The quintessential Seattle, Eastside warmup ride. Heading straight out of North Bend and heading north along the Cascades, this ~60 mile ride is fun for beginners on up.
The first half of the ride down FR57 passes through Hancock timber lands and provides some amazing vistas because everything around you is clearcut. The second part of the ride is more of the typical PNW ‘tunnel o’ trees’ but the crossings of the North Fork of the Snoqualmie River are stunning.
The road forks near the end: Go right and you continue down 57. This is an easy, narrow road and well worth the ride along the beautiful Lennox Creek.
Go left on FR 5733 and the going gets a little rockier and ruttier. Fun but a dead end. There is a spur road (FR 5736) on the left around halfway down this fork that is well worth your time. I would say its best for intermediates because of a large number of uphill rocks at the beginning. The road will reward you will some tiny creek crossings and an incredible vista at the end.
A word of warning about this ride: because of ease of access, proximity to a population center and the curvy nature of the road, the biggest danger to you is other people. Expect traffic on this road and expect it to behave badly by driving too fast, cutting corners, etc.
Oh, and try not to ride it the one day each spring when they grade the road. I seem to do this every year and its like riding on ice, snow and thick mud all at the same time.
Rode this a few weeks ago based on your post. This was my first “off-road” ride on my KTM 390 Adv. Was a lot of fun, and agree it’s a good beginner ride. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Lou, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for being my first comment. I probably do this route more than any because it’s so near my house and is such good practice.
This is also the ride where I broke my knee. Beware the familiar methinks.
The 390! Cool bike.
Thanks for this! Question; have you been up here recently, or in your experience would this weekend be too early for a crack at this ride due to conditions?
I was up there two weeks ago. Before the recent snow. You could easily get to the left onto 5730 but the snow was blocking after that. I don’t know if Monday’s snow moved the snow line a little lower. Was hoping to make it up there yesterday but life intervened.