OrangeSoma

Hey there I have 9 days to do a trip a somewhere between May 22-31st. This will be my first tour, but I'm a a fairly accomplished cyclist so am looking to do 80-100 miles a day. I was thinking of flying into Seattle and biking to Vancouver and then back to Portland where I fly out with my bike. This is about 500 miles altogether. I've mountain biked in places like Colorado and Utah but have never been in the PNW.

How will the weather be right around that time? Am I going to be miserable form all the rain? I will be camping along the way and possibly using Warm Showers or Couchsurfing while I'm out there depending on what I can find.

Any suggestions or comments from anyone who has experience touring in this area?

nickw

A few thoughts:

1) While the riding in Washington is really nice if you know where to go, the ACA map sections / well established touring routes along coast are generally regarded as so-so with minimal amenities. If you get creative and hit some some of the mountain passes, backroads and/or the San Juans it could be interesting.

2) I'm no weather man, but I give you a 2% chance of good weather (it has been unseasonably warm this year so who knows), 18% chance and crappy rain and 80% chance of overcast w/drizzle and fog. Partially tongue in cheek, have a look here for the real story:

Seattle Monthly Averages and Records | seattle.gov

Late June, July, Aug are the prime touring months here in Or and Wa.

3) Define accomplished. Regardless, 80-100 miles/day is a tough order on a loaded touring rig. I'll define 'loaded' as 30 lbs + bike + fluids, which is probably on the lighter end of the spectrum. Knocking off an odd 100 mile day is one thing, doing them back to back, multiple days in a row in sub-par weather gets OLD, ask me how I know. YMMV, no pun intended, but I find it much more enjoyable to have some challenging days to test the legs but some sweet easy days to freshen the soul and enjoy the ride.

4) I understand where your head is, ease of flying in/out + getting flavor of PNW. I think you should consider doing something like Seattle - Astoria Oregon - Eugene, bus back to PDX. Another options would be, PDX - Cannon Beach/Pacific City - Crescent City, bus to SF or PDX. There is no reasonable places to fly out of between PDX and Santa Rosa, which you obviously have discovered. The Oregon coast is really the highlight of the Pacific Coast, from Vanc to SD, not in May though

Wait for Bob to chime in.......5, 4, 3, 2....he's the man.

nickw

Something else I just though of, you could potentially tie in some E Wash/Oregon Stuff.

Redmond Oregon has a decent airport, which is just outside of Bend, I think it's less than $100 to get back to PDX.

Seattle, head East, Leavenworth, Cashmere maybe, through Hood River and on towards Bend.

Expect cold nights, but likely dry and clear during the day.

fietsbob

There is a Big Organized Seattle to Portland ride every year The Route | Cascade Bicycle Club

Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

you could make ita Longer trip take US 101 North around the Olympic Mtn wilderness area along the Juan De Fuca Straights then down the Washington Coast

and then take WA 4 on the north shore of the columbia,back towards Longview and then on Portland .
Or cross the River to the Oregon side ..

There is A bus that connects the 3 Clatsop County Towns with Portland.. the Astoria stop is 2 Blocks Fron the Bike Shop, where the Boxes Are..

Schedule - NorthWest Point

LesterOfPuppets

I don't think I'd want to ride to Vancouver and back. Maybe ferry one way.

mev

Another connecting transportation that is easy is the Amtrak Cascades train.

For example, if you flew in/out of PDX but then took the train north to Vancouver BC, you could bicycle from there southbound to as far south as Eugene with pretty easy connections back to Portland (or just bike back to PDX). This makes things a one-way instead of requiring more of a loop or out/back.

As far as the weather goes, I'd say it is a bit of hit/miss. A number of years ago, I cycled from Vancouver BC to Eugene, OR during that last week of May and had one solid day of rain and two days with showers and five days pretty nice weather.

More recently I lived in Portland for a few years. Each of three years I was there, I did some form of mini-tour over Memorial Day weekend - and believe two of the three years had rainy days (not all the time, but some periods of more intense rain) and one year with beautiful weekend without rain.

Big Lew

I've ridden a lot in the Vancouver BC-Seattle area and south, always ending up along the coast from Astoria Oregon.
Most of my tours away from major metropolitan areas average 70-85 miles a day, and that's by starting early and plugging along for
most of each day. I think your 80-100 miles a day target for that congested area is a bit too ambitious unless you're traveling very
light and are used to the daily grind of touring.

staehpj1 

I haven't ridden in Washington a whole lot, but on my Pacific Coast ride I started in Seattle and followed the AC maps after taking the ferry out of Seattle. I found that part of Washington kind of unpleasant for touring and think it would have been downright miserable in the wet season. I crossed Oregon N-S on the coast and W-E on the Trans America and found both much nicer than the part of Washington I have ridden. I expressed that to some guys I met on the ride and their comment was, "We live in Washington and start our rides down the Pacific coast in Astoria Oregon".

So based on my minimal experience there I'll suggest that Oregon in generally nicer. I'll also suggest that it might be worth considering going a bit east to find drier weather unless you don't mind rain, fog, and drizzle pretty much every day.

Again that is based on my opinion and limited experiences there, so take it all for what it is worth.

indyfabz

I went north to Mt. Vernon after taking the ferry from Seattle and found very little of the riding redeeming.

OP: Maybe a loop from Seattle to Rockport then over the North Cascades Highway to Winthrop, Twisp, Chelan and Levenworth then over Steven's Pass back to Seattle. It's likely to be dry/drier once you reach Winthrop.

OrangeSoma

Those are definitely good suggestions. I do think 80-100 miles a days is way too ambitious. Especially back to back. I think 60-80 a day is more along the lines of what I should be planning for and the occasional rest ride to get my bearings straight.

Unfortunately I can't do this trip any other time because I have very little vacation and memorial day week is a good time for me to take off. I can deal with a drizzle and fog riding but I certainly would not be happy doing 60 miles in a torrential downpour.

Originally my plan was to do the trip between Pittsburgh and New York City because I had a training class there the prior week, but the class got canceled, so I'm free to do it anywhere. I choose the PNW because it's a place I've never been and am really interested to check out. I like a good mix of nature and urban areas, so I think it would be good for that.

skimaxpower

Eastern WA has much drier weather that time of year - quite nice actually. Great cycling in the Leavenworth/Wenatchee/Okanogan region. Alternatively, SE Washington area near Walla Walla is very nice with lots of wineries. All of Eastern WA is much cheaper than the Seattle-Portland corridor.

indyfabz

I think you would like the Cascades loop I suggested. If it's too short you can add some mileage by going up the coast to Mt. Vernon and then heading east to Rockport. There are a couple of nice places to camp along the way, such as Fort Worden S.P., where much of "An Officer and a Gentleman" was filmed. And you get a couple of ferry rides. Both time I went that way I started in Seattle around May 25th and was o.k. The first year it had been a very snowy winter. It snowed a little crossing the North Cascades Highway, but it was manageable. I think this winter has been a light one for snow. I read a thread about people riding up McKenzie Pass in OR in February. That pass usually doesn't open until June.

adventurepdx

To the OP, if it were me and I had nine days to play with, I'd do a Seattle-Vancouver-Seattle loop. The ride between Seattle and Portland is just-ok. I've done it several times, and it's always been more of a "need to get somewhere" type of thing. There's plenty to explore around the Puget Sound/Juan de Fuca/Georgia Strait region, enough to keep you occupied for nine days. You can hop the ferry from downtown Seattle over to Bainbridge, ride up to Port Angeles, ferry over to Victoria, then over to Vancouver, back down through Fidalgo/Whidbey Island to Seattle. And you'd still have time to hit up a Gulf Island or two like Salt Spring and a San Juan Island or two.

And yeah, the weather can still be iffy in May. It won't be "cold", and you might luck out and get mostly 70F and sunny, but prepare for rain and you won't be disappointed.

adventurepdx

While it is true that Eastern OR and Eastern WA are drier, you can still get rain in May and June. I've toured in that area during this time, and on a few of those tours there was rain on most days. And on the east side of the Cascades the chance that the rain may be a thunderstorm increases. I managed to find cover before a cloudburst hit in Elgin, OR (near the Wallowas) and I watched the street literally flood in front of my eyes in ten minutes.

fietsbob

Theres the Talgo Trains too Eugene to Van BC Via Portland and Seattle .. ODOT & WSDOT. to not have to Fly..

WSDOT - Amtrak Cascades Train Equipment
Oregon's new Amtrak Cascades Talgo 8 passenger trains roll into Portland (video) | OregonLive.com

timvan_78

Sure the summer (July/Aug) is great, but don't discount September!! Everything is less crowded (kids are back in school), and the weather is awesome. Not too hot, reliably dry. (Cant say the same for may.)

adventurepdx

Yes to this! September is such a great time to tour the NW, better than May (usually). The only drawback is less daylight.

Medic Zero

There's another drawback, some of the more touristy areas are already closing/closed. I can't count the number of times I've been told "If you'd just been here a week or two ago you could've eaten/slept/seen...", I still prefer touring that time of year up here though.

Generally the rain around here is more of the light drizzle type. Sometimes in the spring we get classic Pacific squalls though, and we'll get solid rain with those. Prepare for the latter, expect the former. I actually find riding in a light mist pretty pleasant a lot of the time. That said, I once rode from Bellingham to Seattle in May and was cold and wet the entire time, due to constant real rain.

I'm based in Seattle and I use either the train or the ferries to get out of Pugetopolis to tour in the region. It's urban sprawl from Olympia to Everett and at best uninteresting riding with constant stops for signal lights and stop signs. If you're interested in going to Vancouver BC (note there is a Vancouver WA on the Oregon border) I'd take the train to Everett and then work my way north on the Centennial Trail for starters. Late last summer we rode from Bellingham to Anacortes and back, and that area was great to ride in. Quiet country roads, interesting tiny towns, no problems with traffic or drivers, shoreline views, etc.

To the south, you don't get out of Pugetopolis until at least the south side of Olympia, if not Centralia/Chehalis and at that point there are limited road options to PDX. I did it once more than a decade ago (on my own, bike camping, not part of the STP) and I don't have any real interest in riding in that area again. South of Chehalis was nice orchards and decent riding for a bit, but nothing else stood out. I don't know how the STP does it, but at the time I couldn't find an alternative to I-5 for a 32 mile section of that, which included a bridge over a river with zero shoulder so I had to take the lane to cross it. I imagine the STP managed to find another way or in the interim some parallel road has been developed that offers some alternative to this, but I have to wonder what that is, as our topography can be very unforgiving at times. Lots of hills, basically impassable ridges, rivers and other bodies of water. Even with a nice stretch of road in place of that, I don't really see what that region has to offer. To avoid the I-5 corridor you could take the coastal route, but getting all the way out to the coast in Washington and then making your way to Portland is probably time prohibitive and frankly, Oregon's coast is much more beautiful and accessible.

Portland is wonderful. If I left the Pacific Northwest and moved back, it would be my first choice for a city. It's a great city to explore too. Seattle is very expensive and much of what made it interesting has been driven away. It's been forever since I've been able to get up to Vancouver BC, but I liked it and would definitely go back. Worth the visit, but try not to be there on a Sunday, unless things have changed, very little is open that day, it feels like Christmas or a serious holiday.

I'd be planning for 60 mile days with the occasional 80 miler if I were you, rather than regular 80 mile days, particularly if you are bike camping.

The ferries are a fantastic resource. If I wanted to go to Vancouver and back from Seattle and not go the same way, I'd take the train part or all the way there, and then make my way to Victoria BC (amazing place!) and then take the really cool old Black Ball liner to Port Angeles, stay the night in Port Townsend (you can camp on the beach at Fort Worden) and from there you can choose to ride south to Bainbridge and catch the ferry from there to downtown Seattle or you can catch the ferry to Fort Casey from there and make your way across Whidbey Island, which is great riding. From the ferry on the Seattle side it can be an easy ride (rail trail) back to downtown, or you can hop a train or even a bus.

I'd skip the between Seattle and Portland leg of it cycling and catch the train to PDX and do my riding down there. There are some great rides to be had from Portland and around it. A PDX local will have to help you with that end of things though.

Frankly, unless you wanted to visit the aerospace attractions*, I'd skip Seattle altogether and focus on Portland and the trip from Vancouver BC to Seattle. Those'd be great days, while Seattle is expensive tourist trap stuff and aggravating getting around.

* If you happen to be an airplane buff we are rich with that kind of thing:
Paul Allens Flying Heritage Collection: dozens of flying WW2 era fighters and aircraft, they fly 2-3 of them every other weekend starting in May
Museum of Flight Restoration Center: other side of Payne Field (Everett) from the Flying Heritage Collection, walk freely amongst the aircraft being restored. Be sure to have the docents show you their Link trainer in the lobby, it's a fascinating low-tech wonder, run on bellows.
Boeing Everett Plant tour: a marvel of modern engineering and organization. Watch as 747's, 777's, and 787's are assembled in the largest building by volume in the world. So big, that when it was first built, rain clouds formed inside. (They fixed that with AC.)
Boeing Museum of Flight: a truly world class collection, lots of great stuff.

and 50 miles to the SW of Portland is the Evergreen Flight Museum, current home of the Spruce Goose and an excellent space museum as well as lots of great aircraft. This one should be visited soon, like lots of museums, it doesn't look like it'll survive it's founders passing and will likely close soon and have it's aircraft dispersed to other sites. Last time I went there we paid the extra for the full tour of the Spruce Goose and I got to sit in the pilot's seat!

Keep us apprised on what your plans and interests are. I can help with some suggestions for part of the area, particularly Seattle, and the area between Everett and Bellingham...


.

adventurepdx

STP uses a routing west of I-5 from Centralia to Kelso/Longview, then crosses the Columbia and uses US 30 (Oregon side) to get into Portland. I've used that routing once, it's ok except for the Longview Bridge.
2012 Seattle to Portland - Seattle, Washington

The last time I rode north from Portland to Olympia (2012) I used a routing that crossed straight over into Vancouver, Wash. and then went up the Washington side of the Columbia. It is possible to stay off of I-5 the whole time, but involves going up and over a pretty brutal hill since I-5 obliterated Old US 99's routing between Woodland and Kalama. After doing it that one time, I decided to grit my teeth and ride the shoulder of I-5 on that section, involving about 5 miles of freeway riding. North of Kelso, some of the routing is the STP route, but I diverged a bit.
PDX-Oly-Astoria Bike Tour, Day 1 - A bike ride in Portland, Oregon
PDX-Oly-Astoria Bike Tour, Day 2 - A bike ride in Kelso, Washington

ACA's Pacific Coast routing between Castle Rock and Centralia uses roads mostly to the east of I-5. I rode it once, it's ok besides some nasty dog encounters.

Would I go out of my way to ride between Seattle and Portland? No. As mediczero confirms, this area is nothing spectacular and has few scenic highlights. Mostly rolling hills, a few farms, some small towns. But if I actually have the extra time to do so, I like to do it every few years. Despite I-5, it's a quiet corner of this part of the world that's pretty forgotten, and I find that interesting.

Big Lew

If you were already considering riding into Vancouver BC, you could consider flying into Bellingham, riding north through
the Sumas border on 542 & 9, turning east and riding the loop up the Fraser Canyon to Spences Bridge on hwy 1, over to Merritt
on hwy 8, south on hwy 5A to Princeton, east on hwy 3 to Osoyoos, crossing back across the border through Oroville,
south to Omak/Okanagan on hwy 97, west on hwy 20 to Sedro Woolley, and then north on hwy 11 to Bellingham.
This route will give you a huge variety of great scenery and less chance of frequent rain.

OrangeSoma

I'm leaning towards keeping things just in Oregon to either the East or West depending on weather. Is east Oregon interesting at all? Bend seems pretty cool..

Should I consider touring somewhere else in the U.S if the weather is likely to be bad?

adventurepdx

Eastern Oregon is definitely cool, a different flavor of Oregon. There are several options out that way. Getting there will be tougher and possibly more expensive than PDX, Seattle, or Vancouver, but it can be done.

May isn't horrible, but it can rain, basically what mediczero has described. It hasn't stopped me from touring in the NW before, but I do live here. September is still a better time, though.

OrangeSoma

What do you mean Eastern Oregon is more expensive? I'd just be camping and what not...Can't I just go east from Portland - somewhere - down to Bend - Eugene - Portland. Maybe go up to Astoria as well?

OrangeSoma

Maybe a route like this?

adventurepdx

No, Eastern Oregon is not more expensive. In general, outside of Bend and really touristy areas it will be less expensive than Western Oregon. However, the "getting there" may be more expensive, which is what I was trying to say. Bend airport is smaller than PDX or SeaTac, so that usually means flights can cost more. (Usually, but not always.) Otherwise you'll have to use a bus or rent a car to get there from Portland, which will cost more. Of course, if you are willing to ride from/to Portland it won't cost as much, but then you'll be adding on more days to cross the Cascades.