Yeah, I know, the #30DaysofScootering is over. But it's a beautiful morning that I haven't filled with other commitments so I decide to ride my scooter around Lake Sammamish. I leave home at 6:34 AM.
The paving of the bike trail up to the Sammamish City border is basically done, but the fences are still up so I'm riding on the sidewalk for a bit.
I could ride the bike lane all the way up to Redmond and while it would be smoother and faster, I'm curious to see how my KickPed does on the gravel Lake Sammamish Trail.
The trail surface is small gravel and the KickPed's wide tires do fine in it. I don't get the glide I get on asphalt or concrete but I'm faster on the KickPed than the folks I see walking and running on the trail. The bikers, of course, are faster.
It's a beautiful morning.
The various fences along the trail are a lot prettier when they're overgrown.
Bunnies on the trail.
Fence art.
There's a real nice little park and picnic shelters on the northern part of the trail.
At the Redmond town line, the trail changes from gravel to smooth asphalt.
The Marymoor connector trail cuts across the park.
The view south. Mount Rainier rises in the distance.
The pedestrian bridge over the Sammamish River. If I turned north, I could follow the paved trail up through Woodenville and Bothell, up around the northern end of Lake Washington and ultimately to Seattle on the Burke-Gilman Trail.
I turn back south.
Headed for home now along the western side of Lake Sammamish.
There's a Bike/Ped lane on the west side of the road.
I find an abandoned Razor A5 scooter on the roadside.
I move it to a better spot to take a picture.
I leave the Razor scooter at the Weowna Park Trailhead. I figure that's a better spot for it than dumped right by the busy road. I hope it gets reunited with its owner.
As I near Vasa Park, I'm detoured for road construction.
The detour goes up a huge hill and adds an extra mile to my trip.
At I-90 I connect up with the Mountains to Sound Greenway.
I rode this section a week ago when I scootered home from Seattle.
Today is opening day of the Top Pot Doughnut Shop here in Issaquah!
At 11:12 AM, I'm back home. Google maps tells me I scootered 26 miles today and the clock and calculator tell me that my average speed was 5.82 mph. That seems right, the gravel and the construction detour slowed me down a bit.
If (and this is purely hypothetical mind you) a guy were to think about touring on a kick scooter, he could possibly cover 50 miles in a day. Hypothetically, speaking, of course.
Keep 'em rolling,
Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah, WA USA
7 comments:
Ultralight backpacking scooter club of America!
Loved this whole series Kent.
later
Tarik
A guy could, hypothetically speaking, of course, do a metric century on a scooter if he stuck to paved surfaces.
The Great Divide is coming up. Maybe you could get ahold of a "29'er" scooter?
Gene in Tacoma
Great series!
I am also considering getting a Kickped. I'm curious if you have had the need to replace the wheels after the month of use. If so, where did you find replacement wheels?
Zee,
The wheels on my KickPed show very little wear thusfar. If I was going to estimate, I'd say they will last for thousands of miles. The only maintenance I've done on the Kickped is too lube the bearings with a bit of TriFlow.
If and when I do need to replace the wheels, Patmont Moter Werks has them. They make the KickPed it is basically a modified KnowPed. The parts list is here:
http://www.goped.com/shop/know-grow_list.asp
I have a Razor but now I'm thinking I will get the Kickped!
This kind of article is wonderful! Keep 'em coming - they inspire me to get out and explore the local area.
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