Sammamish river park

Intro
This week was cloudy and I was starting to get worried. Why? Because once it starts raining in Seattle, it becomes an everyday affair. Summer is still going to be around, maybe till August end, but that's just a month away from now. Hence I decided to do kutty training rides of around 30 - 40 kms a little regularly. Hopefully, these training rides would get me geared up for bigger biking trips of 100 - 120 kms which should be in August.

The place
Sammamish river park is located 12 miles or around 20 kms from university district, Seattle. The going was damn easy since it was mostly downslope till Kenmore, after which it was a flat road till Bothell, where the park is located.








I noticed a lot of kutty wildlife at the Sammamish river park, just around the point where the Burke-Gilman trail converts into the Sammamish river trail (which goes upto Redmond).
















Roosters and rabits abound.




I didn't have much time to do any sightseeing. Just hung around at some places, took a few pictures and returned through the Burke-Gilman trail.






Now if I had taken the SR 522 back to Seattle, it would have screwed my body, since all the downslope while coming converts into massive upslopes while returning back.
Luckily, the Burke-Gilman trail comes to the rescue.




SR 522























The ride back
The burke-giman trail is an awesome trail, since it passes by the washington lake and has some big trees and variegated vegetation along the trail.











But there are also down-sides to the trail. There are many bumps on the trail as in the picture below.




These bumps can harm a road bike going at a good clip. So I had to slow down unwillingly at many places. But unlike last time, these bumps have been marked with pieces of chalk at most places and this would definitely keep the riders alert. I applaud the effort of whoever it is that took upon this job.
My fitness on the ride back was good. I wasn't getting tired, though my legs were. Does that make sense? I have been having problems with my left and right knee which has prevented my running, but hopefully crosstraining through biking should help the knees heal well.

Stats
The going was pretty quick, thanks to the downslope. It took me around 40 minutes for the 20 kms.
Coming back: The burke-gilman trail - 55 mins for 19 kms.

Future trips
This ride was upto Sammamish river park, which is the start of another trail - Sammamish river trail which goes upto Marymoor park, Redmond, a distance of 10 miles. This river trail is supposedly very scenic, so Burke gilman + Sammamish river trail might be my next trip, a round trip of 70 kms.

Another trip that I have already planned for, but am yet to execute is the trip to Granite falls (round trip distance of 90 kms), North of Seattle (North-east of everett).