Biking on Vashon

By Elias Canterbury, Reporter

Being stuck inside all day can get pretty claustrophobic, and you probably feel the need to get out and do something. If you find yourself feeling this way, cycling can be a great option for exercise and just general leisure.

There are plenty of wonderful trails and routes to bike all over Vashon. Even if you live in Seattle, the new Stay Healthy streets make great open paths for you to enjoy a nice bike ride. Here’s a list of wonderful places to go for a ride around Vashon.

Frog Holler is a fun ride through a beautiful forest and without many steep grades. It’s perfect if you’re looking for a fun but pretty casual ride. Frog Holler is also right next to Inspiration Point so you’ve got a wonderful place to end your ride.

Island Center Forest has a quite extensive network of trails. I haven’t biked there recently, so I don’t know the current state of the trails and how fun of a ride it is, but it seems like a pretty good choice if you’re looking for a lot of trails to explore and some nice places to relax, like Fisher Pond.

If you’re looking for a destination rather than an area to ride, Maury Island Marine Park might be the right spot for you. It’s got wonderful views and can be reached from pretty much anywhere on Vashon or Maury. However, if you’re on the north end, you may want to look for a different destination, unless you’re up for a long ride.

The Gravel Pits, just like the Maury Island Marine Park, is a wonderful destination, and the trails surrounding it are fun too. In my opinion, the reward of getting there and enjoying wandering around makes it an optimal place to have as the destination of a ride rather than as the ride itself.

Dockton Forest has tons of trails dedicated to mountain biking. because of this, Dockton Forest is absolutely perfect for an exhilarating and fun ride. They have different trails at different levels of technicality and are right next to the Gravel Pits, so you could very easily also hit these trails on a ride to the Gravel Pits.

If you live in Seattle, biking on Vashon may not be practical. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any options. A large portion of West Seattle is open to cyclists, and Seattle has recently closed some streets to cars and made them strictly for cyclists and pedestrians for their Stay Healthy Streets program. These would make a perfect place for cycling.

Overall, my personal recommendation is to just ride wherever is convenient and fun for you. You can ride a bike nearly anywhere and still enjoy it.