anyone ridden from Seattle to San Francisco? looking to go next year, for a nice steady tour with the wife.
looked at maps, route 101/route 1 following the coast looks fantastic.

any info/tips/route idea’s will we greatly appreciated.

Talk to Magicrock Rich about places to stop en route. I’d imagine he’s got a ton of brewery/pub/hophead contacts around there but it could mean it’ll be come a nice unsteady tour.

a bloke on Crazyguyonabike, gave me a list of micobrewerys along the route.

8)

It sounds a fantastic route, but I’ve no personal experience of cycling it. The coast is actually pretty remote. You might find that distances between any habitation in some places are quite large, are you thinking of camping or hotels/motels or a bit of both? If you go late summer (July/August) it might be worth keeping an eye on State Park / National Park campsites if you hope to use them, as they can get booked up particularly at weekends.

If you go early summer (May/June) you stand a very good chance of seeing the grey whale migration back up north, they come in to about 1/2 mile from the coastline.

As far as I know, the only bit of the 101 away from the coast, which is also a dual carriageway (south of Eureka), has a paved road adjacent which you can cycle through the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Have a search for similar off-road trails in other parks and reserves, because they tend to be paved in the USA.

Doing the route from north to south, towards the end, you could head inland to Calistoga or Sonoma to the hot springs as a nice detour, with a lovely run in to SF via the vineyards in Napa or Sonoma valley.

Went the other way a few years ago, driving and doing some hiking rather than biking. Pacific coast highway is beautiful, Medicino (wine country) is worth a visit and there’s loads of incredible state parks that have camping along the way. If memory serves there is some heavy logging traffic at certain points, so probably worth researching alternate routes for those parts. A great trip! Take a decent jacket though, it rains a lot as you get further north!

going north to south. thanks for the tips, I will have a good look at any idea’s put forward.

I got the train from San Francisco to Seattle once.
It’s a bloody long way!

Didn’t McMoonter of these here parts do this a while ago? Seem to remember a write-up on CGOAB…

It’s a long way. I’ve ridden a little round Seattle and Tacoma, and driven more. Just sticking to 101, you’ll be clocking near a thousand miles. Some bits of 101 are more bike friendly than others. Mcmoonter must have done a chunk of it last year.

http://www.s2sf.org/main/route/

If you’re in the area. I’d be looking to explore round the Olympia Peninsula(where the Twilight films are made) and Mt Rainier area too, if time allows, rather than a long (if spectacular) drag on a major highway down the coast. Trouble is lack of time to do everything over there, it’s big.

Edit: I’ll pop a WA/OR AAA map in the post with the Roses one.

Edit: I’ll pop a WA/OR AAA map in the post with the Roses one.

thanks mate.

re the distance, we have a month to play with.

For inspiration this is worth a look…

http://stories.glenncharles.pro/the-lost-coast

Out in that part of the world later in the year visiting family, flying into SF and then driving up to ride in Oregon and then Tahoe. Its definitely worth coming in land too, look up places like Crater Lake and Lassen as they are worth going too, Mendicino is lovely though (I went there 20 years ago.

I did Vancouver to San Fran about 10 year ago so the old memory is a bit hazy but we used this book: Bicycling the Pacific Coast: A Complete Route Guide, Canada to Mexico. It’s good as it suggests places to camp and other little trips off the route.

The state parks are awesome if camping and usually keep a few sites for hiker bikers, or at least did back then. Some also do yurts to stop in.

It’s a great route. Highly recommended.