Biking Along the Chief Sealth Trail to Kubota Gardens
We set out in the morning, around 9:30 AM. It was already warm and I was working up a sweat after only a few miles. We biked through downtown Seattle, since it is mostly flat along there and there's a decent bike path along 2nd Avenue, now replete with flower boxes and speed bumps to slow down the speedy bicyclists. This is the 3.5 mile route that I usually take to my office. At Jackson Street, we turned east and went uphill about 1 mile to 12th Ave, where we then turned south and headed towards Beacon Hill. I should say Beastly Hill though because the grade is pretty steep. While skimming over the Jose P Rizal bridge, I could see the mist slowly burning off the Elliot Bay area on my right, and the tree-lined hills to my left.
We both made it up the hill easily enough, and then we looked around for the Beacon Hill Neighborhood Greenway. It's really just a suburban street, not anything special for bicyclists, except there are well-marked signs for bicyclists at most intersections, pointing out nearby landmarks. And theoretically, cars around the greenway are supposed to be nicer to bikers than cars elsewhere. We followed the signs for Jefferson Park. At the park, we rode around the western edge to the P-Patch, where we got off and rambled around. It's a large, well-attended P-Patch built in 2012, and there were a few busy green thumbs working there. We walked up to the crest of the hill where we saw a women's Ultimate Frisbee game going on. It's a huge park with a large playfield.
We then continued on south, looking for Snoqualmie Rd and 13th Avenue, which I thought was the entrance to the Chief Sealth Trail. Turns out the entrance is actually at 15th Avenue, so we did a bit of unnecessary climbing of some hills. But anyways, once we got on the trail it was really cool. The Chief Sealth Trail is 4.5 miles of dedicated biking path, that winds around electrical towers through Beacon Hill, Othello, and Rainier Beach. Minus the electrical towers, it's really idyllic. The trail network is about 200 yards wide, and the path winds back and forth around the towers, surrounded by mostly grass. There are houses on either side. It was remarkably quiet while we rode. We saw a few other pedestrians on the path, but only one other biker. The path often snakes across small and busy streets, so we often had to stop to cross. It also was pretty hilly; some of those hills, especially the ones going northbound, are leg-busting.
Here's the Chief Sealth Trail route we took:
Here's the Chief Sealth Trail route we took:
We stopped at the intersection of Myrtle and Martin Luther King Jr Way, right by the Othello light rail station. Shaun had heard about the Plate of Nations dining special going on this week, so he picked out a Vietnamese restaurant, Huong Duong, that turned out to be delicious. Right when we entered, I saw the verse on the wall from Nehemiah 8:10 "The joy of the Lord is my strength." That verse turned out to be really handy while I was heaving myself up some of the later hills.
For lunch we got a special deal where we shared chicken spring rolls, shrimp salad, and chicken stir fry. For dessert I had a mango smoothie and Shaun had a sticky sweet dessert made of mung bean paste. Yum!
Then we mounted our trusty aluminum steeds once again for the last mile or so south to the end of the Chief Sealth Trail. The trail ends almost exactly where the Kubota Gardens entrance is. We had to cross the street and go around the gardens to find the entrance. Then we parked and strolled through the gardens. The Kubota Gardens were created in the 1930s by a Japanese immigrant, Mr. Kubota, who lived in the area until he died in the eighties, when he was 94. He built much of the gardens himself. The City of Seattle now takes care of the gardens and it is free to the public. It was one of the prettiest Japanese gardens I've seen. There's a moon bridge, a heart bridge, several looming cedars, plenty of Japanese maples, a few ponds and a waterfall fed by a local stream. We wandered around and then sat on the lawn for an hour or so. I haven't been so relaxed outside in years!
We headed back to the light rail station and then rode the light rail home. Lots of fun!
