Samish Way to Lake Padden

Last week we had a mild, sunny spell for about a half-day, when I took a break from job- and apartment-hunting to ride up Samish Way to Lake Padden.  This is a challenging hill-climb, definitely a Cat. 2 on the Tour de France scale, to a park that is pretty out-of-the-way for me since I junked my car, so it was a nice change to visit the lake again.  Lake Padden is really a pond, only a little more than a mile around, with a wide packed dirt and gravel trail, and some side trails heading off into the woods.  It's an easy bike ride around the lake on a hybrid, but there is usually a lot of foot traffic, so it's best to go slow and enjoy the scenery.  Another odd thing about Bellingham:  it seems to be the kind of town people leave on holiday weekends, which is fine for a mobility-impaired local like me.  One Fourth of July weekend I rode up to Lake Padden, planning to spend a day reading on the beach and paddling in the water.  When I arrived there was a group of five or six people doing yoga on the lawn near the swimming area, and after they left the place was pretty much all mine all day.

Starting from the I-5 overpass at Exit 252 it is two miles to the entrance to Lake Padden Park, where the road dips down slightly, then climbs a half-mile to the entrance to the public golf course clubhouse.  The top of the climb is 3.7 miles from the start, just past the pull-out where mountain bikers leave their cars when they head for the trails in the woods around the lake and on Galbraith Mountain.  I like to imagine the muddy guys in the parking lot are giving me congratulatory smiles as I pass on the way to finishing the long haul up the hill.

The uphill side of Samish Way has bike lanes all the way, but the downhill ride is not so nice - the pavement is cracked, uneven concrete sections and the shoulder ranges from narrow and soft, to loose gravel, or dirt and weeds, or concrete gutters, frequently crossed by various kinds of driveways.

During a windstorm over the weekend some power lines blew down next to the parking area, and four or five cars burned.  It must have been wild riding the trails during that storm, but then to get back to the parking lot and find your car burned up - not the kind of risk you expect to take.

p.s.  Photos from the 2010 Chilly Hilly are posted on my first blog entry of September 3.