Snoqualmie Valley in spring

Posted April 5, 2004

More pictures from this trip can be found in the gallery.

The weather was shaping up to be really nice this last weekend, so my friend Jesse and I planned to do some kind of a ride on Saturday. He invited his friend Alexander along, and we went for a little jaunt in the Snoqualmie Valley, east of Redmond, WA.

How about this heat?

That Saturday was the first "hot" day in quite a long time in the Seattle area. I believe the temperature actually got up into the mid to upper 70s that day. Certainly it was quite warm in the valley, which is usually several degrees cooler than Seattle proper.

We gathered at Jesse's house around 10:30, and did all the prep work necessary to a succesful ride -- inflating tires, checking oil, lubing chains, etc. I was on the Le Mans, and had done my prep before I left my house, so I was just watching, really. Alexander, who I'd met a few times before, was riding his 2002 Suzuki SV650, and Jesse was on his CBR600F3.

We left Jesse's house right around 11 to get gas. I had 40 miles on the trip odometer, which is between 1/3 and 1/2 a tank of gas on the thirsty Le Mans. We discovered at the gas station that Jesse needed to go back to his house (just a few blocks away) to get something he'd forgotten, so we doubled back. As long as we were going back, I took advantage of the time to spray some WD40 in the lock on my gas cap, which had gotten mysteriously stiff in its time at Moto International. It was a good thing we returned, since in the unusual circumstance of there being three of us, Jesse had forgotten to close his garage door. Not the end of the world, but I was glad we went back.

On the road

So, we were actually on the road around 11:15, headed across the 520 bridge. The day was already shaping up to be warm, and I was beginning to regret the sweater I was wearing under my Aerostich. As long as we were moving it wasn't too bad, but when we hit the traffic in Redmond, getting onto Avondale Road, it was definitely headed toward too warm.

We broke right onto Novelty Hill Road, which tracks diagonally northweastward up across Redmond Ridge. It started life as a small road through the forest, but like much of the Seattle area, has been getting more and more cleared out and stuffed full of houses. Of course, being a suburb of Redmond (itself a suburb of Seattle), Redmond Ridge is stuffed full of exceedingly large "McMansion" style houses -- all these huge, nearly identical million-dollar houses packed tightly together to maximize real estate value.

Anyway, after cresting the ridge and starting down the other side, the development drops off, and Novelty Hill Road turns into a steep twisting downhill path. Of course, we were following a couple of fainting-daisy drivers, who took every turn with extreme caution, so we weren't really up to "motorcycle speed."

We turned south on West Snoqualmie Valley Road, which is a 45 MPH road that runs down the west side of the north-south Snoqualmie Valley. Our goal was Carnation, a small town of perhaps 10,000 people situated halfway down the valley.

We ended up stopping short of Carnation, at the Nestle facility (the same Nestle as the candy bars, as far as I know), so I could take off my sweater. I was starting to broil, and that's just no fun. While we were stopped, we chatted a bit, and I made sure Jesse and Alenxander were comfortable with my pace (since I was leading). Jesse and Alexander sat on each other's bikes for a moment when the discussion turned to riding position. Finally, everyone was ready, and we took off again.

The road past the Nestle facility has relatively low speed limits, but just cries for higher speeds. We were not as legal as we should have been, although we were going about the same speed as most of the car traffic I've ever witnessed on that road.

Carnation, and lunch

In short order, we were in Carnation, and after some discussion pulled our bikes onto a side street to park for lunch. It was just a few minutes past noon, so the timing was perfect.

We stopped at Pete's (I think) Bar and Grill, an establishment that looked surprisingly dim and dingy inside. However, as we passed by it, we saw that there was a large outside seating area, and I was hailed with the words, "I know you!" by one of the people who used to work at Cascade BMW before it went under. I can't remember her name, but I know that she had been working there for years -- she seemed to be enjoying unemployment.

We sat down at the table next to her, and immediately noticed that a) it was really warm, and b) there seemed to be wasps interested in us before we'd even received any food or drink. After ten minutes of deliberation, we decided to move inside, to the table next to the only window in the place. I dislike strong sunlight and stinging insects, and Jesse and Alexander both averred a strong dislike of stinging bugs as well.

Lunch was pretty good for what initially looked like an uninviting smoky bar. Conversation drifted around various topics, including the fact that Alexander had last ridden with a group of motorcyclists who liked to "race" -- to go as fast as possible on public roads. I despise people who do that, because they give motorcyclists a bad name, at least, and at worst can kill themselves and drive up insurance rates. I was glad to hear that Alexander was enjoying the more sedate pace I was setting, and had told off his racing friends in no uncertain terms.

And now, to find roads that don't exist

On the particular map that I've been using on these adventures, there is at least one road that doesn't exist. It's called "Cherry Valley Truck," and looks really fascinating, all twists and curves. I struck out one day in February to find it, but only came upon dead ends.

I decided that for this ride, we should try to find another road that may or may not exist, Stossel Creek Road. You can see both Stossel Creek Rd and Cherry Valley Truck marked in red on the map to the right. Our route is marked in green. The blue spot is where we stopped to take pictures (actually two locations, but within a mile of each other).

Anyway, first we headed for Stossel Creek Road. We found it, having passed right by the turn the first time, because the road looked so small and uninviting. When we did eventually get on course, I found the road to be a bit too jouncy for comfort. After about 2 miles, it turned into a packed gravel road leading into a state forest that isn't marked on the map. We agreed that we didn't feel any great need to pursue a dirt road on our street bikes, and turned around, to continue along Kelly Road, back to Duvall.

So, it's entirely possible that Stossel Creek Road is just as cool as it looks on the map, but since it's not paved, it doesn't make for good street-bike riding. Ah well.

This time, for sure!

Next we struck out for Cherry Valley Truck. If you look at the enlarged map, it's the upper section highlighted in red, and it looks so neat! I found out in February that it's not a real road, presumably put there to trip up cartography copyright scammers.

Sure enough, we passed by the "No Outlet" sign, and came upon a pair of dead end roads. We stopped just down the hill from this interesting-looking house that's clearly in the process of being built. As far as we could tell, it had great views to the north and south, with power lines to the east, and trees to the west.

We took that moment to rest for a few minutes, since the shade was very pleasant in the midst of the warm day. As we were cooling our bums, several kids drove by on little two-stroke dirt bikes. The high-pitched whine of the little engines was impressively loud. And people say street bikes are too loud.

We stopped for a few more pictures just a bit down the road, where there was a view down into the valley (see the gallery for more pictures). There, we decided that we'd pretty much had enough riding for the day. No one was tired yet, but if we headed home then, no one would be -- and that's good.

We headed back down to Duvall, and took Woodinville-Duvall Road back toward Avondale. I veered off onto Old Woodinville-Duvall Road, which is a hell of a lot more fun than the New road -- lots of interesting curves, some elevation change. I can see why they didn't like having much traffic down it, but it's nearly a perfect motorcycle road.

Then we were back at Avondale and, other than the typical "why isn't the left-turn arrow going green?" fiasco, we were back on the road to Jesse's house. 520 was uneventful and boring, reminding me of all the interesting riding and relative desolation we were leaving behind.

Fly away home

Jesse was also reminded of why he likes the country roads as he was riding along I-5 back to his house: despite heavy and prolonged use of his horn, a woman driving an econobox merged into his lane such that if he didn't brake aggressively, he would have been knocked off his bike. He says the woman turned and looked over her shoulder when he honked, apparently shrugged and kept coming. Amazing. Arm the torpedoes!

We hung out at Jesse's for a bit after the ride, and discussed the I-5 incident, and other bits about the ride. I think everyone agreed that we need to do more of this sort of thing, and we have several candidate roads.

Oh yes, more riding must happen.

Stats

The GPS recorded 91.9 miles for the trip, and a total rolling time of 2:16. Average speed was 40.6 miles per hour, with a top speed of 74.6. We were out from around 11:15 am to 3:00 or 3:30 pm.

The Le Mans did surprisingly well on gas mileage, posting just over 39 MPG (around 6 l/100km).

Created by Ian Johnston. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net.