A few years ago I heard about this 200 mile bike ride from Seattle to Portland called the STP. It intrigued me enough that this year I finally signed up and am proud to say I completed the ride. The 2023 ride was held July 15th and 16th. I would say the last 30 miles were the most grueling for me given the heat, long stretches of no shade and headwind on portions of the route. But overall, it was a great ride with amazing scenery. Here's a rough breakdown of my 2023 STP bike ride experience and what I learned.
Friday
I recently moved from Los Angeles to Portland (click here for the story), so leaving from Portland to Seattle was easy. I had originally planned on taking Amtrak from Portland to Seattle Friday morning. However, I did not realize how quickly the bike spots on the train filled up. Amtrak would cost me $37 plus $5 for the bike. It would drop me off at King Station in Seattle and from there, I was would take the light rail up to University of Washington. Since I wasn't aware how quickly the bike spots filled up on Amtrak, I had to book a very expensive $100 option through Portland Bicycling Club. PBC would transport me, my luggage and my bike from the Double Tree hotel on NE Multnomah directly to University of Washington. On the one hand, it's slightly more of a door-to-door service. On the other hand, it was $58 more expensive.
The one thing I felt I did right was I booked a hotel next to UW early enough where the price was still "low". You had the option of staying on campus at the dorms, but I wanted to be in easy walking distance of University District along University Way NE. I stayed at College Inn, which was a nice hotel for one night. The hotel had a bar in the basement, a Thai-Vietnamese restaurant and a Boba shop on the ground floor. I was able to walk around the area, grab some great food and drinks. I also made sure I went to bed as early as possible.
Saturday
Alarm goes off at 3:45am. I had everything laid out the night before.
I knew I had to ride about 1/2 mile from the hotel to the starting line and I wanted to start the ride at 5:30am to give myself plenty of time in case I had mechanical issues or fatigue along the route. My goal was an average speed of 14-15 miles, stop at every official rest stop and either finish one water bottle right before the rest stop, or drink enough water at the rest stop so I can fill up the bottle again. I would do this whether I felt like it or not. I felt this made a big difference in my ride and allowed me to ride into Centralia College (the midway point) comfortably and happy.
It was beautiful ride leaving UW especially since we were riding next to Lake Washington. We then rode through lots of small towns and open space. I arrived at Centralia College around 1:45pm, which was plenty of time for me to set up my tent, take a shower, walk around and grab some food and beer. I think I fell asleep around 6pm, then woke up around 9:30pm and lightly slept until 4:30am Sunday.
Sunday
My goal was to leave by 6:30am at the latest. According to my Strava, I left at 6:01am, which was perfect. Since this was day two, I planned on maintaining a 13-14mile average speed and do the same thing as yesterday. Stop at every official stop, drink enough water right before each stop, or at the stop, so I can fill up my water bottle. I wanted to spend no more than 30 minutes for lunch. I avoided cookies and energy bars, except for the Rx bar I brought. Instead, I opted for bananas, sea salt potato chips, pickles and pickle juice for snacks. As I mentioned at the top of this post, the most grueling portion was on along Hwy 30 in Oregon. There is a huge stretch of that highway with no shade, headwind and the sound of traffic blowing past you. That section was rather miserable. On the plus side, the shoulder lane was really wide. There was enough room for riders to easily ride side by side which I find rare in Southern California.
After crossing the St. John's bridge in Portland, I hit red light after red light on surface streets. After riding on Hwy 30 in what feels like forever, hitting a bunch of red lights made it felt like the ride was never going to end. It would have been nice to have better traffic management from Portland Police Bureau or Portland Bureau of Transportation to assist with traffic flow between people riding and driving. Regardless, it felt great riding into the finish line with the announcer saying "Congratulations! You've made it! Welcome to Portland!" The ride ended at Holladay Park in the Lloyd Center with lots of supporters from family and friends of riders, food trucks, beer garden and a band.
My Thoughts
This was my first STP ride. I thought it was very well organized and I can't imagine the amount of work it takes to coordinate with all the cities, towns and jurisdictions to pull this off. The traffic management with the various agencies in the towns were top notch. Two of the most memorable moments when it comes to traffic management were allowing all of us riders to go over the Lewis and Clark bridge without having to mix with other drivers.
Then once we got off the bridge and onto Hwy 30, there was (I believe a police car), that closed down the lane right before the on-ramp, so we can call ride safely from the on-ramp onto Hwy 30.
The route overall was great (minus Hwy 30). The event did feel a bit nickel and dimey though. Despite how well organized the event was, it sort of felt like I bought a plane ticket on a budget airline and if I wanted anything extra, there was a fee. A shower at Centralia College was $5. They provide the towel, but no soap. Wanna park your bike at the bike corral overnight at Centralia College? That'll be $10. Wanna drop your bags off Friday evening before the ride, that'll be an additional $5. Need breakfast at Centralia College on Sunday, that'll be $10. Want water at the mini rest stops (not the full official rest stops), they'll charge you. They did provide lunch which was much appreciated. I can't imagine the amount of work it takes to put on an event like this, so I'm not angry at all the extra charges, but is it better to charge more upfront and provide certain services as part of the package? I don't know. It was a great experience and I would still consider doing this again. But probably in a couple of years.
Below are some photos of the ride.
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