The Seattle Traveler

Biking Beneath the Freeway

by Mary Jo on December 27th, 2007

If you hung up your bike for the winter, get it out and enjoy some winter biking at the I-5 Colonnade Mountain Bike Park. 

Opened earlier in the fall, the  former stomping grounds for drug use, homeless camps, and a veritable repository of trash, the under the freeway location has been turned into the first-ever urban bike park gives mountain bikers a place to both learn and ride the different terrain typically encountered.  While not completely changing the freeway habitat, during the day, at least, it’s attracts a much more law-abiding element.

Named Colonnade, after the columns holding up the I-5 freeway, the park covers 2 acres, and has over a mile and a half of trails, plus a wide range of Technical Trail Features.  Although officially part of the City of Seattle Parks Department, the Colonnade was funded and built by the Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club (BBTC).

The Novice Area (Phase 1) is open and offers a half mile tight & twisty Cross Country loop trail with some intermediate/advanced options.  Features include:  tight switchbacks, ladder bridges, log rides, skinnies, steep rock chutes, teeter totters, rock step-ups, and a very cool long ladder bridge roller coaster that really bucks.

There are enough features and options that you can ride the trails and experience the features in hundreds of different ways.  Regulars can choose a different work out experience every day.  Remember to wear a helmet and know your skill level and limits.

The park is not yet completed, with Phase 2 under construction and slated to open next fall.  Phase 2 will focus on more flowy advanced trails and offer features like jumps, berms, wall rides, progressive drops, rock chutes, skinnies, pump track, trials area, and a couple of sessionable practice areas.

Location:  Colonnade is located between the Capitol Hill and Eastlake neighborhoods, under the I-5 freeway, below St Mark’s Cathedral, where Lakeview Boulevard runs underneath the freeway and turns into Boylston Avenue (map it).

Those interested in helping complete the project, can sign up for a work party.

Photo credit:  flickr

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