The 7 Hills of Kirkland celebrated its 15th year on Monday with the playing of bag pipes, bubbles, honoring veterans and, of course, the grueling bike ride that winds through Kirkland, Redmond, Kenmore and Woodinivlle.
“Originally it was the 11 hills of Kirkland and we had [185] riders that first year,” said Chris Fox, who is an original 7 Hills of Kirkland organizer and still attends the event. “At one point we tried to make the entire weekend bike centered to bring in more tourists.”
The ride began in 1996 but did not take place from 1998 to 2001. The 7 Hills of Kirkland began so small that organizers would make 200 homemade scones for the event. Now organizers need to have 1,500 on hand.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Fox said. “You see a lot of people who have participated every year.”
The event, which is now sponsored by EvergreenHealth hospital in Kirkland, benefits Attain Housing, formerly KITH. Attain helps families and individuals to find transitional housing when they have lost a job and or a place to live.
“This year we preregistered 755 riders,” said Attain Housing Executive Director Jennifer Barron. “Last year we had a little more than 800 [for the entire event].”
This year the event raised $111,000 for Attain Housing and hosted 1,016 cyclists during the event.
“This is a major fundraiser for Attain,” Barron said. “The money goes towards helping our families to transition and gives our case managers more resources.”
The event was expanded this year to include more festivities for the community following the bike ride.
The 7 Hills of Kirkland has always taken place on Memorial Day with the start and finish lines being held at Marina Park in downtown Kirkland. However, this year organizers also included a ceremony to honor three local veterans, Rear Adm. Bill Center, Capt. John Schork and Cmdr. Paul W. Murphey Chaplain, and also welcomed the Col. Ben Tran Honor Guard, to fall more inline with the holiday and include the Kirkland community in the event.
“We decided that as the event grows we want to bring that Memorial Day theme in,” Barron said.
The idea for honoring the military has been with the event for a while but logistics surrounding the race posed many hurdles.
“We start the ride so early and we can’t have loud speakers because there are residents in the area and after the raide the cyclists are tired,” Fox said.
This year, the festivities were set up to take place following the bike ride and organizers tried to have a more family-friendly theme with the military ceremony, a live band, The Bubbleman and a lot of food. The event also hosted the Ryan James Art Exhibit, in partnership with Kathy Feek, the art consultant for EvergreenHealth.
“We want both the riders and the community to be involved,” Barron said.
However, for all the changes the biking event has pretty much stayed the same. Participants in the bike ride chose from three different courses. The traditional 7 Hills route, which includes Market Hill, Juanita Hill, Seminary Hill, Norway Hill, Kingsgate Hill, Winery Hill and Rose Hill. That route is nearly 40 miles, the Metric route is nearly 60 miles and the Century route is nearly 100 miles.
“It’s fun to see the residents in all the different neighborhoods come out and cheer [the riders] on,” Fox said.
Another mainstay of The 7 Hills of Kirkland is Neil Hubbard, who is in his 10th year playing the bag pipes during the event. Hubbard began when a friend got sick and asked him to fill in.
“It is just a lot of fun,” Hubbard said. “They just need a little boost as they come up the hill.”
Many of the riders show their gratitude with a ‘thank you’ or attempt to take a photo of Hubbard while riding by. Some are completely shocked to see a bag piper on the course.
“He plays at the top of Winery Hill, or as some say when they get to the top ‘Whinery Hill,'” joked Mary Lue Gutow, who has been involved with the event since the start.
