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Welcome to Lopez Island. You picked the flat one!

Me on our day two trek to Shark Reef

Was our greeting at the ferry terminal. The moment was eerie; only a handful of people — three cars, a few walking passengers, and several Washington State Ferry workers — were there as we arrived in the late afternoon. Our research told us to wait until all the ferry traffic left before riding on the road. That took two minutes.

My bride and I agreed that it was a bit surreal as we looked at each other, our bikes, and then the road. Are we really doing this? The ferry pulled away and headed off as if to say, yes, we are really doing this. Before long, the only sound we heard came from a breeze and various birds in the distance. Our bike trip had officially begun.

Maps, of course, never do justice to the terrain of an island. All my prep work was done looking at two-dimensional maps, and I was quickly and sharply reminded that when bicycling on any island, you start at sea level and go up from there. I had difficulty believing the comment about Lopez being the flat one as we were greeted with a good 5-6% grade hill.

Remember my post on tossing the twenty? This was my opportunity except I wouldn’t get to toss the extra weight at the top of the hill, since the at least twenty pounds came from our clothes and equipment in my two panniers and rack trunk.

The worst part of the hill was that I didn’t think to stretch before riding, and my left knee was starting to hurt after only a half a mile. Before long though, it flattened out. The shoulder was good, and there was absolutely no traffic. Where would it come from anyway? Unless some resident had an amphibious car, we knew we wouldn’t see another car until we met up with another road.

The love of my life outside of our cottage

We maybe saw 5 or 6 cars during the entire trip to our destination. Our first, and we both agree best, lodging of the trip was the quaint, Lopez Farm Cottages. The cottages are as cute as the little bunny butts that bounced up and down as the furry rodents hopped away from our mountain bikes. They are secluded with no phones or TVs, and children under 14 are not allowed. We especially liked the gas fireplace and outdoor hot tub.

We highly recommend staying at the Lopez Farm Cottages especially when the preseason rates still apply. It’s located on a huge farm with lush green fields and pastoral sheep, yet it’s not farm from Lopez Village, the island’s bustling main town. For our first meal, we braved riding during the evening, knowing we would most likely return in the dark, in order to have a nice restaurant dinner at the Love Dog Cafe.

We decided to get the special. It was Javanese green curry chicken and mango chutney. It was spectacular. The dinner was a reminder that a meal does not simply have to be a meal, but it can be an experience to delight the senses. White Bear Woman is the name of the owner and chef, and I give kudos to her for making that first night so memorable. In other words, I highly recommend a visit to the Love Dog Cafe.

By the time we were done, the sun was set, and twilight was fast slipping into night. I donned my Coast V2 Power Chip Headlamp from lighttorch.com (warning: shameless plug), and we headed back to our cottage.

I’ll fill you in on more details soon.

My bride and I just returned from a cycling tour of the San Juan Islands. We loaded up our bicycles, rack trunks, and panniers, and drove off to Anacortes, Washington, where we parked our car (for free by the way), and walked onto the ferry to Lopez Island. We worked our way westbound from Lopez island, to Orcas island, and then to San Juan island. We stayed for two nights on each island, and made at least one excursion on each our non-traveling days.

The trip was our first bicycle tour for each of us — as a couple or individually for that matter. All of our research was strictly from the Internet. We prepared ourselves for rain with our standard issue, black and yellow commuter gear, scotch-guarded panniers and trunks, and fender-equipped MTB hardtails. Rather than going hardcore and setting up tents, we opted for the more cushy cottage/inn route.

The only info we had on the routes from a cyclist were from a guy that took a prepackaged biking/camping tour during the summer. Reading his article, you might think it rains all the time in the San Juans, but compared to the Rose city, the San Juans seem like a desert (the south side of Lopez Island gets only an average of 14 inches of rain a year, and we got more than that this last January). In fact, it only sprinkled on us once for about 45 minutes, and we weren’t even on our bikes.

This was an adventure and an experiment of sorts. It was all new territory for us: we had never toured before, we had never visited the San Juan islands before, I had never conceived of taking the Lumbering Rhino on such a long ride with so much weight, and until this trip my wife had never ridden more than 8-10 miles at a time. So was it worth it? Did we survive? Will we ever do this again?

The answer is yes — oh yes! In my opinion, the best thing you could do on a vacation is to explore the islands, and make sure to do at least some of it “off the cuff” to really enjoy it.

Over the next week or so, I plan to post my thoughts on what to do and what not to do for each of the main islands. Each post will be dedicated to one of the main islands and will contain a description of possible routes with road conditions, so you will have a good idea of what to expect if you choose this most exquisite bicycle adventure.

Tune in and see . . .

For quite some time, there has been this post sitting in the “Post Waiting Room,” where all post drafts sit. This post is affectionately known as Post #35. Each time I decide to write a post, there is this Post #35 staring at me. Each time I check it; it stays the same. It has the title of Post #35, and that’s it; no excerpt, no content, nothing! Someone — possibly even me — had enough initiative to start a post, but not enough to actually add some content.

Well, Post #35, it was fun while it lasted, but it’s time I set you free. Fly away my friend. Ta ta! Ciao! Hasta Luego!