Sammamish River Trail - Redmond, WA

Taking advantage of the day off work, I decided to round up my sister and our bikes and travel back to a recently familiar location that has quickly become one of my favorites. A couple of weeks ago, my mom and I ran a four mile race at Marymoor Park in the very nice city of Redmond. My mom asked for some support, so I thought “what the heck? why not run the 5k (as I was told before learning it was going to be just a little longer in actuality) with her?” I had been sick for almost a week by now, but I didn’t let the amount of snot coming out of my nose or my lack of voice damper my mom’s day. So, with a dreaded early wake up call on a crisp Saturday morning, we made our way to the park and to the registration table to pick up our race bib and t-shirt. Coincidentally, BuDu Racing was timing the eight mile race, so I chatted (as best as I could) and introduced my mom to Rory and Deanna Muller, the best bosses I could ask for! Upon beginning the race, my mom and I decided to pace each other (even though she is much, MUCH faster than me) and just enjoy the race and each other’s company. The scenery was so lovely, running along the river and the beautiful buildings made it so much fun! The whole race I just kept thinking about bringing my bike out here and just going for miles to explore this trail. Running is not my favorite, so re-doing this on my bike warmed my heart just a little faster than the thought of pounding pavement again.


And then the day was here! Two weeks later, I finally was on my way back to explore even more of this intriguing trail and my sister had not been there prior, so she was the perfect person to bring along. Piling the bikes in the back of her new (to her) 2000 Jeep Cherokee, we set off with a pack full of snacks, bike pump, helmets and some old cassette tapes we found in the attic. Let me explain, because if you are reading this I guarantee you are playing that game of finding which thing doesn’t belong with the others. And you would be right! Our Spice Girl cassette does not belong with the bike gear. Ding ding ding - we have a winner! But seriously, we found them because Emily’s car has a cassette tape player and we wanted to see if it still worked, along with bringing back some memories with a little “Last Time Lover” and “Mama,” both of which are never going to be played again in that Jeep Cherokee.


With such a great driver at the wheel and almost-accurate directions on my iPhone, we arrived at our destination! Just upon entering the park, there is a parking lot on the right hand side that is closest to the beginning of the trail and only costs one dollar for the entire day. We parked and Emily got the bikes out of the car while I went to the pay station to pay for our parking. Making sure we had everything, we were off!

Moving fast along the trail, we discovered that we were just one of many, many bike riders and families that were taking advantage of the day off, and it was nice to see so many people out and about. Passing the two mile turnaround spot for that prior race, I was determined to keep moving into undiscovered trail territory. Emily was lagging a bit, so with a couple stops and starts, it turned into more of a “leisure” ride, so I had to dial down my Border Collie-like enthusiasm for speed and mileage.


We finally made it to this old, red-iron bridge crossing the river and probably into another trail, so we made this our turnaround spot for today and I let Emily take a small break while I made it a photo- op. From looking at the signs, I let Emily know that we were three miles into the trail, meaning we had three more on the way back. She sighed a huge sigh of exasperation, and continued to let me know of the numerous things she could have been doing on her day off of school instead of this dreaded activity. I snapped a photo of the whiny girl on the bridge and insisted that since I was obviously going “too fast” for her, she should get a head-start on riding back while I snap a couple of more photos for the blog. She grinned and her last words were “eat my dust” before pedaling off like a maniac for a quarter of a mile through the groups of people also on the trail.

The river was very peaceful, and the trail that continued on from where we were turning around looked to be a little less surrounded by apartment homes and buildings. There was also an off-road trail that led into a cluster of trees that sparked an interest, so I mentally made note of what to do next time I am back in Redmond with my bike.

(I was a happy camper.)


Heading back on the trail, it took me a couple of minutes before I spotted Emily still pounding away at her pedals, with nervous glances back to check on my progress. I chuckled, and with some pounding of my own, caught up to the exhausted and defeated young sister of mine. I gave her some kudos for the hilarity of it all, but could tell she was ready to be back at the car. Spotting the butterfly garden up ahead, we took another break and this time, she brought out the reserves of energy bars I had in my pack. She munched on her Larabar, and we just sat there for a while observing the passerby's and realizing how tired we actually were. The garden was beautiful though, and as you can see - they pay people well to maintain it for visitors like us.

Long story short, we made it back to the parking lot, but we spotted a playground not too far in the distance and of course, HAD to go check it out. We rode down the paved service road before stumbling upon Emily’s favorite part of the trip - the concert stage! The empty stage was just sitting there, and in a matter of minutes Emily was up there running around, singing and exclaiming how she was meant to be on stage. Boy, such enthusiasm came out of nowhere and it was hilarious to watch her perk up so much and pretend to greet me as a fan with those cliche slow-touchy-hive-fives-that-aren’t-really-high-fives. I snapped a photo of the diva, and made my way onto the stage. Leading up to the stage was a strip of pavement, and soon Emily made that into a runway and showed the park just how to work it. Again- it was hilarious!

Slowly, I pried her away from her “destiny” and we piled the bikes back into the car and set off to grab some lunch at PCC Natural Markets (my favorite spot for gluten free chocolate chip cookies!). With some tasty food in our bellies, we set off for home and I must say, I think Emily enjoyed herself. I don’t think sleeping in is really worth it when you have so many things to explore- especially in the Pacific Northwest and western Washington alone! Now it’s time to plan where I will “drag” her to next...