Seattle Forrest

Pretty basic question, but I wonder if anybody has any thoughts on a better route than the ones I've tried? There really isn't a way to avoid most of the hill, since I live at about 30 feet and work is around 300 ft, but I climb a lot and then drop down a pretty steep hill just before I get to the office.

I don't mind hills - in face I climb a lot on my days off, even when I know flat routes - but if it gets warm this summer, I'd like to not worry about showing up sweaty, to whatever extent that's possible. For a morning commute, if you weren't a morning person, would you consider adding a couple miles for a somewhat more level route?

I go as directly as possible: Eastlake over the bridge, which turns into 12th Ave, then 70th Roosevelt, which I take to 80th, and then snake my way through the neighborhood streets until I hit 5th Ave, which gets me to 97th, where I work. The elevation plot is below - click to embiggen:

Elevation-to-work.png

flipride

Hey Seattle Forrest, I don't know if anyone ever PM'd you or if you even still read this site, but I thought I'd chip in my two cents. I think there is basically no way around the hills. One thing you could do though is head west on Ravenna towards Green Lake from 12th. Once you get to that weird disjointed 4 way stop at the I-5 offramp, take a right and ride parallel to the freeway. Stay on this road across 45th and follow it as it angles underneath I-5. It'll turn into 5th Ave and you avoid having to do the Roosevelt uphill but only slightly. It's still a nasty slog, but the grade might just be a little less than Roosevelt's.