Centennial Trail Snohomish to Lake Stevens

Saturday, October 15, 2011

While Joe was off enjoying the Rhine Valley of Germany on his own, I decided to go for another long bike ride. I only had about 2 hours of prime sunlight this afternoon so I drove over to Snohomish to ride on the Centennial Trail, the top biking spot in our county (north of Seattle).

The trail starts about 2 miles north of historic Snohomish. The trail quickly enters farmland. There are cows grazing on grass 10 feet to your right and horse ranches providing scenic backdrops.

In Machias, there was a parking lot with horse trough and playground. I think this is where I would begin the ride again so I would get to see more of the trail. 

As the trees began to clear for open fields, the Cascade Mountains come into view.

The leaves have begun to change.

I past Lake Stevens Community Park on the south side of the lake. I wanted to ride as far as the center of Lake Stevens before turning around at 1 hour of riding mark. By the time I took my phone out to check where I was on the map with the GPS, I realized I had gone all the way the northern road of Lake Stevens.

More farmland.

There were fuzzy caterpillars crawling all over the trail. I hate thinking about how many little guys didn’t make it across the 6 foot wide trail.

Horses.

You can often find hot air balloons floating above the Snohomish valley. I think this will have to continue to be a dream of mine to go up in one. They run $215/person for a sunset flight for 45-60 minutes! Maybe skydiving is a better option!

Even the drive home was beautiful. Although the sun is setting in the west over the Pacific Ocean, the  colors were still reflected onto the Cascade Mountains to the east of the Snohomish valley.

It wasn’t until I made it home and mapped my route to see I topped last week’s biking distance, at 16.7 miles.

I’m getting really excited for fall to see all the leaves change more. The best part of this upcoming fall is my parents and little brother are coming to visit for Thanksgiving. I can’t wait for you guys to get here!