Cycling Vancouver to Blaine, USA

A combination of bicycle riding and public transport.

View Vancouver to Blaine in a larger map
Total round trip is about 4.5 hours, including lunch in Blaine:

1. Ride from home to Commercial Skytrain Station
2. Take Expo Line (heading east) to King George Station, $5 (or take the risk of riding for free
3. Get off King George Station (last stop on the line). This is about 100th Ave. 100 blocks to go.
4. Ride due south on King George Highway (is immediately outside station). Fair bit of traffic, but wide shoulder and fast. A few small rolling hills.
5. Stay south on King George, despite off ramps to freeway. i.e. stay on 99A South.
6. Near end of King George follow signs to Peace Arch. Only have to ride on freeway for a few hundred metres.
7. Pass any lined up cars. Keep passing them all the way to the border guards. I was waived ahead even when i tried waiting behind a few cars and was directed around the the back of the building to a small door with an “Entrance” sign above
8. Line-up, or just skip to the counter (a guard asked me to skip ahead anyways. Cyclists are given priority and I was wearing my full kit (cycling clothes) and brought my bike inside. Man takes my passport and returns five minutes later with an orange piece of paper and a giant ‘S’ written on it
9. Exit building, hand paper to another guard and get back on freeway for 200 metres
10. Take exit to Downtown Blaine and ding, you’re there in
11. Lunch at Toni’s Diner
12. Return via the exact same route, making sure to take the exit onto King George Highway (99A North) immediately after crossing back into Canada

If you’re on a bike you’re allowed to (in fact, ordered to) skip the traffic, whether you’re heading into Canada or the US at the Peace Arch Border Crossing, at Blaine, WA / Surrey, BC.
Image credit.
Notes:

• Total riding is about 50km
• Don’t forget a passport
• There was construction at the border and the guard asked that cyclists not take the side route until it’s completed (he said something like, take the I5?) This is as of March 18, 2010.