Biking the San Juans - What to do and what not to do
Hello, hello dear readers. I am resurrecting my LJ account so I can catch up with those of you I have lost contact with... also I don’t want to do my dishes right now, or go to sleep yet.
So what I’m doing now: Still in the Couve, doing the grown-up-working-at-a-job-and-making-money thing (kind of over rated if you ask me), reading lots of books, cooking, playing WoW, MySpace, biking, and various other miscellaneous activities.
It all started with an idea I had of kayaking around the San Juans and the need to go see my friend Jeff who lives in Bonney Lake (somewhat south and east of Seattle). Plans were discussed and formulated. After consulting my dad it was decided to bike about the islands given the zero experience both Jeff and I had with kayaks and navigating pesky little things like “channels” and “shipping routes.”
We started up Thursday night to Jeff’s Grandparents house with the idea of getting up early and catching a noonish ferry over to Lopez Island where I had reserved our campground. Of course we were slow in getting moving Friday and thus had to adjust our time line accordingly. This became a reoccurring theme of our trip. The rest of Friday was taken up with the ferry ride over (those things move surprisingly fast) driving about Lopez island setting up our camp then hiking down to and along the beach.
Saturday was our biking day. After a leisurely morning we biked about four miles to the ferry dock and waited about half an hour before catching the ferry bound for Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. The trip over took longer than we expected so upon arrival we only had a little over an hour before our return ferry left. This was an acceptable development since our main goal had been to find a restaurant for dinner. A delicious meal of fish and chips was consumed along with beer to prepare us for our ride back to camp (neither of us had recently biked- I think it had been a year + for me)
We settled into a booth on the ferry. I wandered about enjoying the sun and wind of the viewing decks. I went back to our seats to find Jeff dozing. I decided to go find a map. I still hadn’t really figured out which islands were which. As I strolled about I happened to glance out the window... funny the ferry dock we were passing looked suspiciously like Lopez Island...
I found Jeff and we simultaneously asked “Wasn’t that Lopez Island?” Ferry schedules were quickly located, our mistake quickly discovered. We were on a direct route to Anacortes.
This proved to be a blessing and a curse. On the one hand the only ferry we could have possibly caught from Friday Harbor would have deposited us at Lopez Island at 10:30pm at the earliest and we had no lights or reflective gear for a night ride. On the downside we had to pay $16.80 to get back to our island. (Inter-island travel is free to walk-ons and bicyclists)
The bike trip back was mostly up hill and in continuously diminishing light. Strangely, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. : ) We even got back with enough light to start a campfire.
Sunday was spent packing up, visiting two beaches on Lopez that hadn’t yet visited (we used the car) then driving back to our respective homes.
It was fun, but definitely too short of a trip. Each island is easily worth a few days of travel. But I highly recommend visiting them, especially by sailboat or with a bike.
Goodnight!
So what I’m doing now: Still in the Couve, doing the grown-up-working-at-a-job-and-making-money thing (kind of over rated if you ask me), reading lots of books, cooking, playing WoW, MySpace, biking, and various other miscellaneous activities.
It all started with an idea I had of kayaking around the San Juans and the need to go see my friend Jeff who lives in Bonney Lake (somewhat south and east of Seattle). Plans were discussed and formulated. After consulting my dad it was decided to bike about the islands given the zero experience both Jeff and I had with kayaks and navigating pesky little things like “channels” and “shipping routes.”
We started up Thursday night to Jeff’s Grandparents house with the idea of getting up early and catching a noonish ferry over to Lopez Island where I had reserved our campground. Of course we were slow in getting moving Friday and thus had to adjust our time line accordingly. This became a reoccurring theme of our trip. The rest of Friday was taken up with the ferry ride over (those things move surprisingly fast) driving about Lopez island setting up our camp then hiking down to and along the beach.
Saturday was our biking day. After a leisurely morning we biked about four miles to the ferry dock and waited about half an hour before catching the ferry bound for Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. The trip over took longer than we expected so upon arrival we only had a little over an hour before our return ferry left. This was an acceptable development since our main goal had been to find a restaurant for dinner. A delicious meal of fish and chips was consumed along with beer to prepare us for our ride back to camp (neither of us had recently biked- I think it had been a year + for me)
We settled into a booth on the ferry. I wandered about enjoying the sun and wind of the viewing decks. I went back to our seats to find Jeff dozing. I decided to go find a map. I still hadn’t really figured out which islands were which. As I strolled about I happened to glance out the window... funny the ferry dock we were passing looked suspiciously like Lopez Island...
I found Jeff and we simultaneously asked “Wasn’t that Lopez Island?” Ferry schedules were quickly located, our mistake quickly discovered. We were on a direct route to Anacortes.
This proved to be a blessing and a curse. On the one hand the only ferry we could have possibly caught from Friday Harbor would have deposited us at Lopez Island at 10:30pm at the earliest and we had no lights or reflective gear for a night ride. On the downside we had to pay $16.80 to get back to our island. (Inter-island travel is free to walk-ons and bicyclists)
The bike trip back was mostly up hill and in continuously diminishing light. Strangely, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. : ) We even got back with enough light to start a campfire.
Sunday was spent packing up, visiting two beaches on Lopez that hadn’t yet visited (we used the car) then driving back to our respective homes.
It was fun, but definitely too short of a trip. Each island is easily worth a few days of travel. But I highly recommend visiting them, especially by sailboat or with a bike.
Goodnight!