Seattle to Portland tour notes

Day 0

Arrived in Seattle via Amtrak. Stayed in Youth Hostel near the Pike Street Market. Nice place, very modern, but kinda expensive. $14 a night.

Day 1

Rode 18 miles : Took ferry to Bremerton and took Hwy 3 to Belfair State Park on the North side of the Hood canal. If you want to ride further there is another park, Twanoh State Park on the south side of the canal, but it doesn't open till summer so you'll have to negotiate with the ranger.

Day 2

Rode 75 miles. Took Hwy 106 to Union, on the south side of the Hood Canal. Nice ride !!! From Union we took a little one-laner (not marked on most maps) due south to Shelton. Right on Hwy 101 there's an all-you can-eat pizza place. Took small one-laner west to Dayton and Matlock. From Matlock the road turns south to Brady. Rode west along frontage road parallel to hwy 12 to Montesano. Here we stayed at a WAY COOL state park in the hills overlooking Montesano. Can't remember the name but ask anyone in town. It's the only one there. It's on a lake, with hot showers. :-)

Day 3

Rode 49 miles. From Montesano we took Hwy 107 to Cosmopolis and then got on Hwy 101 going south. The Hwy 101 section from Cosmopolis to Raymond was the ONLY unpleasant part of the route; lots of logging trucks. But we had no incidents. From Raymond we continued along 101 to Bay Center. COOL PLACE; there's a KOA there. It's right on the ocean and very deserted. Definitely would I recommend staying there.

Day 4

60 miles. Continued on 101 to Hwy 4 to Hwy 401. Crossed the Astoria bridge (quite an experience; the sucker is 4 MILES LONG) into Astoria and then south again on 101 to Seaside. The first time we did this we stayed in a Motel in Seaside because it was raining and we wanted to get dry. The second time we continued on to Cannon Beach. You cannot camp at Cannon Beach, but 3 miles east, on hwy 26, from Cannon Beach is a roadside area where we camped. I caution you that there is NO RUNNING WATER HERE. So, either get water in Seaside or be prepared to boil/filter river water. Plenty of that !!

Day 5

62 miles. Continued on 101 to Tillamook. Check out the cheese factory. A definite worthwhile place to stop. Took a one-laner south-west in the direction of Cape Lookup. Stayed at Sandlake State park. Warm showers.

Day 6

40 miles. Continued along 101. Stopped in Lincoln City at the Devils Lake State Park.

Day 7

66 miles. More along 101. Beautiful. Nice tail wind. The section between Newport and Yachats is particularly nice. Stopped in Carl Washburne State Park. Solar heated showers.

Day 8

74 miles. Continued on 101 to Florence. Turned east on hwy 126 to Eugene. Crossing the coast range is a trip. Beautiful. The only unpleasant section is a tunnel near the top. Cars tend to go a little too fast and the tunnel makes for high noise levels. Other than that, no problem.