Seattle to Bellingham - the best and worst of country roads in Washington State

Dennis and I did the ride this past Saturday (the one we failed at two weeks ago), it was a hell of a ride! It rained the first half of the ride, but by the end the sun was out and warming us up, which we needed.

Walking into a grocery store about half-way in Arlington, people looked at us like aliens. The lady serving up mac n' cheese said her husband had a bottle thrown at him, presumably in Arlington.. not surprisingly also where we were heckled by rednecks while fixing a flat.

Stats:

• Start time: 7:30 AM
• End time: 5:30 PM
• Riding time: ~7 hours
• Total Distance: 110 miles (177 km)
• Headwind speed: 10 mph
• Flat tires: 1
• Hoots from rednecks in big trucks while fixing flat: 2
• Best part of ride: the view of the Pacific from Chuckanut drive
  
• Worst part of ride: the end of Chuckanut going into Bellingham! (lots of traffic, no shoulder with rock-face on your right)
  

Our route was pretty simple:

• Take the Burke-Gilman trail up to Woodinville, then get on Highway 9
• Highway 9 goes all the way to north of Arlington, take hwy 534 west
• Get on Cedardale Road going north (just before I-5)
• Follow it to Broad St (there was no sign, but it's a T-intersection), take a left
• Right on 4th Ave, turns into 2nd
• Riverside Drive north to Chuckanut
• Chuckanut dumps you in Fairhaven, just south of Bellingham

Here's the route on a google map, with elevation profile.

Highway 9 was pretty crazy, with lots of traffic, but certainly doable. About half of it has a shoulder, the other half has none. Lots of rolling hills between Woodinville and Arlington, it seemed like we went up 10 or so big climbs, each with a rewarding downhill.

Next time we'll have it to under 6 hours hopefully. The STP (Seattle to Portland) is 206 miles, and we're shooting for a 12 hour time on that one, so this is good training for it.