rail to Mountlake Terrace, met Greg, and rode the 4.9 miles to Edmonds ferry terminal. Due to some scheduling constraints, we were on the last “supported” ferry for the ride, which meant we were some of the last to arrive at all the rest stops along the route. The weather however was great, and the ride was interesting enough. Liam took the shorter route and split off at the midpoint to meet us at the finish, while Greg and I rode the full route. After completing the ride, and taking the ferry back to Edmonds, we rode to Lynnwood City Center light rail station to head home.

A few major cycling trips

Lopez Island, Camano Island, and Centennial Trail (4 days, April 26-29, 276 mi)

I noticed that the Tour de Lopez and McClinchy Camano Classic happened to be on subsequent days (Saturday and Sunday), and they’re fairly close to each other on Lopez and Camano islands, so I planned a single trip to participate in both of them. I also wanted to ride the Centennial Trail. I took Amtrak from Seattle to Mt Vernon, biked to Anacortes, took the ferry to Lopez Island, participated in Tour de Lopez, took the ferry back to Anacortes, biked to Cedardale near Stanwood, participated in McClinchy Camano Classic, biked to Arlington, and then biked back to Seattle using the Centennial Trail.

Major route segments:

Montréal and Ottawa (15 days, May 30 – June 13, 680 mi)

I was planning a trip to Montréal noticed that I could make a loop from Montréal to Ottawa to Kingston to Montréal using the first day of the two-day Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour (RLCT) to ride to Kingston, and allowing for two long segments to and from Montréal along completely different routes. I spent three different days riding around Montréal exploring, and one short ride around Ottawa exploring. I was joined by friends for several parts: Douglas Andrade for Tour la Nuit and a ride around Montréal, Jean-François Gagne for the Tour de l’Île de Montréal, and José Albornoz for Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour and the three day trip from Kingston to Montréal.

This was a challenging trip to plan, but was a good length and quite enjoyable. Bringing a bike by air and relying on only the bike after arriving in Montréal required a bit of creativity.

Major route segments:

Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria (3 days, August 24-26, 272 mi)

I wanted to participate in Ride from Seattle to Vancouver and Party (RSVP), but I wanted to find my own way home by bike and the ferry instead of the official event bus transportation. I participated in RSVP, riding from Seattle to Vancouver in two days (see above for more on that).

The next day, I biked from downtown Vancouver to Tsawwassen ferry terminal via the Queensborough, Annacis Channel, and Alex Fraser bridges, about 40 miles. I took the BCFerries ferry to Swartz Bay. I biked another 23 miles on mostly the Lochside and Galloping Goose trails into Victoria to catch the evening Victoria Clipper ferry back to Seattle.

Major route segments:

Seattle to the Pacific and back (5 days, September 27 – October 1, 378 mi)

I wanted to make a big loop trip out of the Reach the Beach Washington (RTB WA) event, a fundraiser for American Lung Association ending on the Pacific coast in Westport. I also wanted to ride through Bremerton, on the Cushman Trail, and the Willapa Hills Trail. I was able to combine all of these in a single trip. I took the ferry to Bremerton, biked to Lacey using the Cushman Trail and Tacoma Narrows Bridge, participated in Reach the Beach from Lacey to Westport, biked to Raymond along the Pacific coast, biked to Chehalis using the Willapa Hills Trail, and biked to Seattle using a combination of many trails.

Onwards to 2025!