Family Bike Ride: Reach Newcastle Beach

After a bike tour around Mercer Island parks (see an earlier blog about this by clicking here), we tried a longer ride: from Mercer Island to Bellevue's Newcastle Beach. It proved to be a fun four-hour outing, with manageable hills, bike-friendly paths, and a worthwhile destination.

The Google map starts at the Mercerdale Post Office, and the route can divide into four stages: 

1. to the I-90 bridge (Eastbound)
2. The East Channel (I-90 bicycle bridge)
3. The end of the I-90 bridge through the Mercer Slough
4. Lake Washington Boulevard SE to Newcastle Beach Park

Stage 1: The I-90 bike path leading to the start of the bridge was pleasant: wide; smoothly paved; and with shady green cover. Many of the speedier bicyclists stick to the parallel road, leaving the path to the pedestrians and slower bikes. This stretch has one long hill, probably the second hardest on the route (top billing goes to the climb out of Newcastle Beach on the way back). The path crosses a lot of streets here. Cars are watchful for the most part, but one close call reminded everyone that each intersection required vigilance.   

Stage 2: For the kids, crossing the channel on the I-90 bike path was the most adventurous part of the trip: Rushing cars on one side; open water seen through the railing on the other; bicycles or pedestrians passing both ways while we crossed. Still, everyone made it without mishap or collision and earned bragging rights.  

Stage 3: This portion gets confusing, even with the trail markers (follow the arrows first to Mercer Slough and then to Renton). From the Bellevue side of the bridge you first get a corkscrew kind of descent to cross under I-90, and then the bike path parallels the freeway for a short stretch before crossing under I-90 once again (Stick to the bike path, ignore the roadway). After passing under I-90, the trail forks. Follow the path to the right that leads over the bridge and takes you through Mercer Slough. The path is bumpy and you can see a host of pedestrians.

Stage 4: The last stage starts where the path from Mercer Slough meets Lake Washington Boulevard SE. Bikers and peds come together from four directions in a narrow intersection, and we saw more than one puzzled bicyclist stop to get oriented. 

Your destination is south (right) along Lake Washington Boulevard SE. Follow the trail markers towards Renton. When biking along the boulevard, a paved trail and a wide sidewalk can keep you off the road itself.

It's just over a mile along this part of the ride to Newcastle Beach. You'll know you've arrived when the bike path passes through a chain link gate, crosses railroad tracks, and spills onto Lake Washington Boulevard. Newcastle Beach is to the right — a sharp right — and down the hill. The park has a large open field, a swimming area, a play structure, plenty of picnic tables, and some short forest trails. We didn't spend much time here before heading back, but it seemed to deserve a longer visit.

The hardest part of the ride is climbing back out of the park. Get that over with, and everything else seems easy. Back on Lake Washington Boulevard, the bike path runs either on the shoulder with traffic, or on the wide sidewalk on the other side of the street (this is well-marked).

Overall, this was a great ride. Some pros and con comments are below:

PROS:

• Convenient: No need to haul bikes off the island
• Manageable: A good distance for a half-day ride (10 miles), with moderate hills (of course, on Mercer Island, 'moderate' is relative.  For this outing our youngest had a small bike with gears rather than the larger-framed coaster she used on our park tour.  This may be why the hills seemed easier).
• Safe: You can stay on bike paths or sidewalks almost the entire way.
• Scenic: You get some good views crossing the bridge. Riding past the plants and trees along the I-90 bike path is shady and pleasant.

CONS

• Congestion: These are popular routes. You can avoid cars, but not walkers or other bikers. From late morning to mid-afternoon we encountered bicycling groups, strollers, pedestrians, dogs on leashes, etc. Most everyone was good-natured about it.  
• Street crossings: The bike path during the first stage crosses quite a few streets; makes it kind of stop and go.
• That's about it for the cons.