It's finally happening - The long-awaited East Lake Sammamish Bike Trail is going in! As of December 29, 2003, approximately two miles of the southern portion of the trail from Issaquah and a mile of the northern portion from the Marymoor entrance road have been laid in gravel with wooden fences bordering the trail. A few days of clear weather for the paving crew and we'll be all over it! It remains to be seen whether the disputed section in the middle will go through now or not, but for the time being, this is progress.

December 30, 2003

It's Blacktop Time

What's up with the East Lake Sammamish Bike Trail, anyway? Several years after having been purchased by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (using donations from people like us) for the express purpose of building a bike trail, the old railroad grade on the eastern shore of Lake Sammamish lies dormant and covered with gravel, trailers, and RV's. A residents' group has, for the present, succeeded in blocking construction of the trail by claiming ownership of the railway bed. They are, in effect, claiming "squatter's rights" owing to having parked their vehicles there for years, when in fact such "homestead rights" were phased out of the American vernacular years ago.

A friend of ours and riding partner recently was involved in a serious accident on the Parkway, hitting an poorly protected and marked ditch head-on, snapping his forks and falling heavily on the pavement, breaking his back at the T4 vertebra and inducing nerve damage that affected his arm, hand and leg movement. His face was ground down to bare flesh over most of the left side, and four teeth were broken off. His recovery will involve having holes drilled in his skull and hanging a ten pound weight from his head to keep his spine straight, with multiple weeks of stationary bed rest. Time will tell if he will recover the ability to move his hands and legs, or ride his bike or snowboard again.

Would this accident had happened at all if the East Lake Sammamish Bike Trail were complete? How many other cyclists have been injured by fast moving vehicular traffic on the Parkway? Perhaps it is time to tell the shore dwellers where to put it and get on with the construction of a proper trail. We even promise not to spit on their lawns or pee in their rhododendrons.