June 1, 2021
Seal of approval - arf arf
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When we were planning the start of the trip we planned on today to be a relatively easy day. We wanted to start the trip a bit easy to give our bodies and legs a chance to warm up before we do the mountain passes. The mileage for the day was a little longer than we planned but it was a nice day.
The day started in Larabee State Park. We had an ok night. It has been a few years since Janet and I have camped in a tent. It takes some time to get used to sleeping in a tent. The night was a bit restless and we did not get our normal amount of sleep. Also there were train tracks near the campground and a few trains went by and woke us up. Janet was the first one out of the tent and she had a little friend waiting to greet her. When she got out of the tent, she saw a deer peeking around a tree about 10 feet from our table.
It took us a couple of hours to break camp, pack up the gear and load it on the bikes. We got rolling about 9 am. The first 8 miles was on Chuckanut Drive. Chuckanut Mountain is the only part of the Cascades that come down to the sea. Chuckanut Drive is on the side of the mountain above the sea and is very scenic. When we rode a few miles on it yesterday to get to Larabee, the road had lots of traffic and was a bit scary. This morning we only had about 4 cars pass us in 8 miles, a much more relaxing and enjoyable ride.
Our first stop was at a bakery in Edison for a croissant, which was good. Next we had to climb a medium hill. On this hill Ross was first up and stopped to take some action pictures of Janet and I. I stopped in a drive way and there was an eagles nest with an eagle in it. There were a couple of hawks flying above the nest and the eagle took flight to defend its nest. We saw a real good bird flying fight. The hawks would soar up high and then dive bomb the eagle. It only lasted about a minute but was pretty cool.
After the eagle fight we made our way to Bay View State Park. We got a camp site and then put our packs in the tents. The next item for the day was to ride to Anacortes and back to Bay View on the unloaded bikes. This was the easier part of the day. Anacortes is the official starting point of the Northern Tier Route, but it is west of where we are so we decided to camp at Bay View and ride unloaded to Anacortes.
The ride to Anacortes was in three parts. We rode a bike path along the tidal flats of Padilla Bay. Then we had a couple of miles on the shoulder of a busy hwy 20. Then we rode on the Tommy Thompson bike trail into Anacortes. Once in Anacortes we stopped at a bar and grill for lunch, then went to a grocery store for dinner and breakfast items for tomorrow morning. Next we rode back to the campground.
The highlight of the ride was on the Tommy Thompson trail. The trail actually goes over the middle of Fidalgo Bay. On the trail/bridge we saw a couple of harbor seals in the water. It looked like one of the seals gave us the thumbs up for the trip. Ross was trying to talk to him (“arf arf”). The other highlight of the day was the gorgeous weather. It was sunny all day and the temp was in the upper 70’s. Mt Baker was again visible all day. It is cool seeing Mt Baker from different angles. It looks beautiful everywhere. A great day.
Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 77 miles (124 km)
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