Biking Bis - Bicycle Touring

Closing the gaps on Erie Canal will draw bicycle travelers

Gene Bisbee — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:40:00 -0800

Just like the movie says, "If you build it, he will come."

In the case of the Erie Canalway Trail in New York state, "he" is 500,000 bicyclists annually.

The Canalway Trails Association of New York says that about 75% of the 365-mile canal towpath between Buffalo to Albany is complete as an off-road bicycle path.

Completing the remaining 75 to 80 miles will cost about $35 million, according to a report issued this month by the association: "Closing the Gaps: A Progress Report on the Erie Canalway Trail".

In addition to creating jobs for hundreds of workers, the completion of an off-road link from ...

Kirkland to buy railroad corridor for future bike trail

Gene Bisbee — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:46:00 -0800

Kirkland plans to buy its 5.5-mile section of the old Eastside railroad corridor that runs for 42 miles between Renton and Snohomish.

The city council approved the $5 million expenditure at a meeting Tuesday night. The final purchase would come through in March.

The abandoned railroad route could be improved into a biking and hiking trail in Kirkland, but there's talk of adding light rail or express buses to the corridor as well.

The cost of improving the abandoned railroad corridor ranges from $2.4 million to $82 million, depending on whether the path would be paved or ....

Grants from Bikes Belong encourage safer bicycling

Gene Bisbee — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 05:00:00 -0800

A group promoting crosstown bikeways in San Francisco (see video at left) and a community bicycle center in Portland are among seven recipients of Bikes Belong grants this fall.

Other urban bicycle projects on the grant list include the linking of two bike lanes in Atlanta, and bikeway extensions in Memphis and Grand Rapids. Grants also are going to research studies on the economic impact of bike use in Minneapolis and Greenville, South Carolina.

In all, the bike industry association issued $62,500 to the projects. Together they show the broad scope of bicycle programs that are active in the nation's urban areas ....

Take a virtual bike ride on Burke Gilman and Cedar River trails

Gene Bisbee — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:34:00 -0800

Larger view on jump

The Google Street View trike has been hitting the bicycle trails in Seattle and King County over the past summer and now those trail views are available on Google Maps.

I mashed a couple of trails with the TripGeo.com application to animate the bike path views on the Burke-Gilman Trail between Gas Works and Log Boom parks, left, and the Cedar River Trail from Renton to Landsburg, below.

It's fun to see the locales of our off-road rides preserved on the Internet. Seattle Bike Blog located trail views outside the Seattle Google headquarters in Ballard and the Seattle end of the I-90 bike trail....

East Lake Sammamish Trail paving: northern section complete

Gene Bisbee — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 10:08:00 -0800

Since the East Lake Sammamish Trail opened in 2006 with a crushed stone surface, many bicycle riders have said they'd like to see it paved.

Their wishes have been granted, at least on a 1.2-mile section at the north end of the 11-mile rail-trail.

King County Parks says a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. Monday in the new trail side parking lot on NE 70th Street will mark the re-opening of the Redmond section of the East Lake Sammamish Trail.

Paving the southern end of the East Lake Sammamish Trail in Issaquah is the next project on tap ...

Cle Elum to Thorp: Bicycling the Upper Yakima River Canyon on John Wayne Pioneer Trail

Gene Bisbee — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:15:00 -0700

As the John Wayne Pioneer Trail leaves the high Cascades and heads southeast from Cle Elum, it enters the Upper Yakima River Canyon.

It was an unexpected scenic treasure on my explorations by bicycle between trail heads in the Iron Horse State Park this fall.

I expected a dusty, exposed route across flat prairie on this segment between Cle Elum and Thorp. Instead, the rail-trail follows the meandering Yakima River as it cuts through ancient volcanic rock on its way to the Columbia River.

My 41-mile bicycling loop started at South Cle Elum ...

Trail safety considered for bikers and hikers in Everett

Gene Bisbee — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 08:00:00 -0700

Three months ago, Wendell Hultman was riding his bicycle with a friend on the Interurban Trail near Everett.

Rounding a hairpin turn with a bad sightline, the cyclists dodged two teen-agers then suddenly came upon a couple walking their dog. The meeting ended very badly.

Hultman, 73, either struck the dog or the leash and went over the handlebars. His helmet cracked, and he died about two weeks later of his injuries.

Because the crash didn't occur on city streets, it didn't come to the attention of city officials until weeks later when the dog walkers, whose pooch recovered, contacted their city councilman.

Now, the city staff is making looking for ways to make trails safer...

Easton to Cle Elum: Bicycling the John Wayne Pioneer Trail where railroading is remembered

Gene Bisbee — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:53:00 -0700

Although the John Wayne Pioneer Trail is a rail-trail well-suited for bicycling, the trail head at South Cle Elum is certainly a draw for railroad enthusiasts.

The large rail yard built by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad in the early 1900s is preserved there, and a few buildings remain intact. Pedaling into town on the rail-trail gave me a slow-motion idea of the scene witnessed by locomotive engineers.

Lately I've been bicycling different sections of the John Wayne Pioneer Trail east of the Snoqualmie Tunnel. While I don't have the opportunity for a nice through-trip ...

Closed to bicycling: No plans to remove sandbags on Green River Trail

Gene Bisbee — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:36:00 -0700

A long section of the 19-mile Green River Trail south of I-405 will remain closed to bicycling as flood protection remains in place for the time-being.

Workers installed the 3- to 4-foot high wall of sandbags along the levee-top trail in the fall of 2009. That's when the Army Corps of Engineers reported the Howard Hanson Dam upstream could no longer handle high water, and they'd have to flood the Green River Valley in the event of heavy rains.

Two weeks ago, however, the Corps announced that repairs have been made and they could operate the dam at full capacity this fall and winter.

It looks like the sandbags are going to remain in place for another rainy season ....

10 longest rails-to-trails for bicycling in the US

Gene Bisbee — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:29:00 -0700

A funny thing happened on my way to updating this list of the 10 longest rail-trails in the US -- I learned that not all the trails are suitable for bicycles.

Of the 10 longest rail-to-trail conversions listed at the Rails to Trails Conservancy, 2 are established for ATV's only and another is used as a scenic railroad with no adjacent path.

A few others are surfaced with ballast, which can make bicycle pedaling a little dicey.

The longest rail-to-trail list is compiled by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. The non-profit has helped states, communities and volunteer groups turn 19,872 miles of abandoned railroad tracks into trails ....