Hey folks, I'm new here. Planning my first bike trip down the Pacific Coast in September. I'm planning to take the Amtrak Empire Builder train from Milwaukee to Portland with my bike, and I'd prefer not to box it, but the Amtrak site says, "passengers are required to check their bicycle [for the] Portland to Spokane portion of the Empire Builder. This train splits at Spokane and the baggage car travels to/from Seattle." Does anyone have experience with this? Is this still the case in 2018? If this is indeed the case, I'll just head to Seattle and bike to Portland. Thanks in advance for the help!