June 2, 2021
On a bumpy trail
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Before I talk about today’s ride, I have to talk about the madcap night we had at Bay View. We had just gone to bed and turned off our lights when Ross calls over from his tent “Hey Dad, someone just walked off with your camelback”. I use a camelback when I ride; I find that I drink more water with one. I left the camelback on the picnic table when we went to bed thinking it was just a water container. Ross, Janet and I all got out of our tents with our headlamps on. After some searching we could see the camelback in the middle of some bushes. The culprit was a raccoon and it was still in the bushes. I threw a few rocks into the bushes and the raccoon waddled off (without the camelback). I went into the bushes and retrieved the missing camelback and fortunately it was not damaged at all. We gathered up all of our food and other bags and put them in the vestibule of our tents. No more pilferage happened although we did hear the raccoons in the bushes all night.
We got up in the morning and proceeded to pack up and get ready for the days ride. We were all a little touchy because it gets frustrating when it takes so long to pack up and get going; over 2 hours from when we wake up until we leave. I think it is because our packs are so disorganized. It seems like every pack has to be taken apart and then re-packed and when we re-pack them stuff is in different bags. I am confident that with practice we will get a system down. In a few weeks I hope to be posting that we packed up camp in record time.
On today’s ride we turned east and started heading to the mountain passes. Our route takes us over 5 mountain passes over the next week, one pass per day. We will climb the first one on Friday. Today we rode through the towns of Burlington, Sedrow-Woolley, Concrete and ended up at the Howard Steele county park in Rockport. The weather today was sunny and hot, in Concrete it was 83 degrees, with a pretty good tailwind all day.
First stop today was lunch in Burlington. Then we rode the Cascade bike trail for about 15 miles. We have a love/hate view of bike trails. We love that they are safe (no cars), quiet, shady, the gradient is very low (no hills) and they are much more intimate with the region. The farm fields and forest come right up to the trails. The hate part is the pavement. Trails can be made of asphalt, crushed limestone, gravel or sand. The cascade trail was made of gravel. It was a bumpy and slow ride. Bike trails can also be adventurous. As we went down the trail, several of the locals warned us that we would need to cross a stream. We got good local advice,”the boards on the side are very slippery so stay in the middle”. Sure enough, we came to a stream and we rode right down the middle and did not fall.
We got off the trail about 5 miles short of Concrete. We were tired of all the bumps and wanted some smooth road. In Concrete we stopped at the grocery store and then continued on the last 10 miles to Rockport and our campgrounds. The Howard Steele County park is a nice campground on the Skagit river. Dinner was at the Rockport bar and grill which is about 10 feet from the entrance to the park.
We met our first fellow bike traveler tonight in the campground. Mike is from Juneau, Alaska and he took the ferry down to Bellingham. He rode from Bellingham to the campground today, about 66 miles. He is riding to Ely, Mn to visit family and he wants to be in Ely by June 29. We swapped stories and Ross shared some of his knowledge about the mountain passes. Since Mike is riding much faster then us, we will not be seeing him again. We wished each other safe travels.
Tomorrow will be the start of our climbing, with our first two passes coming on Friday.
Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 122 miles (196 km)
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3 years ago
Thank you for following our journal and your encouraging words. We are having a great time and have a long way to go.
Sorry for the delay in replying. Your comment slip they the cracks.
Take care!
3 years ago