Seattle Forrest

I'm asking for the impossible: flattish, scenic rides within an hour and a half of Seattle, without many people. They can be road or wide trail, but she doesn't have enough confidence in the bike to tackle singletrack. She's not terribly comfortable on a bike yet, so doesn't want to be seen by many people, she's afraid of falling and being laughed at, so "not many people" is a lot more important than "pretty flat."

Any recommendations?

B. Carfree

I'm no help at all here (don't ride in Seattle area often enough to have an answer).

You have really hit upon one of the large problems with getting people on bikes: where can they learn to ride with reasonable comfort, safety (and perception of safety) and joy? Even if one conquers that, there's still that challenge of raising their skills and confidence enough to get on the bike and ride on out of town for those truly awesome riding experiences that so many of us love.

It really says something that an experienced rider such as yourself who has very good knowledge of the area needs to reach out in search of places for inexperienced but interested people to learn to ride.

ModeratedUser17082018

On Whidbey Island, I ride the Coupeville Prairie area most of the time. It has gentle, rolling hills with wide paved roads and very little traffic. I see very few cars or bikes on a given ride.

Long views across beautiful farmland, with Puget Sound and the Olympics or Cascades in the background. There's a good section of perfectly flat riding along the water with bike lanes both directions. Glad to answer questions or act as a tour guide.

CliffordK

I've heard that the San Juan Islands are nice.

fietsbob

Long Beach Peninsula in Pacific county, is pretty flat. & she probably does not know anyone there.

prq9218

Chehalis Western Trail is pretty flat, not too scenic though. All paved, and not too many people on it, at least when I've gone on it. Might be just outside of the 1.5 hour mark though, depending on traffic/driving speed.


https://www.traillink.com/trail/chehalis-western-trail/


You could also try the Foothills Trail that starts in the Puyallup area, haven't been on it, but I've heard good things.


https://www.traillink.com/trail/foothills-trail/

jeromeoneil

There is going to be a conflict between "Wide, flat" and "unpopulated." All the wide flat trails are visited by lots of people. Rail to Trail trails tend to be a bit flatter as trains don't like steep grades. Try weekday rides if you can.

In order of crowd size, I'd recommend.

The Burke-Gilman trail. This was custom built for just such rides. Flat, paved, wide, and goes around some of the nicer parts of the lake and city. There are also a couple of really good bike shops on it too if you have problems. Difficulty: Heavily used. Bonus: No one cares as everyone is fat and out of shape.

Cedar River trail: Also flat and wide. Paved all the way to the Cedar-Green river trail. Less heavily used. Bonus: You can stop by my house and say hi if you make it to Lake Wilderness.

Iron Horse Trail/Snoqualmie Tunnel. Bonus: It's dark in there!

woodway

Snoqualmie Valley Trail. Catch it in Carnation and ride towards North Bend. It's packed gravel, gentle grade and you are not likely to see more than two handfuls of people between Carnation and North Bend.

Note that if you want to go all the way to North Bend you'll have to ride the roads around Snoqualmie Falls and carry your bike up a set of stairs. But the roads are low traffic.

Tinacha2

I've been where she is and I get it. if you are able to ride on weekdays instead of weekends, the East Lake Sammamish trail is nice (park at Marymoor Park and go from there). The Sammamish River trail is a little more populated, but again it's less busy on weekdays.

Seattle Forrest

Thanks everybody for all the wonderful advice! Finally got a chance to put a little of it into practice.

We did exactly this today. Thank you for the excellent suggestion! We rented a bike from Valley Vignettes, they were very helpful, and enjoyed the trail. I didn't know about this trail. But it was exactly what she needed. We covered about 10 miles, she's getting comfortable with making the bike do what she wants, keeping it upright, even with the idea of shifting.

Seattle Forrest

She lives a mile and a half from her work, so there's so much potential here. I think bikes are starting to win.

woodway

That's outstanding. If you take the SVT past North Bend you can connect to the Iron Horse trail for a trip up to the pass. A little more grade and some of the bridge crossings are loose, but also a nice scenic ride for a beginner.

scozim 

Living in Ellensburg is great - almost all of the county roads on the outskirts are paved (albeit chip seal). My normal 23 mile loop during the week I'm lucky if I get 4-5 cars to pass me. This changes as I get closer to town, but out in the country on the northeast of town it's pretty low traffic count. Flat roads with some gradual inclines in places. The wind can be the only issue (or smoke right now).

stringbreaker

If you want to drive to the south end the Foothills trail that runs from Puyallup to South Prairie is really nice. Can get crowded but it's ok.

fietsbob

Fort Stevens, on the Oregon side of the Columbia, has some nice paved paths among the trees,

and a very low traffic road to the South Jetty..

Seattle Forrest

We rented a bike on Saturday from Tulip Country Bike Tours. I didn't expect them to be open outside of tulip season, but it's out of their house, so they rented us a bike for her. We rode 15 flat miles, probably her longest ride yet.

There's talk of her getting a bike of her own.

PortlandEddie

You just have to let her ride and enjoy it. Its awesome you're helping her along the way. I didn't ride for over 20 years now as an "adult" i ride 2/3 times a week so its something your either love or don't care for and it seems like she's liking it so keep at it.

jazzyrider

+1 on Foothills trail and Chehalis Western trail for the south end.

For the north end, there's also the Centennial trail that starts in Snohomish.
https://www.traillink.com/trail/snoh...tennial-trail/

skimaxpower

The Centennial Trail in the Arlington / Lake Stevens area is pretty darn flat, and uncrowded. Good stuff.

jeromeoneil

I just did this ride last Sunday. It's basically 18 miles of 3% grade to the tunnel. The ride up can be tedious (there's some nice views of the valley) but the ride back is a lot of fun. Gravity works!