Bicycling along the Cedar River Trail between Renton and Maple Valley, I often pass this old two-story building across the road that's home to a compost and landscape material business.
It's the biggest and most imposing structure in the suburbs that are sprawling into the rural area between the two towns, and I always thought that it was the former site of a school, or a county jail or something.
When I took the time to ask at the Renton History Museum a few weeks ago, I learned it's another remnant of the once-lucrative coal mining industry that drove commerce in the hills east of Seattle …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/03/biking-past-coal-industry-landmarks-april-ride-stats/
Pacific Coast Coal Co. administrative building between Maple Valley and Renton. King Couny landmarks
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/03/old-picture-of-pacific-coast-coal-co/
Old Pacific Coast Coal Co. headquarters between Renton and Maple Valley
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/03/coal-company-headquarters/
A 1952-vintage Schwinn bicycle that carried Donald Deer and his family all around Evansville for a half-century was stolen from outside a McDonald's recently.
While that Schwinn might be a museum piece for some, it was just a way to get around town for Deer, 64.
The local newspaper tells how Deer won the bicycle as a fourth grader by penning the winning fire safety slogan (Fire prevention week is OK, but let's make it a practice every day)…
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/02/stolen-bike-carries-56-years-of-memories/
Man's Schwinn stolen in Evansville, Indiana. “Man free-wheeling days screech to a halt…”
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/02/donald-deer-and-grandson/
Update: May 2, 2008 — Why were they chosen?
Two outstanding communities for bicycling on the Olympic Peninsula — Bainbridge Island and Port Townsend — have been named among the 11 new Bicycle Friendly communities by the League of American Bicyclists.
The others are Colorado Springs and Durango, Colorado, and Minneapolis, Minnesota (all silver level), and Arcata, California, Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlottesville, Virginia, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Oxford, Mississippi, and Sitka, Alaska (bronze).
Seattle cyclists are familiar with Bainbridge Island for hosting February's Chilly Hilly bike ride, above, when more than 4,000 bicycle riders take the ferry and jam up a 33-mile loop around the island.
Port Townsend, also a ferry stop on the Olympic Peninsula, is a destination for bike touring enthusiasts who enjoy stress-free rural roads. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/01/two-washington-communities-among-11-new-bicycle-friendly-towns/
If you're a bicycle commuter, or would like to be, May is certainly your month.
Communities across the US are sponsoring bike-to-work activities in May to urge people out of their cars and onto their bikes. In many places that support evaporates quickly, but by then it's hoped that commuters have been inspired to ride their bikes regularly.
Many month-long bike commuter contests begin today. Other dates to remember are National Bike Week from May 12 – 16, and Bike to Work Day on May 16 (other dates in some locales). Check the League of American Bicyclists Bike Month Events page for local listings.
Seattle-based Cascade Bicycle Club is sponsoring events in May, featuring the month-long Group Health Commute Challenge, Vulcan Bike to Work Breakfast, May 7, and the Starbucks Bike-to-Work Day, 6-9 a.m., May 16, when 40 stations are set up around the Puget Sound to help bicyclists get to work …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/01/its-may-national-bike-month/
Five dads are pedaling out of Lansing, Michigan, this August to begin a five-day, 758-mile bicycle tour to Washington DC.
That might not be an epic bike ride, but these guys who will be riding 150 miles a day aren't exactly ultra-athletes. And they'll be tackling some challenging terrain as they pass through Pennsylvania.
The five are undertaking the Equal Parenting Bike Trek to call attention to the need for children to have equal time with both parents, who are willing and fit, after a divorce. They maintain that parents also have the right for equal time with their children …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/01/dads-bicycling-for-equal-rights-for-divorced-parents/
Cyclist poses on a pass. See more at Equal Parenting Bike Trek.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/05/01/2006-equal-parenting-bike-trek/
Trail supporters to meet Thursday in Kirkland
The Cascade Bicycle Club is rallying support to preserve a future abandoned rail bed as a main link for off-road bicycle travel through Renton, Newcastle, Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland.
In a scheme that gets more complicated as time goes on, the Port of Seattle plans to buy the 42-mile Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad right-of-way for future use as a commuter corridor with rail and a hike-bike trail. The devil is in the details, though, as the Port wants the rail line to have priority over the trail, while King County wants the uses “coequal.”
Cascade warns that the Port's position leaves the possibility of a trail in doubt.
“However, the Port of Seattle and the King County Council’s latest plan would give the Port of Seattle veto authority over a future trail, and subordinates trail construction to any “transportation use” – which does not include bicycle commuters on a trail.” …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/04/30/preserving-a-western-washington-railroad-for-a-bike-trail/
Adventure Cycling Association Trail biking Rails to Trails Conservancy League of American Bicyclists
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