Road,  Road Routes

Six Lakes Ride

April 3, 2019 /
  • 33.5 miles
  • Mostly rolling hills with one big climb (at the start)

I feel like Lake Whatcom Boulevard doesn’t get enough credit for being a really nice road. It’s got ups, it’s got downs, big banked turns, and a water view. Its a bit of a mini-Chuckanut, really. This ride is mostly an excuse to do the boulevard. Of course, there are other ways to do it, but this one takes you by the most lakes. Six, in fact! Whatcom, Louise, Reed, Cain, Samish and Padden.

This ride leads you off with a pretty good up. Leaving from Fairhaven Park, you’ve only got a mile or so before you start going up the “steps” to Lake Padden (if you go left instead of right at the first T after the freeway, you can bypass a bit). The hill doesn’t really end and keeps going right up Yew Street. You can find ways around all of this, but why? The rest is mostly rolling hills until you have to climb up from Lake Samish.

Even though the shoulders aren’t always great, the roads are decent and traffic is light. The only part I find occasionally unpleasant is Cain Lake Road from Whatcom to Alger. The shoulder sucks and the pickups are zooming to the freeway.

TIP: You can definitely do this backwards and if you skip Yew and just stay on Lakeway and Samish, you can chop some elevation away.