I know of the famous STP route but I heard it is absolutely awful when not riding with a large group. So many cars, busy roads, etc.
Im looking for a route that gets us away from busy roads, maybe a bit of gravel.
I found this thread HERE in r/bikepacking . It looks like its pretty heavy on the off-road and Im looking for a mixture of road/gravel, maybe some very light single-track if needed.
I also found this thread HERE in this subreddit from 9 years ago. But it wasnt super extensive and thinks are borken.
I also found this suggested gravel/ little to no traffic route on Rene Herse blog posted by Jan Heine 10 years ago. But the link to their route is broken and I can't find it anywhere.
Any suggestions or experiences to share? any route on RidewGPS you can link?
by vacuumkoala
1 Comment
Here’s a RWGPS “through the backdoor” route I found that I have not personally tried:
1. [https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33977638](https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33977638)
2. [https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33977645](https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33977645)
3. [https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33977690](https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33977690)
4. [https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33977719](https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33977719)
Here’s a Portland to Seattle route (most of which I took, but I’ll explain the variant in a sec) — largely based on S2P: [https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45779617?privacy_code=AWOAKnHh5MXa8KpGo8C09zP9N2w0tBGW](https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45779617?privacy_code=AWOAKnHh5MXa8KpGo8C09zP9N2w0tBGW)
That one I did as a leisurely 4-day ride, all road. The one variation from that route that I’d strongly recommend is that my WS host in Tacoma recommended just taking Vashon Island to West Seattle, which was a great change.
The only really bad part on that route was US 30 between Portland and Longview– it was just a long day of riding a shoulder with 60mph+ vehicles screaming past. The Lewis & Clark Bridge in Longview is totally passable (there’s a shoulder), but not terribly much fun as well.