Quote:
Originally Posted by pesos
Probably heading out to a conference at Microsoft and I'm looking at staying at a place on the lake, west side roughly 5 mi south of the campus. Wondering if it'll be possible to bike to/from (although the weather may be a problem)...
What are the water temps like?
|
I grew up in the area and bike to work (Microsoft) a lot. There is a nice loop around Lk Sammamish that you can ride, should take 1:20hr or so for the loop.
From where you will be, sounds like you could ride to Marymoor park and then up the 520 Trail. That trail is a multi-use people and bikes only deal that goes from nearish downtown Redmond up past Microsoft. Guessing you will be at Building 34 or main campus, you take the trail to NE 40th, cross the intersection, go left, over the bridge, past the bus station deal and there is campus. You can also bike up either 40th from Lk Sammamish road right to campus (going that way, the first intersection on 40th and campus is the one that will loop you around to the convention center) or come up 51st and then down 156th to Campus. 51st is a stepper climb and 156th is a death trap of a road to ride on (stay on the sidewalk, there are 100s of new drivers everywhere with very different sense of safety and awareness). There are locker rooms and bike lock caged off areas on campus too. I usually use the locker room in Building 2 when going to that part of campus. Not sure if there is a locker room in the convention building, never looked for one. You'll need a visitors pass and someone with a key card to let you into both the bike cage areas and locker rooms.
Water temps will be drysuit this time of year. The weather recently flipped from killer long summer to rainy and fall weather. That will drop the lake temp pretty quick.
If you want to do some more biking, make your way to Marymoor park. You'll find the Bruke Gillman trail there. That goes out of the park and through Redmond along a slough out to Redhook Brewery, St Michelle winery, and loops around to Lake Washington and to University of Washington and then out to various parts of Seattle. That slough used to have a waterski race down it between the two lakes, it's way to shallow now. I do remember being able to kneeboard and skurf pretty far down it in High School.