Location

GCC 2024 will be on November 1 - 3, 2024 at the Pack Forest Conference Center, Eatonville, Washington. Pack Forest is 1.5 hours south of the University of Washington campus in Seattle and offers shared cabins as accomodations.

Transportation

Note: All the times are tentative and given in Pacific Time. This may be updated as bus schedules are confirmed. All attendees will be emailed with final transportation information closer to the conference.

We will organize and provide transportation to and from Pack Forest on Friday morning and Sunday afternoon/evening. Complimentary buses will be making stops at UW Seattle campus and the Seattle-Tacoma airport. A handful of attendees will also be driving their personal car to the conference and have offered to take some passengers, so you may also be assigned to ride in a car which will likely pick-up at UW.

On Friday morning, two buses will be picking up attendees from UW Ocean Sciences Building (1492 NE Boat St.) at 9:15 AM to go to Pack Forest. One bus will make an additional stop at the Seattle-Tacoma airport (NE Ground Transportation Lot) at 10:15 AM to pick-up attendees who are arriving on Friday morning.

On Sunday, there will be transportation ready at the conclusion of the conference at 12:30 PM to take attendees back to the Seattle-Tacoma airport (drop off by 2:30 PM) and the UW campus in Seattle (expected drop off by 3:00 PM).

For those who are not catching an earlier flight, there will be a group Seattle/UW campus tour during the afternoon and dinner following that! Those joining the tour are welcome to drop off their luggage at the Atmospheric Science and Geophysics Building (ATG) before the tour starts.

Arriving before Friday morning?

If you are arriving to Seattle before Friday morning, there are a variety of options to get from the airport to the UW area, which is near where most graduate student hosts will be living.

The easiest way to get to UW is using the Link light rail. The airport Link light rail station is a 6 minute walk from the arrivals terminal. Follow signs inside the airport to the light rail station. The cost of a one-way ticket from the airport to the UW campus is $3.25, which you can pay at the station.

Note that to get to UW from the airport, you will want to go in the northbound direction of “Lynnwood”. When you are heading back to the airport, you will want to go in the southbound “Angle Lake” direction.
Be mindful that the Light Rail does not run 24/7 and has different schedules for weekdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
- For arrivals - the last train northbound leaving the airport headed to UW is at 11:44pm on weekdays.
- For departures - The earliest train headed to the airport from UW is at 4:45am on weekdays.

You can also get around Seattle using King County Metro. Google maps and King County Metro’s online trip planner are both good resources for finding the fastest route using public transportation. The OneBusAway smartphone app is a great way to track bus arrival and departure times when using any of the buses within and around Seattle. Bus fares are usually $2.75 for a single ride. You will not receive any change if you pay in cash, so be prepared to provide the exact fare amount or overpay. You can also purchase bus pases via the Transit GO Ticket app.

Other, more expensive options include a taxi, Uber/Lyft, or Super Shuttle.

Accommodations in Seattle

We will do our best to match you with a graduate student host if you need housing Thursday night or Sunday night. We will provide more details to individual attendees about their hosts as we get folks matched up.

Accomodations

Conference participants will be staying in historical cabins. Each cabin sleeps up to eight people. Restrooms and showers are located in a building across from the cabins (see map for details). Pack Forest provides towels and bedding for all participants.

What to Bring

Here is a reminder of what to bring with you: toiletries, a refillable water bottle, a headlamp (recommended), warm clothes, a rain jacket, a halloween costume, and your poster (if relevant). Bedding and towels will be provided, but some of the accommodations are a short walk away from the communal showers. You will be staying in cabins with 8 people in them, so you may want to bring ear plugs with you if you are a light sleeper!