route

[jbocrie]

can anyone suggest a good route from seattle to  meet the northern tier route in Burlington, Wa.?
jerry

[JHamelman]

These two posts from earlier discussions should be helpful:

http://forums.adventurecycling.org/index.php?topic=9478.msg51521#msg51521

http://forums.adventurecycling.org/index.php?topic=3793.msg17998#msg17998

Hope this helps,
.Jennifer.

[John Nelson]

Unless you already have plane tickets to Seattle, I would recommend flying into Bellingham. Frontier, probably the most bike-friendly airline in the world, flies into there and my flight to Bellingham was cheaper than a flight into Seattle. Furthermore, my bike and equipment bag flew free. Bellingham is a small airport. You can assemble your bike right at baggage claim and it's an easy ride out of the airport. You can follow the Pacific Coast route the short distance down to Bay View (or on to Anacortes if you prefer, like I did) to pick up the Northern Tier.

[jbocrie]

John....thanks for the help. I am flying from the east coast and have my ticket to Seattle. I did find that there is an Amtrak to Mt Vernon from which I can pick up the NT trail. Have not made a final decision but really don't want to ride through Seattle proper. The city looks pretty confusing...

[adventurepdx]

Yep, Amtrak is an easy option from Seattle to Mount Vernon. If you want to start at the true start of the NT in Anacortes, this will require about 20 miles of backtracking, or taking the Skagit County Transit bus out there.

[jbocrie]

Thanks..I have biked through Anacortes previously so I will skip it and head east. Maine is a long way from there but I am excited to start. Later

[Max!]

Actually getting to Burlington is really easy to get to! SO, Take the light rail from the airport downtown, then ride or use a bus (you can get a transfer from the light rail) to the University district and then follow the RSVP route.

Here is a link to the RSVP route from 2012, it inlcludes an overview map and breaks the portion you need into 3 sub maps and cue sheets. http://shop.cascade.org/sites/default/files/RSVP%20Route%20Map%202012.pdf

[jbocrie]

Max....thanks for the help. The maps would have been perfect for getting out of Seattle to Mt Vernon to start our xcountry adventure. However, I panicked and bought Amtrak tickets to get us and our bikes north......definitely the easy way out.