Sea-Tac to Anacortes by air?

[bgphelps2]

Hi Folks,
Bear with my newbeeness. Next summer, I will be cycling solo, self-contained 4,000 miles + from Anacortes, across the northern tier and some of Canada, to Maine.  When I fly into Seattle (SEA-TAC), how do I transition up to Anacortes?  Are there buses or puddle jumper planes, etc to get me and my boxed cycle up there.  Are there specific bike shops in Anacortes that will assemble and tune my bike for me?  Can I send my bike to that shop for me to pick up after I get settled or do I lug it all there, get it assembled, ride off to a campground in the area?
What's the Standard Operating Procedure for most cyclists flying into Seattle, then starting their trip in Anacortes and heading east on route 20.
Phelps' Mission Possible

[johnsondasw]

I don't know about Anacortes, but Bellingham is about 25 miles north of there and has an airport and good bike shops.  Also, there's a great ride along the water (Chuckanut Drive) that would take you south to near Anacortes and would make a cool start for your ride.  Get online and check it out.

[driftlessregion]

There is a bus from SeaTac to Anacortes http://www.airporter.com/.
There is a bike shop that will assemble your bike but since I did my own I don't know the name. Should be easy to find though. I shipped my bike to the motel; you can ship directly to the bike shop. There is camping at Deception Pass State Park a few miles away.

[indyfabz]

I did AC's Northern Tier Tour in '99.  We met in Seattle and rode to just east of Anacortes to pick up the route.  It's pretty easy and gives you a few extra days of "warm up" riding before you hit Rainy and Washington Passes.  We left Seattle on one of the ferries and picked up AC's Pacific Coast route.  Spent the first night at Kitsap State Park, which has hiker/biker sites.  Second night we stayed at Fort Worden in Port Towsend, which is an excellent place to camp.  It's the site of the military base where some of "An Officer And A Gentleman" was filmed.  It also has hiker-biker sites.  By the third day we were on the Northern Tier proper and stayed at Bayview.  Note that Deception Pass State Park is right next to a Naval air base.  Lots of plane noise from what I hear.

Seattle has a great hostel in the center of town (reservations probably required due to popularity).  A nice jumping off point.

Hope you are taking the South Skagit Highway between Sedro Wooley, WA and Concrete, WA.  It's a gem.  As far as I know, it's still part of the official Northern Tier route.  One more plug...Howard Miller Steelhead park in Rockport, WA has Adirondak-type shelters.  They were very welcome after the rain we experienced.  We were there in late May, so they weren't booked, but you might look into reservations just to be sure.

I have done the entire NT once, the section between Seattle and Glacier, N.P. a second time and the section between Eureka, MT and Glacier last year.  Send me a private message if you would like my two cents.

[Pat Lamb]

We did the trip in reverse (Anacortes to SeaTac).  Somebody already mentioned the bus; you can make reservations through Mt. Vernon up to Anacortes.  Can't remember the bike shop in Anacortes, check out the AC map resources.  Note, too, hat they have a branch in Mt. Vernon.  Call ahead to see how long you'll have to wait in queue to get your bike assembled, if you ship the bike to them; as I recall, it took a bit over a week from when we delivered bikes to when they disassembled and shipped.

You might want to go into Mt. Vernon, pick up the bikes, and do a day trip out to Anacortes.  It'd be a nice shakedown cruise, and there's more hotels and restaurants in Mt. Vernon than Anacortes after you finish the public transport leg.

[doug_in_seattle]

Hi, I live in Seattle.  Here's how I would do it:

1. Get off plane, take LINK Light rail to Westlake Station, which is downtown.  This is about $5.

2.  Take bikes to Elliot Bay Bicycles, which is one of the best shops in Seattle.  It's just a few blocks from the light rail station.

3.  While they're building up your bikes, browse the Pike Place Market which is a block away from Elliot Bay. (edit:  I've never had a shop build my bikes for a trip, is this something you'd have to wait a couple days for?  Call the shop, I guess.)

4.  Spend the night in Seattle.

5. Ride to the train station (on the southern edge of downtown on Jackson St.) for the Amtrak Cascades, which allows you to roll your bikes on board (there are bike hooks in the baggage car) and ride it to Mt. Vernon.  The ticket would probably be about $25 with the bike surcharge.

Mt. Vernon is basically on the route, so it would be a good starting point.

[indyfabz]

3.  While they're building up your bikes, browse the Pike Place Market which is a block away from Elliot Bay. (edit:  I've never had a shop build my bikes for a trip, is this something you'd have to wait a couple days for?  Call the shop, I guess.)

Knowing a couple owners of busy shops and having used a shop (Glacier Cyclery in Whitefish, MT) to un-box and assemble bikes for a tour, I would definitely call and inquire about making an "appointment."

With the often high cost of flying with a bike and other checked baggage, it may be more economical to ship your bike via UPS, FedEx, etc., to a shop and have them reassemble and tune it.  Going this route also eliminates the need to schlep the thing with you, and there should be no waiting assuming you make an appointment and ship the bike far enough in advance.  In our case, we told the shop we would be arriving in town late morning on Day X and would like to pick up the bikes in the early afternoon.  They put us on their schedule for DayX-1 and told us to have the bikes there by DayX-2.  Everything worked out fine.

[Pat Lamb]

With the often high cost of flying with a bike and other checked baggage, it may be more economical to ship your bike via UPS, FedEx, etc., to a shop and have them reassemble and tune it.  Going this route also eliminates the need to schlep the thing with you, and there should be no waiting assuming you make an appointment and ship the bike far enough in advance.

We shipped our bikes home after the trip.  I was a bit surprised at the total bill; we could have flown them home for less.  But we did skip the hassles of getting the airline box, disassembling in the airport, etc.  I'd do the same thing again, I guess, but I really thought I was going to save some serious money.

[staehpj1]

With the often high cost of flying with a bike and other checked baggage, it may be more economical to ship your bike via UPS, FedEx, etc., to a shop and have them reassemble and tune it.

I have done both, but flying with our bikes was less than half the cost of having them boxed and shipped by a bike shop on our last trip (we flew with the bikes one way and shipped them the other).  If you fly on SouthWest two checked bags are free.  Add the $50 bike/oversize charge and the total is $50.  I think Frontier has a similar policy.

Bikes shops typically charge $40-60 to box a bike and the shipping is typically $50-100 depending on where and how far you are shipping.

That said SW doesn't fly everywhere.

[PeteJack]

I'll second what doug_in_seattle suggests. It's about 17 miles from Anacortes to Mt Vernon, if you really really must start from Anacortes but it's a very busy road. From Mt Vernon I'd head north on Hwy 9 for 9 miles towards Sedro Woolley. You join the ACA route before you get to SW by turning left on S Skagit Hwy. If you cross the Skagit (pron. Skajit) River you've gone too far. Stock up on food and / or have a meal in Mt. Vernon. The next place is Concrete which has lousy selections. In fact there ain't much for 100 miles or so until you get to Winthrop. (If you're a reader This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolfe is set in Concrete. Good book)

[ORANGE SOCKS]

We did this ride in 2002.  Mid June (Anacortes, WA) to Mid August (Bar Harbor, Maine).  Look to our site; www.atob-ride.com.  We did a little over 4,000 miles and 104,000 feet of elevation gain in 48 days of riding.  We took Saturdays off (Laundry etc).  Lucky as many things are closed on Sundays, especially in MT, ND, Minn and Wis.