Chuckanut Drive and Islands · part 3

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Seattle / Pacific Northwest

   Darrington is a logging town in the north Cascades foothills, about ten kilometres from this stop, and it sits at the confluence of the Sauk and Suiattle rivers, in a valley overshadowed by the cone of Whitehorse Mountain. To the east, the snowy volcano Glacier Peak rises to 3,213 metres, the most remote of the five Washington volcanoes, and on a clear day it can be seen from the roads around town. The country is wild, wet and steep, covered in dense forest, and the rivers run milky green with glacial silt.

   Read the complete Near Darrington, on the way back write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Seattle / Pacific Northwest is where the day begins. Next is Chuckanut Drive and Islands checkpoint 8.

2. 2. Near Manchester

   Across Puget Sound from Seattle, on the eastern shore of the Kitsap Peninsula, the little community of Manchester looks back at the city skyline from a beach of pebbles and driftwood. On a clear evening the view is remarkable: the towers of downtown Seattle across the water, the Space Needle, ferries crossing in the dusk and, on a good day, Mount Rainier floating above it all. It is a quiet, unassuming place, with houses scattered along the shore and in the woods behind.

   Read the complete Near Manchester write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Chuckanut Drive and Islands checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Back to Chuckanut Drive.

3. 3. Back to Chuckanut Drive

   Black Diamond is a coal town that outlived its coal. In the 1880s, a coal company opened mines on this ridge in the foothills south-east of Seattle, and for decades the town sent coal by railway to ships in Seattle and San Francisco. Miners from Wales, Italy, Slovenia and many other countries lived in company houses, and a nearby ghost town, Franklin, was abandoned after a disaster in 1894. The mines closed in the early twentieth century, and today the town is a quiet place of old frame buildings, a railroad museum and a famous bakery.

   Read the complete Chuckanut Drive write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 312 km.