Route update:
I ended up light railing to the reading, thinking it would be quicker…but it wasn’t! Oh well. But for future reference, what I would have done differently than my Burien test route is stay on the Delridge-Highland Park Neighborhood Greenway (PDF) a bit longer and then follow Barb Chamberlain’s helpful advice:

@rodhuntress @familyride 21st to Myrtle, then I go E at Henderson to 8th Ave S to go S. Nice ride thru Greenbridge, stop at @DubseaCoffee.

— Barb Chamberlain (@barbchamberlain) April 29, 2016

Original post:
In preparation for Saturday’s Urban Cycling at Burien Library book reading, I biked over to see how long it would take (1:40 with stops for pictures). I decided ahead of time I’d bike all the way there and take the light rail back so I could also check out the route between the library and light rail. I also decided ahead of time I’d want to go multi-modal the day of the reading since I’d be bringing a heavy box of books. Now, I don’t think it’s necessary for my “street cred” to bike the whole way there ahead of time, but I did the same for my reading at the Kirkland Library last month, even though I had to bus/bike the day of due to time constraints. But it’s a good excuse to bike somewhere new because I’m not very good at biking for the sake of biking rather than biking for an errand.

Since I was on my quick little road bike alone with no kids to worry about, I didn’t do my usual amount of route research and just let Google maps guide me…even though that process didn’t work out for me so well a few months ago to Auburn. But my Burien route turned out to be somewhat OK. Mostly, I discovered that while taking the light rail back home was quicker than riding, it was long enough to be kind of boring and the ride out wasn’t as hilly as I had feared so I think I’ll ride the whole way Saturday after all.

This was my first time on the Delridge-Highland Park Neighborhood Greenway and it was great! It’s steep at the beginning, climbing up from the West Seattle Bridge Trail, but once up on the ridge, it’s fairly flat. I would not want to do this with a heavy bike, though. There are also lots of well-marked wiggles at intersections to make the crossings safer. My Google maps directions took me off the greenway about halfway along so I’ll stick to the pleasant route on Saturday.

While heading from the library to the light rail station, the weather suddenly changed. As the sun disappeared and grey clouds rolled in, I rode up to and along a high grassy ridge. The weather and terrain transported me back to a childhood trip driving across the Afsluitdijk between my uncle’s house in Amstelveen (next to Amsterdam) and my grandmother’s house in Groningen. It was bewildering and I couldn’t imagine why Seattle would have a dike. Then a plane roared overhead and I realized I was next to an embankment hiding and muffling the airport. Ah! Of course I would have realized this had I studied the map ahead of time, but I wouldn’t have had my nostalgic experience.

One more thing:

Heading down 2nd Avenue I saw a new downtown bike counter being installed! I was number 35, but it doesn’t officially open until Monday at 7:30 a.m.

30 Days of Biking stats:
April 27 miles: 21.5
April cumulative miles: 425.6