San Juan Island Bicycle Trip - Day 2

SHAW ISLAND

Day two started off way too early for me. When ever I'm camping during the summer I always think it is later than it actually is, causing me to get up early and be tired most of the day. Hopefully I don't repeat that tomorrow.

After getting things packed up for the morning, we took off to see the rest of Shaw Island making our way to the other side of the island. Not much to see over that way, but it was perfect riding. Empty roads and a beautiful landscape. We ended up doing around 12 miles and than headed to the ferry dock to move onto island two. We had no plan of what island we'd hit enxt, with the plan being to just jump on the next ferry that came. This left us with about an hour and a half to kill sitting in front of the only store in town, playing some 10,000. A game I'm currently killing Carey in. I also got a chance to scarf down a Snickers, quickly becoming my bicycle riding favorite. Last summer I had three in one day as I put in a 130+ miles.


After a short ferry ride we were on the 2nd smallest island we will visit, Lopez. The plan was to hit up the campsite, drop out gear, and check out the island. At this point we had only gone about 16 miles and I was beat. T his is hard for the ego to take. My brain still thinks I can ride 130 miles in one day, but my legs and lungs have something else in mind.

After a quick rest we headed to the Southern part of Lopez. Beautiful roads again...a bikers paradise. Our destination being Agate Beach County Park. From the name on the map it looed like a big park, but the actual beach part was pretty small. Still a great view of Outer Bay and about 5 islands set off from the Lopez mainland.

We than took a tip from another bicyclist we met to check out Watmough Bight Nature Preserve. It was great advice, even with having to ride on some dirt roads. Gorgeous little cove that just shimmered in the sun light. I think we both would have wanted to stay longer, but it was getting late and out tummies would soon be screaming.


After getting lost on a 4 mile wrong turn, we made out way back, very hungry. Carey even had to pull up with a 1/2 mile to go to eat some trail mix. Being on the bikes all day makes you hungry! Tomorrow is more of Lopez Island and we'll probably stay a 2nd night.

Day 2:
47.43 Miles
11.13 AVS
4:15:34 STP
36.1 Max Speed
Total: 96 Miles

San Juan Island Bicycle Trip - Day 1

We get out of Seattle to our take off point (Campanno Island) at about 10 AM. As we pakced up and donned our tight fitting bike clothes, the neighbor lady chatted us up. Even offering to give us a ride to where we needed to catch the ferry. This token offer happened quite a bit on the trek across county, which is funny because it is the last thing we want. Although, it would have been nice. I was feeling the affects of what a body feels like that has done little training for this type of ride. I could feel it on those first five miles. Doesn't help that we didn't eat right. Always, always eat a good meal before riding. I guess I was so eager to get going that I thought a granola bar in 90+ heat would get me by.




Our adventure started and was halted in the first block. Only took a few pedals to realize something is wrong. This being Carey's panniers, hooked a little close to his seat, causing him to hit them on each pump of the legs. Quick fix and were were on our way.



Another good advice is to bring a map of where you are going. Just because it looks easy when you are in Google Maps doesn't mean all those roads are going to be marked. So, we did what most gujys don't like...asked directions. More than once. "Which way to Anacortes?" "Where can we camp?" It is nice that we asked because one guy led us to a nice bike path that led us clear into Anacortes. NOt a direct route, but it was cool over an old railroad bridge that has been converted into a bicycle path.



Once nice thing about walking bikes onto the San Juan Ferries is that you pay one price (~$15) and than the inter island cost is free. We could just hop back and forth on the ferries to our hearts content. Makes a trip like this affordable.



Our first island, Shaw, is jacked. Hardly anyone lives here, so as we left the ferry terminal not a single car passed us. We did cross a cat. There are people at the campground, but you get the sense that you have most of this island to yourself. We cooked up some dinner (old fav I cooked across country) and took our food out to the gorgeous beach to eat. No one else around. Nice island. Tomorrow it is probably Lopez, but we might just play it by ear depending on what time we make it to the ferry terminal.

Day 1:
47.96 Miles
12.25 AVS
3:55:14 STP
34.9 Max Speed
Total: 48 Miles

Crater Lake

This was a trip to Crater Lake that Sarah and I took the last weekend in June. We had first planned to camp in the National Park, but a week before the trip I got a call from the campsite and they weren't going to be open yet. Still a heavy snow pack into late June! And as you can tell from the pictures below, there was still a lot of snow.

One of the reasons I had never been to Crater Lake before is that it is just far enough away to make a weekend trip a bit of a pain. But, I was able to get off work early on Friday, as was Sarah. We hit I-5 south and missed most of the traffic that plagues Portland on Friday evenings. With Crater Lake being so far away, we stayed the first night in Grants Pass. I had zipped through this area on a California bound trip, but had never stopped. It looks like a pretty nice town. We had dinner at a burger joint that has some 40 variety of burgers and 80+ variety of milk shakes. The next morning we had time to hit up the local farmers market and unfortunately bought bread for lunch that can with a surprise hair.

Even though Crater Lake was the focus of this trip, we actually didn't spend that much time in the National Park. It was cold, rainy, and I would have liked to have gone on a hike, but the snow pack was really high. Kind of a bummer with it being listed in the 1,000 places to see before you die. I've seen it, but I'm not quite sure I can check it off the bucket list yet. We did drive around a bit, took some pictures, and headed north to find a place to camp for the night.

On the way into Crater Lake we passed about 5 campground we could have stayed at, on the way out...none! We figured we would come across one as we headed north towards Bend, but none were on the roadside. Actually this isn't true...at one point when we were closer to Bend we passed one commercial looking campground, but Sarah and I were so wrapped up in playing a car game (A to Z) that we decided to skip it. She won by the way...we both got to Z and she spotted a zipper before I could spot a kid with a zit! This was despite me making up rules along the way to keep her from winning!

Once we hit Bend we did find a little city park that had camping, but as soon as we pulled in a large sign said they were full. This left us with no options, so after driving around a bit we came across a Barnes & Nobles that allowed us to do some quick research on campground. What I came up with was the Crooked River State Park area, that was within an hours drive. Just east of Bend, the Crooked River has numerous rustic campgrounds that are spread along the river. It is actually a nice place to camp, with the river down in a small canyon. And with it raining most of the day, we lucked out with finding a spot that seemed to be missing all the rain clouds. Thankful for this as that last time Sarah and I went camping we got dumped on.

This is the only picture that I have from our camping area. Not sure if Sarah is approving of this photo, but considering she deleted all the other photos on my camera that I took of her, this must have passed the filter. Very cute if you ask me!!

The third day of our weekend trip was spent driving north to the Dalles. We hadn't done any hiking on the trip, so we did a quick hike at one of the many Colubmia River Gorge hiking locations. It was windy as all heck, so it wasn't much of a hike. For any of you planning a trip to Crater Lake, highly recommend late summer. Make sure all the snow is gone. I'll be back someday...maybe after I tackle the other 999 things to see before I die.