The League of American Bicyclists announced its rankings of bicycle friendly communities today and nothing has really changed in the South Sound.

Communities who earn rankings are given a designations of platinum (highest), gold, silver, bronze or honorable mention.

Olympia remains at the silver level, behind only Seattle’s gold ranking in Washington. Bellingham, Port Townsend and Redmond also earned silver rankings.

Tacoma remains at the bronze level with Bainbridge Island, Snohomish, Spokane and Vancouver.

Anacortes rounded out the Washington communities on the list with an honorable mention.

On May 1 the league announced Washington as the nation’s …

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If you read today’s story on Geotouring and want to give it a try here’s your chance. We’ve built a short Geotour of Tacoma and Olympia so you can get a feel for the game. Go to the coordinates and answer the corresponding question. Send your answers to craig.hill@thenewstribune.com or P.O. Box 11000, Tacoma, WA 98411. High scores for the Tacoma and Olympia tours will be entered in a drawing for a prize.

TACOMA GEOTOUR

1. N 047 15.135, W 122 26.316

What is like the new Venice?

2. N 047 15.260, W 122 26.407

How many cans does it …

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Washington is once again the most bicycle friendly state in the country according to the League of American Bicyclists. It’s the fifth year in a row Washington has received the distinction.

“We’re encouraged to see significant progress in top states like Washington …,” league president Andy Clarke said in a prepared statement.  “But, as the scores clearly highlight, there’s much work to be done in critical areas like infrastructure and funding.  Overall, we see states – and especially state Departments of Transportation and state legislatures – lagging behind cities and the expectations of local cyclists, despite the many well-documented benefits of a …

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Tacoma joined the ranks of bicycle friendly communities today earning a bronze designation from the League of American Bicyclists.

Tacoma was one of 24 new cities to make the Washington D.C. organization’s annual list. This year’s list included 214 communities from 47 states. The League of American Bicyclists honors cities with platinum, gold, silver or bronze designations to cities based on how safe and accommodating they are for cyclists.

The league currently ranks Washington as the country’s most bicycle friendly state.

Olympia, a previous honoree, once again earned silver. Seattle earned a gold designation while nobody in the state …

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The Capital Bicycling Club will host Willie Weir’s latest bicycling show on Wednesday at the Olympia Center. The show, “Cycling and Wild Camping through Portugal,” starts at 7:10 p.m. is $10 at the door or $5 for those registered for the Intercity Transit Bicycle Commuter Contest.

Weir is well known in the cycling community for his books, photography  and radio and public performances.

So, I’m writing about the increased creativity of geocachers in Sunday’s News Tribune and Olympian and as part of the project we’ve stashed two geocaches around the Northwest.

For you loyal readers of this blog, we’re giving you a head start. We’re registering the caches with geocaching.com on Saturday so this is your chance to sneak in there and be the “first to find.”
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REI  announced this morning its plans to open a new store in Olympia next spring. The two-story, 25,000 square-foot store will be located off Cooper Point Road at Westfield Capital Shopping Mall. Company officials say they expect to hire about 50 people to work at the store.

The Olympia store will be the eighth western Washington REI location, serving more than 384,000 active members in the Puget Sound area. The other stores are located in Tacoma, Alderwood, Bellingham, Issaquah, Redmond, Seattle and Tukwila. The Tacoma store is about 23,000 square feet.

According to the company, more than 9,000 REI members …

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