Trip Details:
Several days of poor spring weather was interrupted today
by a balmy 62 degree taste of spring. Followed by a day of mixed
weather, I decided to take the day off as a mental health day and
head north. I met up with a riding buddy in Maple Valley. After some
brief chat
we departed his driveway and headed north. To avoid hyw
18 we took the Issaquah Hobart road. This was a nice ride all the
way up to I-90. East bound I-90 took us to I-405 which we road 46
miles to the Hyw 20 exit. As always I-5 proved to be a fairly flat
and straight stretch of road. Since we took I-405, we by-passed the
Seattle congestion. After I-5, Hyw 20 was a breathe of fresh
air. During the first sections of Hyw 20 we rode through Sedro
Woolley, Cokedale, Hamilton and on to Concrete. I always enjoy a
brief stop in Concrete by the Silos. They are large concrete
structures with "Welcome to Concrete" in red faded paint. I remember
these very same silos as a kid when we passed through on the way to
eastern WA on camping trips. One of the attractions to this stretch
of highway is the fact it parallels the Skagit River. There are some
really nice places to stop and rest. One of which was just up the
road and would be our next stop for lunch. The distance to this rest
area was 12 miles from Concrete and 2.7 miles from Rockport.
As we pulled into the rest area I was very impressed with the
view. The sun was reflecting off of the river and the snow covered
North Cascade Mountains just east of us. We couldn't have asked for
a better day. We snapped some photo's and then settled into a park
 bench over looking the Skagit River and ate out lunch while enjoying
the view. This rest site was very clean including the pot-a-potty's.
As we devoured our lunch several others pulled in to rest as well.
This really was a great place to stop and eat or just to stretch the
legs. After a very relaxing rest we fired up our Goldwings and made
our way 2.7 miles back to Rockport where we turned left on to Hyw
530. Hyw 530 is a road I have not been on in some time. I forgot how
nice the road actually is. We had intermittent turns and beautiful
country side and forest lands as we finished another 18 miles and
entered Darington. Darington is a little town with the main industry
being logging. As we
entered we watched the heavy equipment operators moving huge loads
of logs from one side of the road to a holding area on the opposite
side. Our stop was brief as we were anxious to move on. One thing to
mention is that Hyw 530 parallels the Sauk River and the North Fork
of the Stilliquamish River. Near by there is a little lake called
Cavanaugh Lake for those who want to stop by a lake for lunch. From
Darington to Arlington we enjoyed another 28 miles of back country
roads. We made a breif stop in Arlington to get a soda. After
quenching my thirst we made our way to Burn for another 7.6 milles
and a few side streets to Hyw 92 for a short 3 miles.
 Hyw 92 quickly
intersected Machias Rd. This was a nice road I have not ridden prior
so it was a new territory for me. Roughly 9 miles later this road
took us through Snohomish and it became the Old Snohomish Monroe Rd.
We followed this road into the town of Monroe, a quaint little town
surrounded by farm land. We rode Main St through Monroe and turned
on to Hyw 203. Hyw 203 is another one of my favorite back roads as
it took us once again for a scenic country ride through local cattle
country. It sometimes delivers a unique and sometimes pungent aroma
if you know what I mean, but it sure beats riding in the city! Hyw
203 soon intersected with the Snoqualmie Valley road that took us to
the Snoqualmie Valley Rd. We followed this road for about 7 miles
stuck behind some slower moving cars. We soon found relief as we
turned off onto 112th crossing the Snoqualmie River. Once on the
east site we turned right on to the carnation-Duval Rd. The
carnation-Duval Rd took us another 6.5 miles and it then became the
Fall City Rd leading us unto... You guessed it! Fall City. This
little city/Town was busy with what was probably visitors. Folks out
for a day ride or drive. From here it was all down hill back to I-90
and on to hyw 18 heading back basically the way I had taken earlier
this morning to get to I-5. If you make this ride you may want to
deviate a bit and stop in to view Snoqualmie Falls. If you catch the
Falls during a heavy spring melt, the volume of water pouring over
the Falls should be an awesome sight. Given we spent time on I-5, I
was really impressed with this route. There was allot to see and
some really cool back country roads. |
