Wide tires the ticket for new Eastside trail

There seemed to be just enough room to the left of the King County maintenance vehicles on the East Lake Sammamish Trail to get by on my bicycle.

There wasn't.

Instead, there was a patch of loose gravel that had my skinny road-bike tires going one way and me going the other until balance was lost and I was down in perhaps the stupidest accident to date on the trail that opened in March. It took less than a half-mile on the 11-mile trail — and a noninjury sprawl in the gravel — to tell me this was no place for a road bike with narrow tires. Smarter, more rational bicyclists just hear the word "gravel" and know that. But I found out the hard way that until the trail is paved, it's a place best suited to walkers, runners and riders of bikes with wider tires.

"It's a great place to run," said John Makarchuk of Seattle, who was out on the trail. "It's nice and flat."

If you do take a bicycle — even one with wider tires — ride below the 15 mph speed limit, stay in the packed tracks left by the maintenance vehicles and watch closely for gravel. You'll be tempted to take your eyes off the track to look at the lake, the wetlands and the houses. Don't do it. If you want to gawk, stop and walk.

I'd say stop and sit a spell, but there aren't any places to do that. I never saw a bench along the trail. But they are on their way, said Robert Nunnenkamp with King County Parks and Recreation.

"Benches are being constructed ... out of salvaged rails and salvaged madrona wood," Nunnenkamp wrote in an e-mail. "Those will be installed when finished."

Keep it movin'

For now, there seems to be an underlying message of "keep moving" along the trail.

Perhaps that comes from knowing that many homeowners along the trail fought for years to keep it from opening where it did. Or maybe it's all the signs that say, "No Trail Access" or "Stay on Trail; Land beyond the Improved Trail Bed is not Open to the Public." Or maybe it's the fences.

"We noticed the electrified fences," joked Luci Abbrederis, who was out of the trail with Makarchuk.

The black, chain-link fences are not really electrified. They were part of the mitigation with property owners to make sure there was only limited access through locked gates to certain areas.

Some homeowners have built their own solid fences to retain some privacy. While they block lake views, there are plenty of other places to see the lake and the homes.

The trail has not stopped home construction in the area, and several new ones are being built.

Newcomers will never know what was lost, says Vicki Beres, whose home of 30 years is separated from the beach by the trail.

"Public use of private property is not a pleasant situation," she said, noting that she and her husband are waiting for compensation after a favorable ruling in federal court.

"I would love to have the trail behind me instead of through my yard," she said. "For us, it's a matter of principles, and we're willing to see it through to the end."

Gail Phillips has lived for 16 years just north of Lake Sammamish State Park, and the trail goes behind her house. She likes it.

"I wish it had been here when my kids were young," she said.

She didn't like how the trail came to be, wishing the government "had mitigated with property owners from the beginning."

But she has found the trail users respectful and nice.

"I also get to see a lot of my neighbors," she said as she walked her dog along the trail, which has many "pet stations" supplied with plastic bags and trashcans for waste disposal.

Future plans

On my visits, I found the trail clean and well maintained — thanks to the crews in those maintenance vehicles blocking my path. Nunnenkamp said crews empty garbage cans and pick up litter each week. Other tasks such as weed control, mowing and ditch work are done as needed, he said.

Despite her comment on the fences, Abbrederis said she thought she would like living along the trail. She is from Seattle but owns a home on the west side of Lake Sammamish and attended some of the meetings before the opening of the trail.

"It could be like the Strand in L.A.," she said, referring to the trail that goes through several beach communities in Southern California. "Why not share this with others?"

Out for a weekend walk, she was surprised more people weren't using the trail.

"Maybe they have concerns about parking," she theorized.

Parking is limited. Except for the state park near the south end of the trail and the area around the county's Marymoor Park near Redmond, there aren't many choices. Most of the roads crossing the trail are driveways and are marked "No Trail Access."

Plans are to pave the trail, but Nunnenkamp said that is a few years away. An environmental-impact statement needs to be drafted, public comments taken, design work done and then construction, probably in several phases.

But when the paving is completed, those who ride road bikes won't need parking or vehicles to use the trail. We'll be able to start on the Burke-Gilman Trail in Seattle, hook up with the Sammamish River Trail in Woodinville and ride to Issaquah on the new trail. From there, perhaps a cross-Cascade trail will beckon.

For my sake, let's hope it's paved as well.

John B. Saul, a former Seattle Times editor, lives in Shoreline.