The Pacific Northwest does not have a shoulder season. It has a wet season where you ride anyway and a dry season where you ride constantly. Both are correct approaches to living here.
These five rides are worth making on any bike in the Bicyclious stable. They’re listed not by difficulty but by the quality of what they show you.
1. Lake Crescent Loop, Olympic Peninsula
The lake is so clear you can see the bottom at forty feet. The trail around the southern shore rolls through old-growth forest on a surface that feels maintained even when it isn’t. Bring a rigid fork and let yourself feel the roots.
Best bike for this: Bubblicious or the Seahawk. You want something with personality on the climbs.
2. Tiger Mountain Trail System, Issaquah
Tiger is Issaquah’s backyard and the backyard of anyone who lives within forty miles of it and owns a bike. The trail network is dense enough that you can ride there every weekend for a year and still find new lines. The Predator trail is the one to start with.
Best bike for this: The MFR. Rigid forks build skills and Tiger Mountain’s berms reward riders who’ve done the work.
3. Galbraith Mountain, Bellingham
Two hours north and a completely different world. Galbraith is machine-built flow trail at its best — smooth berms, timber features, sight lines that let you commit to speed. The descent from the top of the mountain back to the parking lot is one of the better twenty minutes available on a bicycle in Washington State.
Best bike for this: The FBS. Bring your race-day setup and see what it can do.
4. Port Townsend to Fort Worden
Ferry from Edmonds to Kingston, then a pleasant road ride to the ferry to Port Townsend, then the loop from town out to Fort Worden State Park. The park has its own trail system and the beach at the end is worth arriving tired for.
Best bike for this: The Port Townsend bike, obviously. It was built for this exact ride.
5. The Interurban Trail, Whatcom County
A rail trail running north from Bellingham toward the Canadian border through farmland and wetlands. Flat, long, meditative. The kind of ride where you stop counting miles and start paying attention to the herons in the ditches.
Best bike for this: The Crossroads. Drop bars, clearance, 700c wheels. Point it north.
All five of these rides can be done on any bike that’s mechanically sound and appropriately sized. The equipment matters less than showing up.