CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A rider’s loop: clean exit, memorable middle, calm return. A 496 km loop that starts and ends near Seattle, about 6 h 31 of riding. It goes by way of Riverbend, Leavenworth and Wenatchee. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Seattle runs on water. The city is squeezed between Puget Sound on the west and Lake Washington on the east, and is cut through by canals and bridges, so that every day involves a shore of some kind. Elliott Bay holds the working waterfront, with the ferry terminal at Colman Dock and the old piers, and ferries still carry commuters and tourists to Bainbridge Island and Bremerton, past a skyline that looks best from the deck.
Fans of Twin Peaks will recognise the landscape. The television series was filmed partly in North Bend and nearby Snoqualmie, a few kilometres from the point, and the forests, the mountains and the misty river valley gave the show much of its brooding atmosphere. Mount Si, a steep, rocky peak, looms over the town, and a famous diner still serves cherry pie and coffee to pilgrims from all over the world.
In the early 1960s, Leavenworth was a dying town. The railway had moved its operations elsewhere, the sawmill had closed, and the main street was full of empty shops. So the townspeople came up with a bold idea: they would remodel the whole town in the style of a Bavarian village, to attract tourists. It worked. Today Leavenworth pulls in visitors by the coachload from all over Washington, with half-timbered buildings, painted façades, beer halls, sausage shops and an Oktoberfest that draws huge crowds. It is gloriously kitsch, and it does not take itself too seriously.
Wenatchee calls itself the Apple Capital of the World, and the claim is not idle: the hills around the town, along the Columbia and Wenatchee rivers, are covered in orchards of apples, pears and cherries, irrigated with water from the rivers in an otherwise dry landscape. In spring, the orchards are a sea of blossom; in autumn, the trees are heavy with fruit, and the fruit stands along the roads sell crisp apples and fresh cider.
Return visit. Read the place description above.