Seattle Forrest

If you like group rides, you should consider doing the Seattle to Portland. Registration just opened. The ride takes place July 12 (and 13 if you like) so you have plenty of time to make arrangements.

RJM

What's the distance and terrain like?

LesterOfPuppets

200-ish miles. Some small hills but no monster mountains. Generally flattish.

Seattle Forrest

Double century, not too hilly, lots of farm country, some rivers, good scenery but not the best the state has to offer. A lot of people do it in two days. A few of them do it on unicycles.

You could stay with turtles!

LesterOfPuppets

There are many Strava recordings of it...

https://www.strava.com/activities/66906233

RJM

I would totally crash at his pad.

mattm

A fun ride, easy for a double. I did it a few times.

If you want to go fast and avoid the large crowds, do the 4:45 AM start and hammer the first 50 miles or so.

Long Tom

Very tempted. It does conflict with the OCF... I've heard that accommodations can be a problem in Chehalis or the other small town near the midpoint...

mattm

Do it in one day!

Seattle Forrest

I bet you can still reserve a room! Or do it in a day. Or have someone meet you with a tent and sleeping bag.

Long Tom

Do it it a day? Dayum. My ass hurts just thinking of it.

ACTUALLY..... since I live ~100 miles further south from PDX... my eeevil plan was to spend the night in Portland and then ride another century on home!

But the timing is unfortunate. We live near the OCF site and often have company... and go on Friday...

banerjek

Rooms are gone. Plenty of availability around Longview, but that's 160 miles out.

My 14 yr old nephew wants to ride this so we'll do the 2 day thing, most likely camping halfway. He needs a bit of saddle time. I'm not sure if he has any road riding experience yet.

Seattle Forrest

Are you ****ting me? No hotel rooms left, already?

vwchad

Forrest, you should be clear and state that the registration is open, but only for Cascade Bicycle club members at this point. Opens for non members Feb 4. It sells out very fast too. I signed up yesterday. This will be my third time. Great ride, lots of fun. I think I will be doing it in one day this year, unless some of my friends decide to do it for the first time.

vwchad

No rooms? Do it in one day then! Problem solved!

LesterOfPuppets

priceline has rooms @ the lucky eagle for $141

cwar

I'm actually surprised there are still rooms. When I looked about 4 months ago I could only find one room within a few miles of the mid-point.

Seattle Forrest

Thanks! This is an important correction!!

MegaTom

What's the camping like if you decide to go that route? Any good spots for stealth camping or the like near the halfway mark for the less sociable among us?

banerjek

For the less sociable, I'd recommend doing it in one day if you can. The ride is a total zoo, and the only way I know to avoid that is to not stop for anything for at least 50 miles while you maintain a harder pace than you normally would. Once you have the gaggle behind you, you can relax. I've actually managed to get off course twice because I couldn't see any riders in front of or behind me.

I've never done the camping before but if you stay with one of the official places, they'll actually schlep your stuff for you for free or nearly free. That means no need to lug stuff or have someone meet you. But you'll also be there with a couple thousand of your new best friends. But you'll have showers and access to everything you need such as beer.

I haven't done STP for a long time, but my recollection is that there are plenty of stealth opportunities to camp. Having said that, I'd be tempted to go at least past Vader (124 miles) before stopping.

timvan_78

i did it for the first time last year. I usually ride alone, but this was fun! I camped at centralia which was a zoo but OK. I was one of the first tents up...everyone else that early was doing it in one day.

I've never seen any event that large that was that well organized (food/pottys/mech support/traffic control)!

The ride itself wasn't crowded...it seems to thin itself out pretty well if you do the first part quick like Banerjek said. Basically flat too.

I might try the RSVP this year. How does it compare?

Niloc

Hmmm I live in Seattle and have never done it. I've heard it's a little boring and I know the route is not particularly interesting. Not trying to discourage anyone and hey I've never done it so consider that. Thinking of doing the Flying Wheels century at the end of May. I do want to do RAMROD some day...

Niloc

For those that have done it, do you usually go with a group? If you ride individually do you find ad-hoc groups along the way to join up with for a little drafting / pacelining to move you along a little faster?

JamieElenbaas

Camping is EASY. They open up a big chunk of downtown Centralia for camping, they open up the gym at the community college for showers, and for a fee, Cascade will ship your camping gear there for you. We've stayed in a hotel three times and camped once. I actually enjoyed the camping year quite a bit. (Of course, it didn't rain at all - that might change things a bit.)

As for the route, there are a couple of short climbs, but nothing sustained to speak of. If you do it in two days (as the majority of riders do) think of this as more of a parade celebrating cycling than a major ride. It is kind of like a mini Ragbrai.

Black wallnut 

Two years ago I did it in two days. We stayed about 5 miles off the route at a small campground in Vader. I had a brother in law and nephew driving a sag vehicle, only saw them at the start and end of the first day and then the finishline. Last year my son and I did it in one day. We had my wife drive and meet us a couple of times, once at Centralia, then again at Longview and finally at the finish line. Banerjek nailed the plan to ditch the crowds. We started @ 5 am, within the first three miles I flatted, did a piss poor job of a patch job due to old patch cement only to have the tire go flat a few miles up the road. We lost probably 40ish minutes to that and then stopped at Seward Park for a few. From there to Spanaway Middle School we only stopped for stop lights. From there until we were in Oregon we were mostly by ourselves. Once across the last bridge into Portland due to stop lights we once again hooked up with other riders, either they caught us and like our pace line or we caught them and they held on.

The route is about the easiest double you will ever find. The few climbs are so mild that if you are capable of riding a century, you can do the two day version; if you are capable of a hilly century then you should have no problem with a one day ride. I'm signed up for it this year and am planning to do a one day solo effort if I am not able to find someone that wants to go along. If you search the archives of the site you can find posts from last year and probably every year before that. Last year I learned that I need to use chamois butter at distances over 100 miles in a day. By Longview my chafing was uncomfortable, halfway to Portland from there it was downright painful. This in spite of changing to a fresh pair of shorts in Longview, hence the meet-up with my wife.

One other small piece of advice is if you plan to do one day be very comfortable riding near vehicle traffic. They seem to only do ******* over the Interstate bridge at Longview on Sunday; 4 lane bridge no shoulders about a mile long that is a good climb.