Day 5 Saanich to Blake's Camp Ground near LaConnor: Beware of reserving campgrounds online!

July 8, 2017

The day started out with a lovely breakfast at our friends' Bill and Carolyn's home. We can't thank them enough for their generous hospitality! It was odd to be saying goodbye, knowing that we would be away for 6 months!

Goodbye for now to our good friends, Bill and Carolyn!

The ride down to the ferry took us along the Lochside Trail, a trail we have ridden many times and love.

Along the Lochside Trail. Most of it is away from all this traffic!

We had taken off early, in hopes of seeing an art show at the park near the ferry terminal where Carolyn had some items on display. Carolyn is a very talented fabric artist and I was glad to be able to get in and have a look at some of her work.

It looked like a busy crossing to Anacortes, so we pulled in early and found a shady spot to work on the blog. I had written a couple of sentences when Karen stopped by to chat. She is a very interesting woman with some great travel stories to share. We enjoyed chatting with her very much and appreciated some of her ideas about how to find ways to remember our trip by keeping small mementos of our travels, such as post cards written home, to remember what we did and how we were feeling. The time flew by and although I hadn't written a thing, I was happy to have had the visit!

Karen, who has lived in and traveled to so many places - even Gold River!!!

Once the ferry arrived for our 2 hour sailing, I found a spot to sit and write for a while

working hard to get this all recorded for posterity!

Jim is there to support me all the way - thanks, honey!

and then had time to see the amazing scenery passing us by - well worth the $50.00 for the two of us to cross this way!

Mount Baker is in the background. You can barely see it, but it looked so big from where we were!

Once we arrived at the Anacortes terminal, we cycled up the hill (why are ferry terminals always at the bottom of a hill???) and along into Anacortes itself. We stopped at Starbucks (of course) for a cold drink and some wifi. We needed to make sure we knew the route we were taking to Blake's. We had found their website and it seemed like the closest place we could camp to LaConnor. We were planning a day off so had thought we'd booked two nights with them so we could cycle into LaConnor and enjoy a day there. We also needed to find a bike shop for Jim as his bike had fallen over while at Bill and Carolyn's and his mirror had broken off.

As it turned out, Skagit Cycle was just across the road from Starbucks! Jim went in and found exactly what he was looking for. They kindly lent in the tools he needed to install the mirror and he was back in action - thanks guys!

After getting a few groceries for that night and the next morning, we quickly hopped on to the Tommy Thompson Trail, which runs along the waterfront from Anacortes and keeps you off the highway. It was a lovely shady ride that we thoroughly enjoyed.

This was an art installation along the Tommy Thompson Trail. It was made up of found items and people are encouraged to add to it - making art out of garbage!

A bridge along the trail. It looks like it used to be a rail line. A really lovely spot only spoiled by the oil refinery nearby!

However, at the end of the trail, the map from our friends at Google, led us up onto Highway 20 at a huge overpass. We were under it and as I looked up in terror I said to Jim "I don't think I can ride up that!!" It was really really high from where we were standing. Jim went into the gas station there and asked about other routes while I stood with the bikes. I thought about asking someone with a truck to give us a ride over, and then I tried to psych myself into believing that I would be fine just walking my bike over the bridge. In the end, Jim came out and had been given an alternate route by a local. Although the alternate route added a few more miles (and hills) to our day, at that point I didn't mind one bit!

We rode on and all I can say about that portion was that it was beautiful. I didn't mind the hills although they were plentiful. We found it peaceful and quiet with the small amount of traffic that passed us very respectful.

Finally entering LaConnor, much later than we had anticipated, we turned onto Dodge Valley Road where we encountered a fierce headwind. Wind is wind, and you get that when you ride, but this was exceptional! We geared down and rode on, but the rest of the ride was pretty much just grit your teeth and get it done. Too bad, because the scenery was amazing - no pictures, sorry to say, we were too pooped!

Finally, we arrived at the road to our destination. On the map it hadn't looked that far, but once we made the turn, with the wind right in our faces, it was tough going. Making the last turn, with the wind at our sides, it should have been easier, except for the deep gravel all the way down a long long drive and into the "park". This place is advertised at Blake's RV Resort and Campground, so you kind of have an expectation, but boy did this place disappoint! The office was closed and a nice tenant told us we should just throw our tent up in one of the "prime riverside" sites. We took a look. Hard ground and dry grass, small small plots and no trees for shade - oh my! The wind was howling by this time and we were freezing, so we just chose a spot and put our tent up as quickly as we could. Dinner was going to be cold tonight and it was a good thing as there was no way Jim was going to be able to get the stove lit to cook anything warm. We quickly put our things away and set up inside the tent to eat our picnic dinner. Funnily enough, after all of this, we were laughing at the situation!

cheers from our windy home for the night!

A few games of backgammon later and we were in bed saying goodnight to the full moon. Another day on the road.

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