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Bike and Celebrate the Burke-Gilman Trail Sept. 12
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- Cascade is holding three Free Group Rides to celebrate the history of Seattle’s Burke-Gilman Trail, which helped inspire a nationwide rails-to-trails movement.
- Bike and party with us in Mathews Beach Park on Sept. 12 to commemorate the 1971 “hike-in” that led to the trail’s creation.
Paul Tolmé
On Sept. 12, 1971, more than 1,000 people hiked an abandoned stretch of the Burlington Northern railroad through Seattle to show support for a groundbreaking idea: turn the crumbling rail corridor into a paved multi-use trail to benefit the public.
Fifty-five years later, we are celebrating that historic “hike-in” that led to the creation of the popular Burke-Gilman Trail–one of the nation’s first rail trails.
On Saturday, Sept. 12, Cascade will join the Seattle Parks Foundation and BurkeGilman50.org for a celebration in Matthews Beach Park from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Cascade is offering Free Group Rides from Gas Works Park and Log Boom Park to the party in Matthews Beach Park, where there will be music, food trucks, history, activities for kids and speakers including two organizers of the 1971 hike-in and Seattle Policy and Advocacy Officer Tyler Vasquez.
Register for our Free Group Rides to Matthews Beach:
- Log Boom Park to Matthews Beach Park (five miles, steady pace)
- Gas Works Park to Matthews Beach Park (seven miles, leisurely pace)
- Gas Works Park to Matthews Beach Park (seven miles, steady pace)
In addition to celebrating the Burke-Gilman Trail's history and legacy, event organizers are building support for improvements to “the forgotten four miles” of the trail from Matthews Beach to Kenmore.
“We’d like to see a wider, smoother, drier and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant trail,” says Cascade Free Group Rides Leader Peter Breyfogle, an organizer of the event and advocate for improving the Burke-Gilman.
History: How the Burke-Gilman Trail Changed Seattle
After that historic 1971 hike-in, it took seven years to build and open the first 12.1 miles of trail between Seattle’s Gas Works Park and the City of Kenmore in 1978. Cascade was an early advocate for the Burke-Gilman Trail, which helped spur the region's bike advocacy movement.
The Burke-Gilman Trail was one the nation’s first “rails-to-trails” conversions, and its creation inspired a national movement now spearheaded by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. There are now thousands of miles of rail-trails nationwide–with more added every year.
Today, the Burke-Gilman is a 20-mile bicycle highway through Seattle and onward that is ridden by thousands of people daily for transportation. It’s also a priceless recreational space for countless people running, walking and rolling, and it serves as a backbone of the Seattle Bike Network and the 900-mile Leafline Trails Network.
Read our blog post about why Cascade is advocating to fix the Burke-Gilman Trail’s dangerous “Missing Link” through Ballard.
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