Critical Lass rides Ballard-Seattle Center-Ballard Loop

Grab yourself a coffee before we ride: arrive early and pop across the street to Ballard Coffee Works or Cupcake Royale (we recommend the Cupcake Royale Hot Salty Mess for a dose of espresso and ice cream…though remember this is a social-paced ride and your legs might spin a little faster than normal if you consume something so magical).

Our route will take us along the Ballard Greenway, where we’ll point out the spot where for first time, two neighborhood greenways will connect later this year, then the Missing Link two-way bikeway, Burke-Gilman Trail, Fremont Bridge bike counter, Lake Union Park (where we can ride or run through the spray park if it’s too hot out), and the new Mercer green bike lanes.

We’ll take a short break at the Seattle Center for photos and hopefully find an outside ice cream vendor.

The second half of our loop will take us over the West Thomas Street Overpass and down the the beautiful waterfront and Elliott Bay Trail. We’ll walk our bikes through the Ballard Locks and our timing will probably be such that we’ll see and hear the concert of the day—Eastside Modern Jazz Orchestra starts performing at 2pm.

Then onward to Peddler Brewing Company to hang in their NEW BEER GARDEN. It’s so lovely out back with seating, games, beer, and food trucks.

This is our full route, about 13 miles all together.

About Critical Lass
Critical Lass is an easy-paced, social bike ride for women.

Our aim is to get more Seattle women biking and we encourage both new and experienced riders to come along. We don’t want to create any barriers to your getting out there so if you need to bring kids or friend who does not qualify as a “lass” along, please do so! We ask that children be bike-ily attached to parent or guardian (trailer, bike seat, trail-a-bike, tandem bike, you get the drift…).