The other day I poked around the Colonnade-- the famous, one-of-a-kind, mountain bike skills park under the I-5 freeway in Seattle, WA.
I was hoping (I was told) that there was a bit of riding for beginners as well as advanced. This is sort of true. The Limestone Loop, first photo below, is a skill-building half-mile cross-country loop. It was beyond me. I haven't really mastered the switchback. Challenges (albeit small) were being thrown at me so constantly, that if I didn't nail the first drop, I was going to screw up the next. I found that to be the theme of the park: JAM-PACKED.
The Tqalu trail is another feature-filled area of the park, presumably for beginners, which even featured signs explaining how to attempt each skill-- but the features were so brief, I wasn't sure that riding through a 3 foot sand box was really going to develop my skills for riding through sand.
The only feature I spent any time on was the low logs near the Lakeview entrance. Being alone and more interested in the cardio aspect of bicycle riding-- I got bored and walked around to snap photos instead.
Alas, before I sound unappreciative of such an amazing park-- this park is.. AMAZING. For any intermediate to advanced rider who likes to drop, jump, hop, balance and just free ride-- you will be in your ultimate playground. For someone like me, who needs to huff and puff between technical challenges to feel like I've been on a bike ride-- better to do a couple laps at Duthie.
