Quote Originally Posted by betagirl
We do have a few big hills up north of me, and on a century I did this year the last 10 miles had about a 2 mile climb at about a 7% grade. I did about 14 up that thing. Riding up to it it just looked like a big wall lined with trees. You don't see that a lot around here so I was like oh this should be fun.

On a related note I would love to do the Seattle-Portland ride, but I'm curious as to how I'd train for that other than going up to WI or something to get in some decent hills.
I just did the STP last weekend and you sound like you're in way better shape than I am. The first 100 miles are not very hilly, it starts out pretty flat and then around mile 40 there is one large-ish hill that you actually have to gear down for, followed by gradual long 1-2% inclines and some rolling hills. The second 100 miles is certainly hillier, there are a handful of short steeper hills and then the last 50 miles are rolling hills all the way to Portland.

Considering our topography here in the Pacific NW is fairly bumpy, this ride probably does follow the smoothest possible path from Seattle to Portland. It's certainly not as flat as some people made it sound, but it's certainly not a hill ride.