Comments on: Interurban Trail (Seattle-Everett)

By: Todd Holman

Todd Holman — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:56:51 +0000

I agree Vio and I’ve ridden all the trails on Jen’s website in King County. This trail is arguably the weakest.

By: Vio

Vio — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:50:53 +0000

Just as someone already mentioned this trail is a myth. Well, the actual bike trail lies only between Everett and South Lynnwood. I mean the real ‘TRAIL’. In M-Terrace you are already lost and confused and just before the county line the pleasure ends.
Everything south of there is nothing but chaos, a lousy, exhausting and nerve-breaking ride on busy Seattle streets sometimes with marked pavement and sometimes with clueless surroundings. It is also unsafe to ride there with hundreds of cars passing you or simply following you cause of course, you are not anywhere near a bike trail, forget it.
Just before the supposed end of trail on 145th there is a portion that looks and feels like a trail but its short and doesn’t connect into MLT. All in all this so-called Urban trail is a joke since it ends in Lynnwood. The Centennial trail is my favorite and that one is real.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 06:45:08 +0000

I use the trail from Shoreline, south to 110th st. I also found it difficult to follow the trail at first. There are places where the trail goes from clearly marked trail to totally unmarked sidestreet, and then back to trail without signs letting you know you’re still going in the right direction in between the actual trail segments. It’s not much to research a bit and learn where it goes, but ideally you would like to not have to, right? It’d be nice to refer to signs on the trail instead of a map somewhere else every time you want to add a couple miles to your trip. Most of the trail is pretty well laid out but the places that it is not are confusing and discouraging. Is there a group or governing body to offer constructive criticism to?

By: Dave Nelson

Dave Nelson — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:59:36 +0000

I’m about to try this trail today and appreciate all of the tips and suggestions. Has anyone come up with a GPS route yet? Thanks for the help.

By: Todd Holman

Todd Holman — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:22:53 +0000

The signage southbound through Edmonds/Shoreline is pathetic.

By: Jennifer Hodgdon

Jennifer Hodgdon — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:31:34 +0000

Yeah, the signage northbound is a bit tricky! Last time I rode this (last summer), the only section with significant cars was in Edmonds, just north of the county line. Hopefully Edmonds will get their section built one of these years…

By: Bill

Bill — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 01:28:11 +0000

First time on trail from Shoreline heading north towards Lynnwood. Found the trail hard to follow without signs and having to travel on roads with cars to follow the trail. Will go out again and experiment though. Hope with time it will get easier!

By: Todd Holman

Todd Holman — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 02:09:23 +0000

I rode the full length of this trail yesterday in two different stages. I entered the trail in South Everett on 128th ST SE and headed north before returning and heading south into Seattle. I strongly recommend printing out the map from the link Loren posted above if you’re planning on riding the full distance and take note of the troubling areas I list below. Unless this is your neighborhood, my guess is you’ll need it to refer to at least once if you are a newbie like me.

Overall the ride wa good and I’m glad to say I did it — but I doubt there will be a second time in full. It’s difficult to build a smooth ride through such a large urban area — and that’s exactly what you get. Mostly it’s a lot of stop and go and the middle of the trail is borderline chaos.

Both the city of Everett and Seattle should be proud with their trail markings, and unless you are visually handicapped or just don’t like to pay attention, then you should find little difficulty locating the trail. A lot of it is dedicated path/sidewalk and a mixture of bike path and road riding. But the city of Shoreline should be ashamed of itself.

In short, I’ll sum up the ride as follows. The two end segments are very well marked. The ride through Lynnwood and Montlake Terrace is somewhat discombobulated and viscous, and the ride through Shoreline is disconnected and confusing.

The areas, in my opinion, where the biker needs to be aware of trail access points are at 128th ST SE in south Everett, 164th ST SE in Lynnwood, and the Lake Ballinger area and/or Shoreline. For the most part your intuition should carry you — but I wouldn’t count on it. Which is why I find it difficult to give this trail experience high marks.

By: Jennifer Hodgdon

Jennifer Hodgdon — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:09:59 +0000

Yeah, the city of Seattle has put up all sorts of bicycle signage in the last few years. I am not sure I agree with their routes being the best possible in all cases, but at least they will get you there.

On another note, I recommended taking Dayton Ave between 85th & 110th in my earlier reply. I would just like to say that Fremont Ave N now works just as well if not better, because the city has put lights in at 85th and 105th, and Fremont is the official signed cycling route in that area now.

–Jennifer

By: Todd

Todd — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:04:52 +0000

Took the IU south from 185th today to UW.
There is signage south of 110 that follow similar instructions above.
For the “to UW” portion:
@ 83rd I turned left and it turns into Green Lake Ave.
Turn left onto Ravenna (good bike lane on left) and then right on to Roosevelt.