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.
some quick googlin’ yields this: http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=668#
doesn’t seem like there are too many feasible alternate routes, but, if you have any, please share.
Point83 used to ride up to Bellingham all the time, you can glean from the old threads there:
http://point83.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5086
http://point83.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6310
http://point83.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6567
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.
What about up to Everett then Ferry over to Whidbey Island and on up to Bellingham?
visit me at evergreen, I’ll buy you a mediocre ass burrito from the cafeteria
this i like.
no experience with it, just sounds nicer and less populated.
this i like.
no experience with it, just sounds nicer and less populated.[/quote]
mukilteo / everett is nice.
yeah. inter-urban trail
will take you from seattle to everett.
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.
The interurban has terrible signage, and essentially the only entrances/exits are at the gaps in the trail
You will need a map not just to find it but also to stay on it at least the first time you use any one stretch.
/\ Agreed about the interurban, though it is slowly getting better.
Toasty, when are you thinking about doing this?
Timeline is any time before Thanksgiving. Not sure if I’ll ride bike back, take train back, or do something else.
Who are Coppi and Blasdelf? Let yourselves be known!
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.