just curious to get info. are there alot of riders up there, if so when does the season start and end. What are the goods lakes and the ones to stay away from? Thanks for the info... <BR>

i moved from sacramento to seattle a couple years ago. seattle's awesome and all, but for riding, it's not the best place in the world (not if 95% of your riding was at the delta and/or sac river). if you like riding the sac river, there's something similar to it about 3 hours east of seattle, but the water's freakin' cold! <BR> <BR>lake washington's good...in the winter, where air temps can be in the 30s to the 50s and water temps in the low to mid 40s. <BR> <BR>lake sammamish is good in the morning (butt crack of dawn) and in the winter (temps same as above). <BR> <BR>lake meridian, is small, but it's good during the week. <BR> <BR>if you're like me and need smooth water to ride, your only options could be early morning riding during the season, winter riding, or making trips out east.

havent really had to the chance to ride the delta but I spend 80% of my time in the sac river cause folsom just gets so packed.

how bout summer?

Summer you gotta go east of the mountains to find good water consistently. Just 2 hours east of seattle is Vantage on the Columbia River at I-90. Good riding all over the columbia river. I typically ride may (wetsuit) through october. If you have a drysuit you can ride year round in seattle. Summers in seattle you have to wake up early to get good water.

I would be up in the whidbey island area, anyhting close by there?

Just my opinion, but I don't think it's quite as difficult to get good riding in as some people above have made it out to be. Sure, you're more likely to have Lake Washington or Sammamish to yourself in the winter, but I ride from the end of February to the beginning of November and I find plenty of butter in various places at various times of the day and week. Obviously in the middle of the summer it's going to be a little choppy on the weekends, no getting around that. But during the week, you can get butter in the morning and during the day if you're lucky enought to not have to work. I go in early so I can get off work at 2:30 and be out on the water by 3:00 with pretty good riding until the after work crowd shows up. Then I break for dinner and cruise out for later evening runs where the tower lights come in handy to get that extra bit of riding when everyone else has gone in or stopped riding. On Sammamish you'll have to find the good spots for yourself, it's not that big so they're not that hard to find. On Lake Washington, Juanita Bay and Kenmore are your best bets, everywhere else is a gamble in my opinion.

Kenny, <BR>You won't want to go south to Seattle for crammed lakes and rough water there are plenty of lakes just north of Whidbey with great water to ride on that are not crowded.

can I ride in summer w/o wetsuit or is it still pretty cold? and about how long to drive to each of these lakes?

You can ride a couple of months in the summer without a wetsuit. Lake WA water temps this year were in the 70s from June through August.

This year I rode shorts May through Oct. Lake Whatcom got to about 79 in the end of June and held untill September before it started dropping Lake Samish and Big Lake are warmer normally than Lake Whatcom. Big Lake is the closest to Whidbey probably 25 minutes and is located in Mount Vernon Lake Samish and Whatcom are probably 45 minutes from Whidbey and are located in Bellingham.