Go on a bike ride

A colleague sent this to me. Unfortunately, I don't have a source to cite.

Location: Southeast Seattle
Distance: 9.2 miles

You don't need to leave Seattle to get a great view of Mount Rainier from an off-street bike trail. Look no further than the new Chief Sealth Trail atop Beacon Hill in south Seattle. With its grand opening on May 12, 2007, it is a great route for spying the big mountain from a paved city trail. Plus, the trail gets you close to a couple of the city's wonderful parks.

This 3.6 mile bike trail winds through scenic stretches of South Seattle and very close to a couple of the city's best parks.(BILL THORNESS)

Lay your wheels on the pavement by Jefferson Park Golf Course on Beacon Avenue South, a mile and a half south of the I-90 and I-5 interchange at the edge of downtown Seattle. Ride the broad, tree-lined street for a half-mile to the trail's start at South Dawson Street. It's easy to find: Just look overhead for the massive electrical power lines.

The Ride | Directions

Terrain: rolling hills
Surface: paved trail, city streets
Riding time: allow 1.5 hours
Best time to ride: any

The 3.6-mile trail is built on City Light right-of-way with fill from Sound Transit excavation, so you ride beneath and between two rows of massive girder structures nearly the entire route. Imagine your own 1950s sci-fi film as you pedal the curves and grassy hills beneath the behemoths. On clear days, Mount Rainier rises majestically beyond the towers and cables.

The two-mile north section of the trail is less hilly and more secluded. At South Othello Street, that section ends, and riders must jog a half-block east, then cross Othello into the New Holly housing development. (Continuing east on Othello, you would reach Seward Park Avenue South in one mile; go left there and follow the signs to Seward Park for one more mile. Reverse that route to return to the trail.)

To find the 1.6-mile south trail segment, cross Othello at the four-way stop at Holly Park Drive South and continue on Holly Park. Turn right at 39th Avenue South and rejoin the trail in 0.4 miles. It comes out briefly next to Martin Luther King Jr. Way South alongside the Thistle P-Patch. Turn left at South Henderson Street to cross MLK, then rejoin the trail on the south side of Henderson in a half-block.

Chief Sealth ends at 51st Avenue South and South Gazelle Street, tantalizingly close to the botanical wonderland called Kubota Garden Park, a verdant, Japanese-inspired, 4.3-acre public garden. It is an exercise in calmness to walk its graveled paths or sit on the large stones beside its streams or ponds.

To reach the garden from the end of the Chief Sealth Trail, turn right onto 51st and ride 0.5 miles to a left turn onto South Creston Street. Take Creston two blocks to 55th Avenue South, then turn left again and ride 0.3 miles downhill to the garden's entrance. To return, rather than tackle the steep climb on 55th, exit the garden onto Renton Avenue South, turn left and ride north 0.5 miles to 51st Avenue South. Turn left onto 51st and climb the 0.4-mile medium-challenge grade back to Gazelle.

The trail ride and visit to Kubota comprise a 10-mile trip with many short hill climbs. Lengthen your tour with a side trip and a picnic: Shop the Asian markets at the intersection of Columbian Way and Beacon Avenue as you start your ride, or cycle an extra 0.6 miles south on Beacon to get a delectable barbecue sandwich from Willie's Taste of Soul at Beacon and Graham. Extend the ride significantly with a side trip to Seward Park or a ride along Lake Washington Boulevard north from Seward. Any combination of routes will offer a pleasant visit to the neighborhoods of south Seattle.

Directions: Take I-5 to the Columbian Way exit, turn left at the first light on Spokane Street, take the second right on Beacon Avenue South and travel a quarter-mile to parking.

Seattle Summer Guide

Great resource from the Seattle Times.

Mr. Gore comes to Washington

Al Gore was in Seattle yesterday.

Seattle Times summary of his town hall meeting here.

And the podcast of his appearance on Steve Scher's Weekday is here.

From Brier Dudley's Blog: Top 10 Reasons to Invest in Seattle

From Brier Dudley's Seattle Times Blog today:

Top 10 reasons to invest in Seattle: A Silicon Valley perspective
Posted by Brier Dudley at 03:22 PM

Here's the list that Larry Orr, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, shared at today's WSA Investment Forum.

Orr is managing partner at Trinity Ventures, a firm that made three notable home runs in Seattle by investing in BlueNile, Wall Data and Starbucks.
More recently it funded Jobster, PayScale, Wetpaint, Centeris and a fifth company that hasn't been announced yet.

The list:

10. 39 flights a day from the Bay Area.

9. No need to pack sunscreen.

8. It's the coffee, stupid. (He presented a graph showing that human enlightenment rises as the density of espresso outlets increases; the line began with the "rest of the world" then rose to Bay Area, then Italy and finally Seattle).

7. People can afford to live here. "This is on a relative basis,"' he explained, showing a supporting graphic with two houses: One was a 1,090-square-foot ranch house in the Bay Area selling for $889,000; the other was a two-story, 4,100-square-foot Seattle area home selling for the same price.

6. You can see an NFL playoff game. (This was accompanied by a photo of the Seahawks playing the Carolina Panthers). Orr added that in the Bay Area, you can see a Major League Baseball playoff game, a National Hockey League playoff and an NBA playoff.

5. Underserved venture market. "If you were to look at the average size of venture firms, funds here tend to be more modest in size." Why don't more Bay Area VCs focus on the Seattle area? They're lazy or too busy; they don't know the community well; and some Seattle companies seeking funding don't seem as "packaged for VC consumption."

4. Quality companies with domain expertise. Orr called out software, wireless and Internet expertise, and the confluence around those three areas.

3. Technical talent. "There is a deep bench for technical talent here, provided they're not all hired by Google. There are few left to be hired by other folks."
Engineers are also less expensive, compared with the Bay Area: Base salary for a software engineer with five to nine years experience is $92,000 down there and $79,000 in the Seattle area. "I think you get somewhat more bang for your engineer buck here."

2. Great local partners. "We get a lot of referrals from people here,"' Orr said, explaining that investors in Seattle seem to "actively welcome" syndication and in particular we feel very welcome as a Bay Area firm.

1. Entrepreneurial values. The Seattle area "hasn't gotten so big you've threatened to lose sight of some of these values."

Those values include substance over form, referring back to the "packaged for funding" notion under No. 5. Another value is "relationship orientation" -- companies recognize it's a small world. The third that he mentioned is capital efficiency -- "I think firms here do a better job generally keeping these rounds to a moderate size."

Orr said he toyed with adding an 11th reason to his list: "The halibut at Etta's Seafood."

Seattle Times on KEXP

Great piece in today's Seattle Times about one of our great local radio stations, KEXP. I hadn't known about the Paul Allen connection.

Lest you think I'm too hip, I admit that my dial rarely leaves the public radio/NPR station.

Cycling in Seattle

You've gotta love this town.

"The goal is simple: to make Seattle the best bicycling city in the
nation." -Mayor Greg Nickels