Hi everyone,

I'm visiting Seattle with my boyfriend and we're interested in doing a little touring while here. We have heard STP is particularly gorgeous and awesome, but I think we are going to have a weekend at most to ride, as he is working, and I'm also concerned about the ride's difficulty. I am used to long rides and day trips but he is novice and we may need to scale down a little and stretch perhaps 75-80 miles over two days especially if it is hilly terrain.

So, I was wondering is there is a convenient section of the STP route that one can do from Seattle, or even from Portland, as we plan to visit anyway, or a similar ride of the above-mentioned distance from either city. We are carless, but plan to travel with bus or train to wherever we need and want to be.

Thanks in advance for any help!

STP has some gorgeous parts, especially the finish line. It looks really good after 204 miles.

Seriously, however, there are many rides closer to Seattle that would give you a great exposure to the scenery here.
https://cascade.org/Community/maps_routes.cfm will connect you to a number of maps related to bicycling in the area. Look around there and you may come up with some ideas. I would expect that the Portland Wheelmen club would have some similar links, and the various on-line bike route mapping "services" like bikely.com, etc. have ways to search for rides by location, hilliness, distance, etc.

Not knowing where you will be staying in the greater Seattle area, here are 3 suggestions that each use a different kind of public transit to get you out of town: (I apologize for not giving all the road names, but I think you'll be able to find the routes)

1) Take the Metro bus east to North Bend. The buses have front racks for 2 or 3 bikes. Look around at the mountains just outside of town, then ride back, by way of Snoqualmie Falls. If you don't mind gravel, there is a bike trail on old railroad bed all the way from here to Duvall (north). Otherwise, ride down to the little town of Fall City; go west, go north along the west side of the river past a few golf courses, then back across the river and into Carnation. There are a few miles of highway here before a left toward "Carnation Farms", and follow along the west side of the valley north toward Monroe. At the High Bridge Road/Tualco Road intersection, you can go up the hill to High Bridge (and then follow along toward Snohomish, going north on Springhetti road (its a slight right in the middle of a downhill) -- look to your right to see some of the Cascade mountains); or, right, following Tualco toward Monroe, and then left on Main Street, which becomes the Old Snohomish-Monroe road. In either case, you will end up in Snohomish, a great place to grab a snack if you're so inclined. West from Snohomish on the north side of the Snohomish River (Riverview, Riverside, then Home Acres Rd), and across the river to Everett on a bike/ped land on the Highway 2 bridge. At this point you are about 4 blocks north, and 6 blocks east of the Everett Station, where you can take Sound Transit bus 510 back to Seattle. This is about 50-60 miles, depending on the route choices, and is net downhill.

2) Take the Washington State Ferry across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island. Lots of places to ride there, and you can come back on the same boat, or you can make your way north to Kingston, cross to Edmonds on another ferry, and come back south to Seattle; or, south to Bremerton, and yet a third ferry to return to the City.

3) Take Amtrak north to Mount Vernon, Washington; then
a) west to Anacortes and the ferries to the San Juan islands. Lopez, the first island that the ferry stops at, is the flattest (but the hill at the ferry dock will make you wonder about that!). The "Tour de Lopez" route -- google for the map -- will take you to most corners of the island. At the Shark Reef Park, do take the short trail out to the overlook. Or, go on up to Orcas Island (hillier) or San Juan. For this trip to work, you will need to have the schedules in-hand and in your mind. Going to the islands is very ferry-schedule dependent, and not every boat stops at every island. Fortunately, it's much easier to get on with a bike than it is with a car.
b) west toward Anacortes, south onto Whidbey Island and south on Whidbey. Coupeville and Langley are good stops. Continue to Clinton, take the ferry to Mukilteo, and board Amtrak to return to Seattle.
You won't need reservations for the ferries, you may need lodging reservations (especially in the San Juans), and it would be a Really Good Idea to have bike reservations for Amtrak -- yes, they take bikes, but not very many.

In Seattle proper, there's a well-known route around Lake Washington, but the other 3 rides will get you out of town and closer to the scenery.

Enjoy your time here. And, the rain showers will stop the day after you leave (northwestern "joke")

Yeah, I wouldn't do that ride myself. I think some of the ugliest parts of the state are in southwest Washington... which is STP territory. In fact, everything south of Olympia sucks in my humble opinion until you hit the greater Vancouver/Portland area. I think you're better off going north.

I like this guys ideas above. Ride to Snohomish and catch the Centennial Trail north and ride it up to north Arlington and ride Hwy 9 until Mt. Vernon or Sedro-Wooley. Or get over to Whidbey Island. Better yet may be to ride from North Bend down the Snoqualmie Valley through Carnation and onto Snohimish. I ride these all the time (except Whidbey) and they are quality rides. I know Whidbey very well but have yet to ride it (I will).

I don't know... I think the best part of STP is the rollers between Vader and Longview. But that's a ways from Seattle.

That's what I would do too. You should take the train to Kelso, WA, day one ride the STP route north toward Centralia then back the same route to Kelso/Longview. Day two ride the highway up to Mount St Helens National Monument and check out the blast zone from the 1980 eruption, then back the same way.

I can't argue w/ a sweet avatar like that. You win.

How is the 9 to ride on? I've been thinking about doing something like this.

Ever ride around Baker Lake?

If you take Hwy 9 from the end of the Centennial Trail (about 6 miles north of Arlington), it's pretty cool wrapping around Lake McMurray and Big Lake and traffic is fairly light assuming you are on a weekend. It does get more busy as you approach the greater Sedro-Woolley (Mt. Vernon) area. It's about 60 miles from Snohomish (which I've done a couple times). The main deal is it is mostly on road riding but there are long stretches you don't meet any cars (assuming you are riding NORTH of Arlington -- I would advise not riding this south of Arlington) and I've never had any trouble as long as you are courteous and move out of their way whenever possible. I'd say there are about 15+ miles of riding on Hwy 9 after you leave the trail.

I'd seriously love to go up to Baker Lake. I hear it's beautiful but have no idea what the riding up there is like. But I'd be totally willing to try. The good news is my gal's mom lives in MV and I'm going up there on Saturday so I might be able to talk her into taking a scouting trip by car.

A couple years back, rode the Arlington - Sedro - Concrete - Darrington - Arlington loop on a Saturday in June. Two cars passed us between Arlington and east Mount Vernon. Fish jumping in Lake McMurray.


Back to the "where could we ride" topic: not knowing just where they are coming from, but if by train from the south, they could go back by train and get off at Chemult; ride south a bit, then west and more south, UP to the Crater Lake Rim; stay at the lodge, ride around Rim Drive, and ride out to Klamath Falls and get back on the train.

Or, train (Sounder) to Puyallup, ride the STP route to Centralia, or on to Kelso/Longview, train back from there, if they really truly want to ride the STP route.

I made the drive from Mt. Vernon up to Baker Lake and the return trip through Rockport/Concrete/Darrington and Arlington. Email me if you want greater details. In short, I'm totally up for a ride up to Baker Lake and probably the round trip moleman talked about above. Probably would require two separate trips though. Well, I'm sure of that. I don't ride more than 100 miles a day.

This is all amazing information, everyone, thank you. Since I posted we managed to source a car to borrow so some of this might be even easier than imagined!

The ride from Sedro-Wooley to Baker Lake cutoff was a breeze if you use the back roads that parallel Hwy 20. We didn't pass a soul on the way there. The Baker Lake cutoff is mostly on road riding but there is enough shoulder room (albiet little) to move over and get out of the way. It's not travelled too much either but then it was a Sunday we were on and is used mostly by trucks, campers and pulling trailers.

The ride down 530 from Rockaway/Concrete to Darrington is another matter however. You can circumnavigate some of it by staying on the south/west roads but at some point you will connect with 530 and it can be challenging -- as long stretches don't really have any shoulder room and lots of cars. I'll probably ride it myself at some point but think it might be smarter to do this in a group or at least another rider. This road is notorious for being dangerous (so I hear).

The ride from Darrington to Arlington is about the same. Some places are great and then there are long stretches that aren't so great. Again, it can be done alone but I'd recommend doing it with another rider so there's a group and more easily visible. At least they have some biking signs posted along the highway to remind drivers to share the road here. Not so much heading into Darrington from the north.
Both those highways are damn busy for a loop that takes you into the Cascades.

But IMHO, the ride through Skagit Valley out of Sedro-Wooley to Baker Lake is the safest and by far the most rewarding -- and I didn't even scout the most beautiful part of it to the north. Incredible views of Mount Baker as you are basically in its shadow. We drove up about 5 miles past the dam before turning around. I gotta leave something to explore!

That's cheating!

well, the problem with having a car is that you'll probably need to go back to the start to get it and drive back to the city -- defeats some of the transit - bike - transit trips.

Yeah but they are from out of town and want to go to some of the cooler spots. If her boyfriend is a newbie, I understand why they'd want to get out a ways before they start. It gives them a lot more choices.

Yep that's my concern toddles. Though he's been proving himself a pretty rad climber. Also we have time constraints and I want to make the most of it.
It may be easier to do transit for some of these, but I'm finding that reserved spots for bikes fill up really quickly, unless it's jsut city buses we're talking about like the suggested trips in the first reply.

When do you plan on coming out?