This stretch of road might not be recognizable here, but many Seattle area recreational cyclists have no doubt ridden it.
This is a WSDOT photo of Route 202 between Fall City and Snoqualmie Falls taken Thursday after the ice storm swept through the area. (See a summer-time photo below.)
That icy coating followed a snowstorm that already had caused chaos on Puget Sound area roads. In addition to the slick roads, the freezing rain on top of snow weighed down trees that toppled across power lines and onto roads.
The conditions here led to the closure of Route 202 between towns of Fall City and Snoqualmie in the foothills of the Cascades. Elsewhere, the WSDOT flickr.com website has similar photos from Route 410, where road crews said they hadn't see so many fallen trees in more than a decade.
At right is a photo I took from Route 202 last summer on a ride up to Snoqualmie Falls and beyond to the Snoqualmie Tunnel on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail.
Back to normal
The work by road crews — coupled with warmer rain and above freezing temperatures — is helping to bring riding conditions back to normal this weekend.
On my bicycle ride on Saturday, for instance, I found a lot of bare pavement for riding. The problems of roadside snow, however, was evident in many locations, such as Coal Creek Parkway.
Road crews who cleared the road in Bellevue, Newcastle and unincorporated King County gave a pass to the bike lanes on the shoulder, giving a least a couple of feet of space for bicyclists.
In Renton, however, where the road changes its name to Duval Road, the four traffic lanes had been scraped clean but the snow was piled more than a foot deep in the bike lane. Another swipe could have made this route bicycle-friendly.
Bike cleaning
When all the snow melts, we'll find that the roadsides and bike lanes are loaded with cinders and sand spread during the snowstorm to improve traction.
If the past experience is any indicator, that's going to remain there well into the spring.
Here's a video that tells three quick and easy ways to clean your bike chain. You can skip around to find the one the suits you. The sand and cinders will quickly destroy a drivetrain. Also, check out Jim Langley's tutorial on bicycle cleaning.
Rain is in the forecast for at least the next four or five days, and I can't say that it bothers me. By now, we've all learned to deal with bike-riding in the rain.
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