Spent the Solstice refining my Seattle grand tour bike loop. There’s still a ways to go, but the cycling infrastructure in this town is massively improved.

The Solstice Parade gave me an excuse to take another crack at a loop that covers all the best bits of biking within Seattle city limits. I don’t know West Seattle well enough to traverse it safely and pleasantly on a bike, so that bit of out-and-back is kind of disappointing.

By the numbers:

• 55+ miles (including the not-pictured spur to my home)
• 2000+ feet of climb (ditto)
• Uncounted naked cyclists
• Uncounted blissed-out, fully clothed cyclists
• Innumerable Lime scooter/bike novices that were obviously having too much fun moving their bodies outside for me to fret about the safety and parking concerns
• 1 Dambo troll
• 1 fish in the windows at the ladder
• 2 freshly reopened waterfront parks
• 2 World Cup watch party spaces with apparently nothing at all going on
• 0 skaters spotted at the skatepark under 99 — this thing looks awesome, but seems to be always vacant. Is it a victim of its trailblazer status like the Colonnade is for bikes?
• 1 suspected Saint Rat piece
• 4 phyla of life, deep fried (Sunfish)
• 0 interesting specimens found in the tide pools south of Alki, but we had to keep one eye on the bikes
• 1 dumpster that I was pretty sure at first said “METH BIN” on the phone-recommended (and factually incorrect) route from the Spokane Street Bridge to Georgetown
• 2 shockingly good short intermediate singletrack mountain bike runs (Cheasty)
• 1 boulevard immeasurably improved by its summer weekend closure to cars
• 1 small child visibly blown away by my (basic) level of hands-free steeze on LWB
• 3 immaculately perfect winding downhill cruise segments