Snohomish County sees the Centennial Trail as not just a great place to walk and bike, but as a way to connect communities and explore the area’s history.
That’s according to the county’s fancy new website for the trail, which now stretches from the Skagit County border to the City of Snohomish.
Snohomish County recently approved purchase of more rail corridor that could see the trail stretch all the way to King County and connect to the planned Eastside Rail Corridor Trail and the Burke-Gilman/Sammamish River Trails.
History is one of the coolest parts about biking or walking on many rail trails. After all, most the railroads came before the highways, and many of these early transportation corridors became fairly hidden from view as businesses and residences oriented toward roads instead. So not only are the rail beds relatively flat and have few points of conflict with cars, they are also a great way to better know the place you live.
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10 responses to “Snohomish County sees its Centennial Trail as a link to the region’s history”
This is an awesome trail (and I love going for food afterwards in Snohomish).
If it were accessible without needing a car, I would come much more often than once every few years.
Indeed. This is a great trail and I ride it all the time.
I live in the Kingsgate neighborhood of Kirkland (near Evergreen hospital) and I ride 20 miles just to get to the start of it in Snohomish. I drop down to the Sammamish Valley Trail, cut underneath to the Bothell UW campus, and take the back roads of Mill Creek to get there in what is a fairly popular route on MapMyRide.com.
But I’m in agreement here. This trail is really great… particularly north of Machias.
My usual way of riding the Centennial is taking the train to Stanwood and riding back to Seattle. I’ll be so so happy if/when the Woodinville/Snohomish connection is made.
Stanwood is quite a bit west of the Cenenntial trail. How do get between them? A quick look at the map doesn’t find any remotely direct route that doesn’t put yourself right in the path of all the cars trying to get to or from I-5.
I’ve been thinking about taking the Amtrak up to Mt. Vernon, though, and doing a one-way ride to Seattle from there. It does require taking highway 9 for about 6 miles just north of the Skagit County line. Hopefully, that far north, traffic won’t be too bad. This particular stretch has nothing around it but trees.
Is there a decent connection from the N end of the Interurban trial to the start of the Centenial Trail in Snohomish? I would love to have a decent route from my home in N Seattle to Arlington.
Snohomish River Road is usually what I use…and while it’s not that pleasant, at least it’s flat. The connection to the Interurban is at 52nd/Broadway in Everett, and the ride between there and Snohomish is just over 6 miles and pancake flat except for the the last 1/4 mile up to Broadway…which is insanely steep.
I’ve ridden out there – nice area; will have to try the new section!
It’s an extra 4 miles of bliss. And coming shortly, the City of Arlington will have completed the mile or so through the city making this a dedicated 31 mile rail path. They are finishing up this last bit of construction and there will be zero road riding required (if you are interested).
Find the details here: http://www.67thave.org/
Well, the stage is set to have a N/S trail that runs from Canada to Oregon!
In some ways riding these trails is boring because they are “flat” but I took the kids on them for years before they left the house. It’s not that we didn’t ride some roads to get familiar with traffic but that my level of riding shepherd on the pack is way down when we were on a car less trail.
Way to go!
[…] huge swaths of Snohomish county to bicycle transportation and travel. In fact, the county has been promoting bicycle tourism with some help from WA Bikes in recent years, a sign that they understand the incredible […]