Touring - Chuckanut Drive..anyone?

Hi there,

I am planning to cycle from Vancouver to Bellingham and ride along Chuckanut drive (SR 11) this weekend...It is supposed to be very scenic..But I am just wondering how difficult the terrain is..

I am not in top shape or anything. We have to cycle from Vancouver and back ( we could take a bus to and from the border) in 3 days. Is this going to be too difficult? Is Chuckanut drive hilly?

Thanks,
Raji.

That whole region up there is pretty flat you will hit a stretch of rolling hills between Blaine And B'ham make sure you stop at the Boundary Bay Brewery they craft a real good IPA and not a bad sandwich either. And yes take a camera you are going to some some pretty dynamite scenery

The Chuckanut road is an 11... on a scenery scale of 1 to 10!
It's not that hilly, not more than any of the other rolling hills in Puget Sound, so relax and take in one of the most breathtaking stretches of road this side of Heaven.
The road has lots of pull outs for cars and bikers; I hope you have time to use them because this is one place where you don't want to hurry. The shoulders are kinda narrow, so be on the lookout for cars (they might be gawking at the scenery too!).
You can also check with the Skagit Bicycle Club (http://www.skagitbicycleclub.org/) if you need any other information about this area.
If you can do the detour, consider swinging by the Padilla Bay Estuary (http://www.padillabay.gov/), just South of Rt 11, for an excellent place to walk around and stretch your legs.
Have a great ride and post a reply to what you thought of this enchanting place!

Originally posted by greg360
If you can do the detour, consider swinging by the Padilla Bay Estuary (http://www.padillabay.gov/), just South of Rt 11, for an excellent place to walk around and stretch your legs.
Have a great ride and post a reply to what you thought of this enchanting place!

I have that routed out if you want it I can send it to you. I took a buddy from Chicago on a ride in the Delta there where Padilla bay is and he was totally blown away said something along the lines "I'm never going back to Chicago" and he hasn't. Best time to catch is at low tide. Also did you know that the Amtrak Cascadia will bring you and your bike down here they have racks in the baggage car it only cost $5 for the bike and I have never been all the way to Vancouver but Seattle to B'ham is only around 30 bucks R/T .if you want to do more riding in the Skagit area, they are famous for their tulip farms, but that season has passed. Just take the train to MT Vernon there are many spectacular rides there including a relatively new trail that follows the Skagit river up to the North Cascades. I just rode up to the Valley last Sunday ate breakfast on the northern ridge can't help but beleive in a higher power looking down at that place.

Thanks very much for your reply, guys. Ngateguy, could you send me that route that you mentioned? I don't really get what you mean by the "detour". Currently this is our plan --

-> Starting tomorrow morning, take the bus to White rock from Vancouver (BC) downtown.
-> Ride 15 miles to Birch Bay state park. Ride 39 miles to LArabee. That brings the total for tomorrow to around 55 miles

-> On sunday, ride from LArabee to the end of Chuckanut and back to LArabee. That will be a total of 35 miles approximately.

-> On Monday, ride from Larabee to White rock (53 miles ) and catch the bus to downtown Vancouver. Ride home from there.

This is my second bike tour and the last one I did was in the Canadian Gulf islands (Galiano and Saturna, for those who know the area). These places were quite hilly and we did only around 30 miles a day. I am assuming that I can do 50+ miles a day if the terrain is not too hilly. I am going to be following the "Bicycling PAcific coast" (by Kirkendall and Spring) book for the most part.

The only thing I am worried about is the weather. Yahoo weather calls for shower on Saturday and partly cloudy on Sunday and monday in the Bellingham area. But the weather network calls for showers both saturday and sunday. Don't know which is more accurate of the two!

If it is going to be cloudy/raining all the time, we wouldn't be able to see any of the scenery and that will be a major disappointment. Thats one of the reasons why we are thinking about potentially postponing the trip. But after what you guys have said, I am very very excited to go there..

Any resources on the Internet or elsewhere that could help me in the trip???

Thanks,
Raji.