I-5 Colonnade

Key Info

(technical difficulty)

(physical difficulty)

X-Country, Freeride

NW Washington

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Stats

1 miles total

50' elevation gain

100% single track

47.634902 lat.

-122.323279 long.

General

Overview:

I-5 Colonnade is the first ever urban mountain bike skills park. It's part of a City of Seattle park, but was funded and constructed by the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance (formerly Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club). The park features a novice area - the Tqalu Trail; an intermediate and advanced area - Limestone Loop; a dirt jumping section; pump track; trials area and more.

The Tqalu Trail

The Tqalu TTFs are in the range of 1 to 2 stars for technical difficulty.

Features:

Ladder bridge
Rock chute
Log rolls and skinnies

Limestone Loop

Offers a 1/2-mile tight'n'twisty Cross Country loop with several intermediate to advanced options. It's a great place to work on key skills by sessioning:

Tight switchbacks
Ladder bridges, log rides and skinnies
Steep rock chutes and technical rock rolls
Suspension bridge
Rock step-ups
A long ladder bridge roller coaster ride (be careful to keep your speed waaaay down... she bucks!)

The Limestone Loop TTFs are in the range of 2 to 4 stars for technical difficulty.

Advanced Area

Features:

More flowy advanced trails
Jumps, berms and wall rides
Long, narrow, elevated skinnies
Progressive and elevated drops
Steep rock chutes
Pump track
Trials area

The TTFs in the advanced area are just that - advanced. Prepare accordingly!

Typical Conditions:

Because Colonnade is primarily under the elevated spans of I-5, the surface of the main riding areas are mostly dusty and dry. However, there are several areas exposed to rain and a few trails under some new freeway leaks. When water hits the local moondust, things can get pretty slimy... so be careful after a heavy rain. Check things out first!

Skills classes are occasionally held at Colonnade; check the evergreen calendar for any upcoming events.

Note that Colonnade can eat up bikes and be quite challenging - it would be nuts to ride here without a helmet, and full face helmet and/or body armor is advised for the tricky areas.

Advocacy Info

2015 Colonnade Improvement Planning Project

More info:

Comments welcome. or

Navigation

How to Find It:

Colonnade is located between the Capitol Hill and Eastlake neighborhoods, under the I-5 freeway, more or less below St Mark's Cathedral. It's where Lakeview Blvd turns underneath the freeway and turns into Boylston Ave. There are multiple entrances, but the best for parking is on the east side of the park off of Lakeview Blvd E.

East-side / Lakeview-side Entrance: 1800 Lakeview Blvd E, Seattle, WA 98102 (Google/Yahoo maps will get you there). Parking is available on Lakeview Blvd.

Map for Lakeview Blvd entrance.

West-side / Eastlake-side Entrance: 1800 Franklin Ave E, Seattle, WA 98102 -- at the intersection of Franklin Ave E & E Blaine St. (Google/Yahoo maps will get you there). Limited parking is available on Franklin Ave and on some of the side-streets.

Map forFranklin Ave entrance.

If you're headed north on I-5, take exit 168A for Lakeview Blvd. Take a left onto Lakeview and immediately park on your left. The bike trails are on the west side of Lakeview.

If you're headed south on I-5, take exit 168A for Boylston Ave / Roanoke St. Merge onto Boylston and go straight at the light. Follow Boylston south, paralelling I-5, veer left under the freeway, and then park on your right.

Trailhead Map:

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Maps:

PDF Files:
Most of these files are GeoPDF maps. What is GeoPDF?

Recommendations for 2015 Colonnade Improvements

Project Info

Complete

Evergreen Project Overview:

The first ever urban mountain bike skills park, Collonade is part of a City of Seattle park, but was funded and constructed by Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance and our volunteers. The park features a novice area - the Tqalu Trail; an intermediate and advanced area - Limestone Loop; a dirt jumping section; pump track; trials area and more.

Colonnade is located just north of downtown between the Capitol Hill and Eastlake neighborhoods, under the I-5 freeway, more or less below St Mark's Cathedral. The area under the freeway was an urban wasteland of garbage, thorns, noxious weeds and homeless camps, with a steady stream of junkies and drug dealers.

Then two things happened: new construction and property values started shooting up all around the neighborhood and neighbors became increasingly concerned about the condition of the area and frustrated with the lack of safety; and Simon Lawton of Fluidride, a former pro DH racer turned skills coach who used to ride the abandoned area asked the key questions: How can we clean the area up, make it safer, and keep it that way? What if we could have formal/legal bike trails here?

The first phase was funded almost totally by donations from individuals and corporations. Once the neighbors and the city saw how good the park was for the community (cleaned up, safe to walk through, cleared of homeless and junkies, a center of enjoyment for people, etc.) we got a Neighborhood Grant for the 2nd Phase and the city matched our donations and volunteer contributions dollar for dollar, up to $75K. Our total budget was $150K including cash + the value of donated materials, volunteer labor and donated services.

Colonnade press:

Trip Report and lots of pictures on PinkBike
Flying high under I-5 at the new mountain bike park, Seattle Times, Sept 25, 2008. (Some nice pictures, too.)
BBTC's Colonnade Park Downtown Seattle, PinkBike.com, July 28, 2008.
Help build a bike park, UW Daily, January 16, 2008.
I-5 Colonnade Singletrack Cranked Magazine, April, 2007.
Mountain-bike club reclaims a wasteland Seattle P-I, March 28, 2007.
Colonnade Mountain Bike Park, From Wasteland to Mountain Bike Paradise. 2 pg case study in Managing Mountain Biking, IMBA'a Guide to Preserving Great Riding
Shredding it in Seattle: A park for mountain bikers Seattle Post Intelligencer, October 14, 2005.
Bikers to get an urban habitat Seattle Times, March 26, 2005.

Ride Reports

I-5 Colonnade

13 | Apr | '17

Sketchy

Really sketchy. Couldn't trust any of the landing areas or blind corners because many were broken, overgrown, or washed out. Most of the park is just in disrepair and unrideable. Sad. Looks like it was really cool at some point. It's obvious that a lot of work was put into it. Read more

Submitted on 04/13/2017 by gilbert0707

I-5 Colonnade

09 | Jan | '17

Not in good shape

In need of some maintenance and clean up for sure. I wouldn't call it "Sketchy" if you are used to the city, but it just wasn't really fun - broken down, lots of garbage. Seems like it's seen better days. Read more

Submitted on 01/09/2017 by LC

I-5 Colonnade

24 | Feb | '16

Sketchy

I am certain that at some point this was cool - but now - it is straight sketchy and long out of shape. It now belongs to the homeless. People walking thru the area were shocked to see me there - like they have never seen anyone ride there. Come around a corner - watch out for the human feces. Take one of the drops - dodge the garbage, or dirty sleeping bag. Maybe the... Read more

Submitted on 03/01/2016 by Jensers

I-5 Colonnade

01 | Apr | '15

Ride Report

The majority of the trails are rideable and in decent condition. That being said, there are some defencies to note: Several obstacles by the lake view entrance are overgrown The first berm on Sidewinder has fallen down the hill - be careful Acid drop is shaky and there is a someone living on the wooden berm after it The run out of holy chute is blocked by a homeless man's storage under a sle... Read more

Submitted on 04/02/2015 by jzamby

I-5 Colonnade

Key Info

Stats

General

The Tqalu Trail

Limestone Loop

Advanced Area

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