I ride the interurban often. It's not spectacular scenery, it's not a thrilling route. It is a decent functional route, and frankly I should be happy to have it. Where I live there are 3 major cycling trails (or linear parks as I like to think of them) I can get to easily from home. We have the Burke Gillman trail that follows the Seattle, Lakeshore and Eastern Railway. the Sammamish River trail which also sort of follows the SLS&E, and finally the Interurban trail that follows (mostly) the line the old Interurban trolly.
The Burke Gillman is nice, but very heavily used as is the Sammamish River trail. The interurban gets less traffic. Possibly because it isn't as scenic, possibly because it has more elevation gain. In any event there aren't as many people on the Interurban, so I tend to ride there.
I was taking a easy ride and thinking about why I ride here so often. It doesn't really go anyplace special, there aren't great views, and thats when it dawned on me. I ride there because it does't go anywhere and there aren't great views. The reasons it's not as popular are the reasons I choose to ride there.
There are also some kind of intriguing oddities. I spotted this road sign from the trail:
It's funny because there's so much stuff in America named Kossuth, and I don't think we understand why. So as you ride along the Interurban next time remember that here on the Interurban is a tribute to a fighter for democracy from almost 200 years ago.
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