i have a middle school friend at WWU i’ve been meaning to go visit for a while, sounds like a good excuse for a week-long bike trip or so. i’m familiar with portland-seattle (both the STP route, and a more scenic but more hilly eastern way up thru gifford pinchot forest), not so familiar with anything north of seattle.
I wouldn’t want to follow I-5 like that route says.
Get to Snohomish somehow, then ride the Centennial Trail to Arlington. From there, you have two options. the first way is to go into Arlington and head up Highway 9, then turn left either towards Lake Whatcom (if you like hills), or onto Mt. Baker Highway (if you you’d rather have way more miles and fewer hills). Highway 9 isn’t bad, “Highway” shouldn’t scare you off, but you should know it splits funny in Sedro.
The second way is to leave Arlington and take 530 west to Silvana, then take Pioneer Highway north, head west, and eventually find your way to Chuckanut through all the farm roads.
ride down to the whidbey island ferry, and go on from there. sounds pretty damn good. everett has nice bike lanes, the interurban is well-maintained, etc.
i am a new guy who sometimes builds a biek frame. i ride track, road, and bmx. i have family in seattle hence poasting in this thrad. i like lemons, the color blue, machine oil, rainfall, and engineering. i’m also an unemployed classical musician.