Washington

The route continues from Sandpoint, Idaho, on Northern Tier Map 1. Finally, the end is near!

From Sandpoint, the route follows U.S. 2 to Newport, Washington, and then turns onto SR 20 (or parallel backroads when available), all the way to Anacortes, Washington, which is the western terminus of the Northern Tier.

To get across Washington, I will go over five mountain passes:

• Sherman Pass, 5,575 ft.
• Wauconda Pass, 4,310 ft.
• Loup Loup Pass, 4,020 ft.
• Washington Pass, 5,477 ft.
• Rainy Pass, 4,855 ft.

Nearly every summer since 2000, I have ridden over Rainy and Washington passes, from Newhalem to Winthrop (72 miles), as a supported ride. It will be nice to be riding from the east side (starting at higher elevation) but still plenty of work to get over the passes to the “wet” side of Washington state.

From Newhalem, I will continue west on SR 20 through Marblemount, Concrete, and Sedro-Woolley, and will turn south on SR 20 just east of Anacortes, heading toward Whidbey Island. I will ride the length of Whidbey, take the ferry from Clinton to Mukilteo, and then ride home to Seattle via Edmonds and Shoreline.