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Vacation bike ride #2: South Lake Washington loop

Ow my legs. I set out yesterday morning planning on biking east over the 520 bridge and then coming back west over the I-90 bridge. When I got to the I-90 bridge trailhead, I decided to just go for it and go all the way around the south half of Lake Washington. This wasn’t too hard in terms of hills, but goddamn it was a long ride.

I started out heading east over the 520 bridge and then turning south and biking through Medina. I’ve lived in Seattle for 12 years but have never gone through that hella baller neighborhood. I think both Gates and Bezos live over there. Lots of private driveways with gates that have lionheads on them and shit. I read later on Wikipedia that every intersection in Medina has video cameras and all license plates are looked up to see if they’re suspicious. From there I snaked through Bellevue until I hit the I-90 trailhead. I started up the path to go west over the bridge and start heading home, but then had a flash of inspiration/confidence and said “I will do this” and headed south to cover new ground. Nice trail until you hit Coulon Beach Park. I stopped there and took a break and ate snacks. From there you get dumped onto city streets as you have to go around the Boeing facility down there and you’re on busy city streets for the southwest portion of the lake.

I took another break at Seward Park to stretch my back before heading north home. It was 9 more miles from that point. At this point you’re still on city streets with no bike lane but it was still a nice ride since Lake Washington Blvd doesn’t have super heavy traffic and you’re right against the lake. On the way I passed by Viretta Park and the house where Kurt Cobain shot himself. Things were mostly flat until I reached Lakeview Park, which has a really steep hill and switchbacks that make it hard for cars to pass slow ass cyclists. I was so wiped by that point and the poor car behind me just had to creep along with me until I reached the top.

I gotta say I’m pretty damn proud of this ride. I knew I could do it and I did it. I was so spent when I got home I just laid in bed and watched New Jack City with my wife since she had never seen it and I hadn’t seen it since it was new. That movie is hella 90s. The singer in the wedding scene is played by Keith Sweat, how awesome is that? My favorite line is when Mario Van Peebles is all like “I need some new jack cops to take down a new jack gangster.” They should have kept using “new jack” as an adjective throughout the entire movie. What a waste.

Total mileage for the week so far: 89.4 miles

Route / Stats:

Full Strava activity here.

Pictures from along the way:

Soundtrack for the ride:

For some reason I built the playlist to have bands or albums with black in the title. The ride ended just as Black Monk Time finished which was kind of eerie. If I had needed more music I would have added Black Sabbath’s ‘Master of Reality.’

> Aug 30 2018