Seattle,Portland Seattle loop route suggestions
 

From LA, toying with the idea of flying up to Seattle and doing a little trip down to Portland a small town outside of Portland and then back up to Seattle, anyone have any good suggestions about a route? down the coast then up on the inside maybe? I don't know anything about the area

Here is link to a website for Cascade bike club. They organize the Seattle to Portland Bike ride each year. http://www.cascade.org/Home/ You will find the route they use and information on the route. If you search this site you will find suggested routes from Portland to the coast. A ride along Hwy 101 might be nice, its been a few years since I've been on the Hwy so I'm not sure of the condition of the road or traffic volume.

seattle to portland is best done on the west side of puget sound down to Shelton, Olympia, thru capitol forest and past mima mounds natural area, then to napavine to pick up military road and westside highway to castlerock and down to the bridge across the columbia at Longview.

riding the coast will take an extra week, easy, if you tool around Port Angeles way first.

make a loop, sure, just avoid pugetopolis conditions by utilizing the ferries to ride the west side of puget sound and all the way to seattle proper without having to ride in 100 miles of suburbia. the only other good alternative to the east of I-5 is: there isn't one.

Thanks for the great recomendations, what is the best time of year to do a trip like this

you can tour puget sound to portland any time of year; the trip is lowland, and it never really freezes up here except the dead of winter (right now, hard freezes for the last week and temps subfreezing).


I've ridden to portland as early as easter; right now you'd be looking for places to camp no later than 4 pm as its' getting dark about 4:30 or so.

the best time would be sept-oct but id suggest you don't wait that long, its very nice riding, quite pastoral and idyllic betwixt the two cities. you could do it in 2 days, camping around mima mounds,

or 3 days and take it easy, utilizing hotels in olympia and longview.

if its summer, and you are ambitious, you can ride an excellent volcanoes tour around mount adams, helens and rainier on a trip between seattle and portland, but thats 4 days, lots of remote, gravel, and pass climbing- not a viable off season trip.