Travel Day:1024 miles, 35,000 ft ascent, 9 hrs.Daily Drena: Seattle Beckons We started the morning with some last minute packing and welcoming our lovely housesitter, Brandon, who is going to fit in just fine around here as he pulled up…
Seattle Biking Day:39.55 miles, 1030 ft ascent, 5 hrs. 50 min.Daily Drena: Miles and Smiles with Miley After a restful evening, we awoke refreshed and began preparations for the bike ride around Lake Washington. This began with a finely prepared…
Cattle Point Biking Day:21.11 miles, 1338 ft ascent, 3 hrs. 2 min.Daily Drena: Room with a View Today had an unfortunate start of a call from Brandon. Panicking, I answered the phone thinking that Sophie had escaped and run off,…
Roche Harbor & Lime Kiln Biking Day:38.02 miles, 2417 ft ascent, 8 hrs. 15 min.Daily Drena: Balance Today started with an early wake-up call from the 8:00 ferry blowing it’s horn as it left the harbor, but we managed to…
Shaw Island Biking Day:15.96 miles, 1332 ft ascent, 3 hrs. 21 min.Daily Drena: Quiet Roads We were up early this morning, but didn’t have plans to catch the ferry to Shaw until later, so meandered into the downtown to grab…
Orcas Island Biking Day 1:25.87 miles, 2560 ft ascent, 8 hrs. 17 min.Daily Drena: You Don’t Mind This morning had a pretty fog on the water before dissipating shortly thereafter. We relaxed in the condo waiting until we saw the…
Orcas Island Biking Day 2:28.92 miles, 2759 ft ascent, 7 hrs. 25 min.Daily Drena: Scenic Stops We enjoyed our morning breakfast in the balcony, taking in the last of the sight before packing up and heading off to our first…
Orcas Island to Lopez Island Biking Day:30.46 miles, 2362 ft ascent, 9 hrs. 19 min.Daily Drena: The Seven Three Minute Stops Jill and Charles provided a gourmet breakfast this morning, of honey-glazed croissant with fresh jam, steelhead trout, egg frittata,…
Lopez Island Biking Day:34.00 miles, 1845 ft ascent, 5 hrs. 48 min.Daily Drena: Side by Side A dappled sunlit morning greeted us from within our tent. We wandered over to the outdoor kitchen to make our simple breakfasts of oatmeal…
Travel Day:1162 miles, 35,000 ft ascent, ~17.5 hrs.Daily Drena: Home Sweet Home Trip Stats:233.89 miles15643 ft. ascent51 hrs. 17 min. exploring The morning was spent wandering around La Conner (on foot, not bike…), popping around the various art galleries, book…
Travel Day: 1162 miles, 35,000 ft ascent, ~17.5 hrs. Daily Drena: Home Sweet Home
Trip Stats: 233.89 miles 15643 ft. ascent 51 hrs. 17 min. exploring
The morning was spent wandering around La Conner (on foot, not bike…), popping around the various art galleries, book stores, and coffee shops.
It was early afternoon before we started heading back to Mike and Holly’s to drop off the car (you guys are amazing!!!), pick up what various sundries we left behind, and to disassemble and repack the bikes for the journey home.
Overall, we recommend the San Juan’s as a destination. Expect to see dogs a lot, which is wonderful, as they are welcomed almost everywhere. As bikers, we loved Lopez, San Juan, and Shaw. Orcas seemed to be the busiest on certain roads and is also very hilly, but if you’re prepared for that, there are numerous wonderful spots to stop and enjoy on the island.
Lopez Island Biking Day: 34.00 miles, 1845 ft ascent, 5 hrs. 48 min. Daily Drena: Side by Side
A dappled sunlit morning greeted us from within our tent. We wandered over to the outdoor kitchen to make our simple breakfasts of oatmeal and bananas and enjoyed them while relaxing on our deck (we tried the sunlit field, but it was just too warm). We relaxed for a brief time, then were off on our adventure across the island.
Our first stop, just down the road, was Lopez Village, the only town on the island. It had a row containing a cafe, art gallery, bakery, and bookshop, so we had to stop and poke around. Unfortunately, you need to get here earlier than we did (around 10:30am), for the fresh cinnamon rolls, as people outside were happily munching on them, but they were all out at the counter.
We made our way down the western coast to the south, finding some amazing views along the way. We weren’t quite hungry enough to eat an entire box of raspberries, however, so we went without although they looked delicious. We stopped at a point just south of Richardson where there used to be a general store (per a 1992 guide book we found at the B&B), but it was no longer in operation, but there was still a beautiful view to take in.
Next up was a hike to Iceberg Point. Again, we ran afoul of private property everywhere, but they allow folks to walk through to the point along the road (but no bicycling, heaven forbid!). It was a lovely, albeit fast-paced hike, as we didn’t expect to have to hike quite as far. Lorena spotted a seal off the point as well, popping its head above the water for a brief time, but still no signs of orcas.
Having made it to the southernmost portion of the island, it was time to turn around and head back north. Lopez definitely earns its title as a bike friendly island, as the traffic is quite low and there are lovely country lanes the length of the island. We only had to get on the “busy” Center Rd for 2-3 miles and only a handful of cars passed during that time. We ended up stopping for a brief time at Spencer Spit State Park in the northeast. It is a unique triangular shape of land that sticks out into the ocean which is formed where both northerly and southerly currents and winds meet, eroding the cliffs in each direction and transporting the sands eroded into this landmass. Ironically, Deanna and Chase will be here next week for some clamming!
We had pretty perfect timing for the ferry this time, as we arrived with just enough time to change out of biking shoes and shorts, before clambering aboard for the last time. We packed up the bikes at the car and headed on out to La Connor for our evening. We were both starving, so after quick showers, headed out and grabbed some dinner on the riverside and then called it an early night.
Orcas Island to Lopez Island Biking Day: 30.46 miles, 2362 ft ascent, 9 hrs. 19 min. Daily Drena: The Seven Three Minute Stops
Jill and Charles provided a gourmet breakfast this morning, of honey-glazed croissant with fresh jam, steelhead trout, egg frittata, and berries from the garden. We devoured it, as per typical on our biking vacations. We then headed out on our journey back to the potters in the enchanted forest to get some new plates we had been thinking about. After the potters’, we stopped at Turtleback Mountain to bike up the northern trail to a point for a view overlooking the valley.
Next up was Deer Harbor on our way back to the ferry landing. This is definitely more of a marina than a town as there is a post office, general store, and boats galore. I believe there was one or two restaurants as well, but not much else except pretty views of the oceanside.
We were able to connect to the WiFi at the harbor and learn that our boat was running an hour late, so we first stopped at the farm stand we saw on the way over to have a peek. Lorena found a banana blueberry popsicle to munch on so we hung out here for a few minutes. There were numerous stops along the way for flower photos overlooking the seaside, but we were still supposed to arrive at the ferry landing about 15 minutes before schedule. However, when we crested the hill, I saw a ferry just starting to head out and sure enough, it was ours. Apparently they had made up 20 minutes somewhere and since we didn’t have any cell service along the way, didn’t get any updates until too late.
So, we had about 3 hours to kill until the next ferry so wandered into the grocery and gift shop, then sat down for a bite to eat at the local cafe. There was not an ice cream shop, but we found a pint of the local ice cream at the grocery and ate on the hill overlooking the landing. There were numerous rabbits about that people were hand feeding carrots and they didn’t even run when a dog got near them…there must not be many predators on the island.
After the ferry ride, we sat down to get our bike gear on for another couple mile bike ride to our stop for the evening, Lopez Farm and Cottages. Upon arrival we were greeted by one of the two farm cats who led us to our tent for the night; what service! She bounded off after a while, but returned when we were getting ready for bed and curled right up with us for almost the entire night.
Orcas Island Biking Day 2: 28.92 miles, 2759 ft ascent, 7 hrs. 25 min. Daily Drena: Scenic Stops
We enjoyed our morning breakfast in the balcony, taking in the last of the sight before packing up and heading off to our first destination of the day.
The beginning of the day was a steep hill climb out of Rosario up to the main road and was a fore shadowing of the day to come. We first came across Moran State Park and took a moment to admire the first lake we came across, Cascade Lake.
At the bottom of a long hill we ran into the Orcas Island Artworks, which used to be the old strawberry processing plant. From the late 1800s, most of the land around here was used for growing strawberries, which was then processed primarily into jam. However, there was also a strawberry growing contest and the record holder was in the 1910s where a strawberry of more than 9 inches in circumference was grown! I powered up with a pb&j I had bought at the market yesterday while Lorena wandered around the gallery.
Just down the road from the gallery was the town of Olga, which has a post office, co-op store, coffee shop and that’s it! We also found a potter’s home along the way which had a very pretty mossy fence. We hung out for a while just enjoying the view.
We wandered up some gravel roads to find Obstruction Pass State Park, where we decided to do a little 1.5 mile loop hike. The walk had some lovely specimens of the local madrone trees, which are unique in that they don’t form a hard layer of bark on the outside, but rather papery peels. It also has the best beach we’ve found where we settled in for a goodly amount of time, just relaxing and watching the waves.
We continued our journey over to the last outpost on the eastern side of the island, Doe Bay. There is a lovely old school family feel resort there with yurts, camping, and cute little cabins scattered near the shore, not to mention the amazing views. It would be a lovely place to spend a few days kayaking, swimming, boating, and enjoying the hot and cold pools.
With nowhere else to go, we turned around and started heading back the way we came. When we came to Moran State Park this time, however, we saw a path to the side that allowed bikes, so decided to explore. It was the Cascade Lake Loop trail and it led us to the Cascade Falls. Since the trail kept going, I suggested we continue following it for a bit and hence proceeded a lovely little singletrack adventure for a little over 1.5 miles. Some of us thoroughly enjoyed it. Others of us had their husband run back and bike the littler bike to the next section before proceeding with his own 😉 We had opted not to make the 5 miles, 1900 ft climb up Mt. Constitution this time, so will have to come back in the future to conquer that.
We slogged our way back up the road back to town and thought we would take the back way to our inn for the night, but no luck; as we cut across town from East to West, we were denied yet again with no trespassing signs with the added difficulty of a gate. *sigh* Back the way we came to the paved road to get across instead, but we ended up finding the Kangaroo House Bed and Breakfast in the end. It was a lovely place with a quiet sitting room, little library, and most importantly, a hot tub to soak our limbs!
Orcas Island Biking Day 1: 25.87 miles, 2560 ft ascent, 8 hrs. 17 min. Daily Drena: You Don’t Mind
This morning had a pretty fog on the water before dissipating shortly thereafter. We relaxed in the condo waiting until we saw the early ferry head across the horizon then headed up to the docks to head over to Orcas Island. While waiting for the ferry to dock, we struck up a conversation with an older couple who were also heading to bike Orcas. They were doing a similar route to us, but taking a side jaunt to Deer Harbor, which we were planning to do on our way out to a Lopez in two days time. We were a little jealous of their e-bikes and luggage service as Orcas is the hilliest island and they went with one of the self guided pre planned tours. We hope to be doing the same thing as them 30 years down the road!
After saying farewell to our new bike friends and Lorena heading off in the wrong direction, we corrected and started immediately climbing hills on a country road to the east of the docks. It was a lovely mixture of forests, rolling hills, and farmland with a few miles of gravel road along the way, which was well worth it, as again, we only saw about ten cars for the first part of this route. We met up with our friends in East Sound later in the day and they had taken the main road the other day and dealt with a ton of traffic instead.
An offshoot of the route took us down an enchanted forest lane with ravens in abundance flying about and cackling away in the tops of the trees. This led us to Orca Islands Pottery, a collective of the islands potters where a fourth generation family of potters lives and throws bowls all day, as was evidenced by the prolific amount of pottery for sale. There was one room which was floor to ceiling on every wall just of mugs! We spent quite a bit of of time there exploring the pottery, tree house, and gardens, before heading off with just photos, but the potential to stop back on the way off the island to purchase some bowls and plates to replenish the ones we have broke; over the years. The combinations of glaze colors was really stunning.
After a number of more hill climbs we made it to East Sound, the main town on the island, directly in the center between the two land masses to either side. We settled in for a quick bite to eat at the local cafe where they had run out of most supplies for the day already, so I ended up with a grilled cheese and Lorena had a chicken salad sandwich. We then spent far too much time wandering the town exploring the various shops and art studios until it was late afternoon. We also kept trying to make our way to “public beaches”, which turned out to be a few meters of rocky beach underneath a restaurant and a dock that didn’t even have access to the shore. Yet again, there is far too much private land and not enough public here, with no trespassing signs everywhere.
After the longest hill climb of the day and extremely poor timing of just being after work and thus, tons of cars zipping by, we made it to the Moran State Park and Rosario Village where we were staying for the evening. We had picked up provisions at the local grocers in East Sound as Rosario is mostly closed due to renovations. However, when we arrived, a grill cafe was actually open, although closed shortly thereafter. There was also a little store attached to the cafe and a laundry available, so we thought we would get some clean clothes! Alas, they had no quarters available as they were wiped out by the other guests earlier that day, but we scrounged up two quarters in Lorena’s supply and the lady felt sorry for us and gave us the two quarter she had left. We found out that was just enough for a dryer load, so we hand washed all our clothes back at the room, then biked them down for a dryer load. Unfortunately, one 20 minute dry session didn’t get them all dry, so we are hoping they will dry overnight as they are strewn across the bikes in our room and any surface we could hang them from. We did, however, enjoy our salami, cheese, and crackers for dinner on the lawn chairs with a beautiful view of the bay.
Shaw Island Biking Day: 15.96 miles, 1332 ft ascent, 3 hrs. 21 min. Daily Drena: Quiet Roads
We were up early this morning, but didn’t have plans to catch the ferry to Shaw until later, so meandered into the downtown to grab some breakfast at the local cafe, Rocky Bay Cafe. We were apparently hungry as we devoured our meals, although it was just average food. Only being 9:15 we then wandered across the street to the local grocers, Kings Market, and found some salmon, cheese, salami, cheese and chocolate for our adventure on Shaw Island later in the day. Shaw is mainly residential nowadays with just one general store as the only commercial operation on the island. The local nuns managed the general store and ferry terminal from 1977-2004 and still operate the monastery and working farm in the middle of the island. There are only 250 full-time residents on the island, so should be quite rural and right up our alley!
The ferry was running a little late today, but we eventually made it over to Shaw by early afternoon so were still able to spend the afternoon on the isle. The journey started by us leaving the ferry with only two other passengers and no cars so a good start! We loaded up and headed off to our first stop of the day, Blind Bay, for a nice viewpoint. We discovered early on that the roads were deserted and more like country lanes.
In the middle of the isle sits the school house, which is still active today and serves 35 kids on the island, K-8. There is also the cutest little library and the history museum as well (both open very limited hours each week).
Wandering over to the west end of the island, there were two nice viewpoints to look out from. The unfortunate part of the island is that it is almost entirely private, so there are private beach and no trespassing signs everywhere. There was a little bench just off the viewpoint which is also marked private, so no relaxing to be had! It wouldn’t kill them to just let folks use the bench for five minutes, considering there are like 5 visitors a day to the island and probably only one or two go all the way out there…
We headed over to the southern tip of the island next, where the University of Washington has a biological preserve. Along the way there were some amazing fern groves and someone who just started to recreate the Field of Dreams movie. We found our second gravel road along the way (yay!) and an amazing place to eat a peaceful lunch at Hoffman Cove, listening to the soft lapping of the waves coming ashore.
Our last stop of the day was the Shaw County Park and South Beach, which is supposedly the best beach on the island. We spent a good 20 minutes there soaking in the sun and playing with some dogs on the beach who were super friendly, before heading back to catch the ferry back home for the evening. For the entirety of the afternoon we saw maybe a dozen cars and maybe a dozen more people at the beach and ferry…it was amazing!
Roche Harbor & Lime Kiln Biking Day: 38.02 miles, 2417 ft ascent, 8 hrs. 15 min. Daily Drena: Balance
Today started with an early wake-up call from the 8:00 ferry blowing it’s horn as it left the harbor, but we managed to roll over and go back to sleep, so it ended up being a lazy morning. We didn’t manage to load up the bikes and get started until 10:12am, which we realized was poor timing as the next ferry was just arriving, but oh well!
Our main destination of the day in the north was Roche Harbor, but there were lots of stops on the way for interesting things we just found along the side of the road. My favorite was a lovely little cove and overlook at Reuben Tarte Park, and even though the bike back up and out was extremely steep it was definitely worth it.
We stopped in at the San Juan Island Sculpture Park and toured the grounds for a bit. It covers 20 acres, but I feel like we were able to see a good portion of it before our stomachs made us move on to lunch in Roche Harbor at the Lime Kiln Cafe which is right on the dock. Roche Harbor is a small little resort town which is known for art, so Lorena was able to walk around the little art fair that was going on, while I sat across from what seemed to be the tiniest post office in the world.
Next up was English Camp to attempt to get more information on this pig war. So, basically what happened is that the English and the USA had both stakes claims to the islands and established a treaty defining the “channel” separating Vancouver Island and from the mainland as one of the lines of the treaty defining territories. However, there are actually two channels, Haro Strait nearest Vancouver Island and Rosario Strait nearer the mainland. The San Juan Islands are between these two channels, so both sides claimed them as their territory. The English’s Hudson Bay Company (HBC) established a farm in the area and some Americans later resided on the island and an uneasy peace ensued. This ended on June 15, 1859 when an HBC pig rooted around in an American’s garden, so he shot it. Navies and armies from both nations were sent in response to encamp on the island. Instead of hostilities occurring, cooler heads prevailed (mainly due to a British Admiral not wanting to start a war over a pig), and a peaceful joint military occupation lasted until 1871 when it was ruled that the islands belonged to the United States.
History lesson aside, we also saw many signs all over the island regarding whether library services should be voted in during the upcoming election cycle … which way will this war end …
We then took a rest at the San Juan County Park, enjoying the views and a snack, while looking for, but not finding any whales.
More whale hunting was undertaken at the Lime Kiln Point State Park. We learned that lime from limestone was a large export of the islands, as it was used in the production of steel, plaster, cement, and paper. It is also extremely reactive with water, producing heat, and even knowing this they tried to offload the lime directly onto ships next to the quarry via a rickety dock until they lost a newly built schooner in 1875 and decided it was better to ship it overland.
Our last stop of the day was at False Bay, which provided a lovely view of farmland and water.
We have discovered two issues we have with the island so far: 1) Restaurants do not stay open late enough, so we have had to scrounge for food, and 2) They are very much against bikes on trails as everywhere we look there are “no bikes” signs even though the trails are easily bikeable and wide enough for all users. Oh, and we saw a sea lion or seal right outside of our Airbnb while we were eating our dinner.
Cattle Point Biking Day: 21.11 miles, 1338 ft ascent, 3 hrs. 2 min. Daily Drena: Room with a View
Today had an unfortunate start of a call from Brandon. Panicking, I answered the phone thinking that Sophie had escaped and run off, but it was a lesser hiccup of the power going out. Thankfully, it was basically only our neighborhood, so was back on in an hour and a half or so.
Next up was yet another amazing breakfast from Holly, which was a potato bowl with various sundries packed in. We were all dished out Mike-size portions, so Holly packed up our leftovers in a to go bag for lunch, along with a bag of cherries.
All in all, if you have not been to Mike and Holly’s Bed and Breakfast, we highly recommend it. It has superb service, enticing breakfasts AND dinners, comes with guided bike tours of the area, and even has a pickleball court and hot tub! Easily 6 out of 5 stars…we will be back!
We packed up our stuff and headed out on our next leg of the journey, which was a drive up the highway (thanks Mike and Holly!!) to Anacortes. We just missed the noon ferry, so, of course, had to purchase some ice cream to wile away the time. Apparently, one scoop around here is equivalent to three scoops back in Boulder, so we were quite full by the time the ferry arrived and we boarded.
We found the last table available on the lowest level (attempting to abate my seasick-proneness) and it had a puzzle sitting out that people apparently work on during the ferry ride, so we added a few pieces during the journey.
We didn’t arrive at Friday Harbor until 4ish, so jumped on our bikes and made the very short commute (0.4 mile) to our lodgings for the night. Since it was late in the day, we only relaxed for a few minutes before tossing on our biking gear and heading back out, as we only had two days to fully explore the island. We decided on the southern route, which started us off towards American Camp. I found what appeared to be a side road that would take us down south, so we hopped on that and it was a lovely meandering through the woods and homes on a tiny little road. It popped us back out on the main road and I saw it was a private road, but, eh, whatever. There was also a trail right at the junction with the main road and it didn’t say no bikes, so we popped on that, but turned around shortly thereafter, as although it was doable on the bikes, it was going to take us too long, so we popped back out on the main road. We arrived at American Camp, which was an encampment of the US Army back in 1859-1874 to counterbalance the English Camp on the north side of the island. Apparently there was some conflict about the water boundary between the two nations that started with a pig … more to come on that as we hopefully find out what the heck that was about.
Next stop was South Beach for a quick walk in the black sands and skipping some stones. We partially regretted this little stop as it meant going down a large hill, which we then had to climb right back up.
And, the last stop on our short tour was the Cattle Point Lighthouse on the southern tip of the island.
And now to relax in our humble little abode (tiny studio) with an amazing view over the water. Tomorrow we will be off to explore the North and West sides of the island.
Seattle Biking Day: 39.55 miles, 1030 ft ascent, 5 hrs. 50 min. Daily Drena: Miles and Smiles with Miley
After a restful evening, we awoke refreshed and began preparations for the bike ride around Lake Washington. This began with a finely prepared meal of toast with almond butter, heaped with strawberries, apples, and cinnamon. Mike and I preceded to eat poorly apparently, as we needed forks to finish up the fallen items while the two ladies were able to manage o keep their toppings entirely upon the toast. We are quickly becoming accustomed to the 6-star service we are receiving at this Bed and Breakfast and, I suspect, are going to be sorely disappointed for the remainder of the trip! After cleaning up breakfast, we took a quick little drive over to the start point at the Wilmot Gateway Park and began the adventure! After a lovely ride along the Sammamish River Trail, which reminded me of the Towpath from rowing up, we made out first stop at Matthew’s Beach Park, for a restroom break and I adjusted my seat slightly forward. Fun was being had by some swimmers, kayakers, and paddle boarders, along with some ducks lazily swimming around near shore.
Mike then led us to the University of Washington, where they usually stop for a snack in front of the large fountain with Mt. Rainier in the background. Unfortunately, the fountain was closed for repairs, so we didn’t get to see that spectacle, but we went a little farther up the main path in the hopes of seeing Rainier. It was somewhat hazy, but you could see it far in the distance, straight down the walking path. We had some snacks while admiring the architecture of some of the older buildings built in the 1920s through 50s, then headed onward.
We wandered over to the shores of Lake Union next, to take in the view of the Seattle skyline at the Gas Works Park. This was the site of the Seattle Gas Light Company’s coal gasification plant, which powered the streetlamps, ligts in homes, then cooking stoves and heat for homes, starting in the 19th century through 1956. In the 70s it was converted into a park, but they left some of the machinery which is quite cool looking. From the viewpoint, we also had a number of sea planes fly right overhead, as part of the scenic tours you can take from the air over Seattle.
We headed back east, then south a little until we hit the SR 520 bridge and took that east across the Lake. It has a lovely wide separated biking lane that spans the entire bridge, so is a pleasant enough ride with some good views along the way. This bridge is the longest floating bridge in the world at 2,350 meters long, which has concrete pontoons anchored to the lake bed. We then proceeded up and over a few grueling hills to the east through Bellevue on the way to one of Mike and Holly’s favorite haunts, Spark Pizza. We filled up (perhaps a little too much) on some delicious pizzas and raspberry lemonade while hanging out for a good part of the afternoon.
We powered up to stretch out our now stiff legs and sore posteriors and got back on the bikes. We were able to pop back on the Sammamish River Trail for a pleasant ride back to our starting point. Along the way, we were lucky enough to see a bald eagle swoop down into the river and catch itself a fish. Apparently, there are a few here that Mike sees often on his rides into work.
Mike’s chauffeur service back to the house was superb and we earned ourselves some well earned showers, and a quick nap for some. Slowly powering back up, we headed out just before dusk to have some pickleball fun at the deck side court (more exercise!) to call it an evening.
We started the morning with some last minute packing and welcoming our lovely housesitter, Brandon, who is going to fit in just fine around here as he pulled up in a Subie loaded with a gravel and mountain bike. After he settled in with the pup and kitty, we headed off to the airport for our journey to Seattle to visit Mike and Holly for the first few days of our trip. Ironically, Mike had flown into Denver on Tuesday for a work meeting on Wednesday, so he was able to coordinate it where we are on the same airplane going back to Seattle. We met up in the airport and grabbed some sandwiches from Einstein’s then caught up while waiting for our, unfortunately, 1h 38m delayed plane.
When boarding group B was called we said goodbye to Mike the intrepid traveler and sat around until our poor Saver fare was called in the last group of F. Whilst boarding, a lady behind struck up a conversation with us as she was curious about our panniers and helmets we were lugging around. She was heading off to just south of the islands for a Ragnar 24 hour running race on Deception Pass. By this time, we had caught up with Mike so attempted to not hit him in the head with our helmets as we passed him by and made our way to our seats.
The plane ride was a wee bit choppy heading out of Denver, but soon calmed down and we had pleasant flying for the remainder of the flight. Our bikes came through the trip safely, thanks to Annie and Jeremy’s bike bags (thanks!!!), so we gathered them up and started the haul back to the other side of the airport (Did I forget to mention we got some new gravel bikes and decided to take them with us??). Thankfully the bike bags have wheels on them, so that made it easier, although they were still somewhat large and awkward and we were quite thankful to be done hauling them by the time we reached Mike’s good ol’ 4Runner. The plane delay had made us arrive at rush hour, but it wasn’t too long before we rolled up to Mike and Holly’s.
We received a vivacious greeting from Holly, then got a tour of Mike and Holly’s (new to us) house and grounds and then settled in for a delicious meal of lasagna and salad courteously handmade by Holly. We promptly scarfed down two large helpings while enjoying their deck and surroundings. We weighed our options on what to do the following day and decided on a shakedown bike ride, because why not start with a long ass bike ride before another week of bike riding? 😉 After much merriment and chatting, we called it an evening and headed to bed.
Trip Stats: 278.97 miles 9230 ft. ascent 44 hrs. 21 min. exploring
Up at 4:15am this morning (PEI time, which is 1:15am MDT and 9:15pm the previous day HST), we groggily stumbled about and attempted to make as little noise as possible to leave the Eden Hall Inn. Unfortunately, it being a very old home, the steps creaked like nothing else and we were up on the second floor. Hopefully we didn’t wake anyone else, although we noticed Room 3 had already vacated the premises earlier to get to the airport as well. We grabbed some packed breakfasts (a muffin and some bread-like snacks) that the kind hostess had made the evening before and headed off in our pre-arranged cab to the airport.
Now, we thought we had it bad being up at 4:15am, but this was the end of the cabbies shift. He had put in an 8 hour shift the day earlier, ending at 5pm, taking a cat nap, then another shift starting at 8pm, so probably was more tired than we were, but he got us to the airport on time and safely, exchanging tales of our adventures and bike riding (probably more to keep himself awake than anything).
I had tried to check ourselves in the evening before online, but the Air Canada site simply wouldn’t cooperate, so we started the morning going through the many many screens of airport check-in on a kiosk, successfully getting our tickets printed out after about 5 minutes. We had arrived at the airport 1.5 hours early, as recommended by George (the hostess at the Inn recommended 2 hours), and the security line was non-existent so we had plenty of time. However, of course, I got pulled aside as they saw something unusual in my bag and it was all the way on the bottom. So after emptying out my bag of, ahem, quite ripe dirty biking clothes, he found the pedals in my bike sundries which is what caught the scanners. After some swabbing for chemicals we were sent on our merry way after I packed my bag for the second time.
A late start to the boarding process got us in the air a few minutes behind schedule and we arrived in Montreal a few minutes late. We already only had a 55 minute layover, so time was going to be tight. Finally disembarking, we headed over to the U.S. Connections area and realized we had to go through U.S. customs in Canada, rather than Denver as we had expected. And to top things off, I was of course randomly selected by the airline for an in depth security review. *sigh* What this entails is a detailed look at your boarding pass, passport, and customs forms, a full pat-down on pretty much every part of your body, questions about why you’re traveling, and of course, the emptying of the bag yet again for more swabs. So, I empty my bags out, have to take my phone out of its case, and turn on my computer to prove that it’s working. Pack everything up for the third time, just stuffing anything wherever it’ll fit and off to customs. Unfortunately, the only lady on duty was back in the baggage scanner asking if anyone was for the Las Vegas flight at 8:15am (ours was leaving at 8:05am), so we had to wait for her to get back, then get swept through customs as fast as possible and fast walk it to our gate. Thankfully our gate was the second gate outside of customs and they were holding the plane for us, so we got on and sweated, albeit sweat, hungry, and needing to use the restroom. We sit about for around 10 minutes and one more passenger comes on … grr, why’d we have to rush so much then! Anyways, finally in the air and on our way to Denver!
The flight was fairly uneventful, with just a few bumps along the way. Everyone apparently had to use the bathroom though, so it took some time before we were able to make our way back to the lavatory. Thankfully, we were sitting nearer the front this time and the stewardess started serving food at the front, yay! But, only three or four rows where we were, there was but one breakfast sandwich left, alas. We cleaned her out of it as well as some other snacks and sundries to satiate our appetites which had finally kicked into high gear. 3 hours and 47 minutes later and we were in Denver.
Off to the buses! Lorena hung out in the newly added fake grass and seating area upstairs – nice cushioned seats, adirondack chairs, and corn hole – while I went down to get us tickets. We had about 45 minutes until the bus left, but it’s a good thing I headed down when I did as the line for tickets and the bus was quite substantial. After 5 attempts at reading my credit card, I finally got our bus tickets out of the machine and went to grab Lorena to stand in line down at the buses. The line just kept growing and growing and we hoped we were far enough along to catch the first bus and luckily we were. Quite a few people weren’t and they jammed us in on all the seats and standing in the aisles, even with luggage in the main seating area as the space below ran out. But we made it safely back to Boulder where our car was still happily sitting and are now at home safe and sound.
Ziggy and Zephyr were overjoyed to see us and Joby was there to greet us as well as he was out back working on the trailer. We rested up a bit inside with Lorena passing out quickly into a deep slumber, then powered up for the evening. Our housesitters, Kathy and Rich (wonderful people!), had left us a lovely note along with a homemade bird feeder / nesting area they had picked up in the local markets, so we hung it up in the tree out front next to the hammock and will see what decides to visit us / make a home there. We also hung up the driftwood decoration we had gotten at the little art stop and modeled where the partially finished anniversary gift I made might be hung up in our house. I ran out of time to finish it before we left with all the things we had to do, but will hopefully have it fully finished and hung in the next week or so!
Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our PEI adventure. We highly recommend it to anyone who might want to cycle it, with the following caveats: avoid the Cavendish area due to high tourist vehicle traffic and no shoulder and avoid the Confederation Trail except the Morrell to St. Peter’s Bay stretch, instead opting for the unpopulated scenic byways instead. Oh, and Jesse and Elizabeth, I wouldn’t recommend a tandem on the trail – at every road crossing they had these gates you had to pass through that barely fit a loaded bike with panniers that were extremely annoying and I think the tandem would drive you mad getting on and off every 1/2 mile in certain areas.
Biking Day 7: 29.56 miles, 915 ft ascent, 5 hrs. 37 min. Daily Drena: One Last Bike Ride
Alas, breakfast was so delicious again this morning that we forgot to get a photo again, so you’ll simply have to enjoy the photo of Lorena and our empty plates. A few parting views of the Johnson Shore Inn area and off we were to our next destination along the road.
This one’s for you, Cory – there is a New Zealand on this island and lots of places for sale with plenty of farming space. And the soil’s obviously good as 41% of the island is agricultural land … Lots are bargain prices at less than $20,000 CAD range, with some we saw of 2-4 acres at only $7500! Crazy!
Along the route was a tiny little she shed which was an art studio, so we had to stop, of course. The hostess was very friendly and chatty and had a cute little dog as well. She set up the studio to work in and sell her, her husband’s, her sister, her niece’s, and her neighbors art work of various makes and styles.
Back on the road, our destination of the day was Greenwich National Park. We had missed this on the way over to the Johnson Shore Inn as it added another 10 miles and we were already tired by that point in the day, so since we did the East part of the island yesterday, we figured we’d head on back and finish up there. It has a unique floating boardwalk over some beautiful views of ponds, sand dunes, and beaches. The other patrons at the Inn were raving about it, but I think we have been inundated to the beauty of the island as we just thought it was okay and may not have been worth backtracking 25 miles for. However, that could be the tired legs talking as well.
After about an hour at the park we waited for our ride back to Charlottetown from George where we were dropped off at the Eden Hall Inn for the evening. A beautiful old home built in 1897 in the Queen Anne architectural style, it was designed for a successful wine merchant and tavern owner, James Eden.
After a brief respite at the Inn, we took to the streets for one final time for a walking tour of the area. Lots of old buildings, some live music, many art galleries and craft shops, a dessert shop, chocolate shop, and ice cream finished up the tour of town and we were back in the Inn by 7:45pm. I promptly went to bed with Lorena following shortly after as we have a 6:25am flight the following morning, ugh.
Biking Day 6: 50.50 miles, 1726 ft. ascent, 9 hrs. 2 min. Daily Drena: ♪ … E I E I O … ♪
A lazy morning commenced as we are staying at the Johnson Shore Inn for two nights, so we didn’t need to get going right away. We slept in a little and mosied down to breakfast a little after 9am. Dave was our chef this morning and as he listed off the number of things we could partake in, we chose the “all of the above” option, which included fresh juice and tea, yogurt with granola and strawberries, scrambled eggs and bacon, toast with homemade strawberry jam, and potatoes (of course!). The meal was divine, not only because it was scrumptious, but also because it WASN’T pancakes!
After a number of route changes as there were plenty of options to choose from, we headed off on the road to our first destination, North Lake. This is another tiny community fishing village that is apparently known as the “Tuna Capital of the World”, due to the Giant Bluefin Tuna found in the waters, weighing more than 1,000 pounds! Lorena was also overjoyed when she found a random potato on the road along the route – apparently there are so many potatoes here they are growing out of the road as well! 😉
Next up was East Point, the other “tip” of the island, alongside North Cape, where we started biking from six days ago. A trip to the lighthouse and a commemorative award for having completed the full tip-to-tip trip!
Off to Basin Head and the “singing sands” beach. Apparently, as you walk through these sands, they make sounds similar to singing, but Lorena was unable to get them to sing for her today. However, we were rewarded with quiet roads along the way, scenic views, and a museum of the history of fishing/lobstering and lighthouses in the area. Basin Head is also know for its bridge across the water where the local kids come to hang out for the day and jump in where a swift current sweeps them out to the ocean.
A final 8 mile push and we arrived in the town of Souris, our last destination of the day. We had dinner reservations at 21 Breakwater for our anniversary at 7pm, so had an hour to kill as we wandered around town, had some amazing potato-based chocolate fudge, and hung out at the beach. Dinner was amazing with Lorena having a meal of Haddock and I opted for steak (of course). Dessert was a caramel pastry with strawberries and some of the most delicious apple crumble I’ve ever eaten.
Fully satiated (perhaps a bit too much so), we mustered up the will to change back into our biking clothes and make the final trek home to the Johnson Shore Inn. Our last biking day is tomorrow as we make our way back to Charlottetown later in the afternoon and fly out early in the morning on Sunday to head home.
