May 17th

Milepost 96

It had been a rainy night in camp, but my tent stayed dry inside, despite being pitched poorly (as I discovered when breaking it down in the morning and finding a puddle on the ground cloth underneath where I slept). Drying the tent pieces most of the way took about 2 hours in the cloudy, still air. But I got to spend it in the trees, and I like being in the trees (more than the coast, about on par with the mountains in my “spiritual nature experiences” rankings), so it wasn’t bad.

I grazed on snacks for breakfast; now I am carrying 3/4 pound less of snack food. Still plenty in reserve.

I thought I might have a short riding day, and I was right. Overall the ride was pretty good - rural, but lots of low-traffic roads, or roads with shoulders and then even bike lanes as I made it into Bellingham. Tried to make it a light day but my legs still hurt after, so I got some nice relaxation time in town since most of the ride was over by 1.

While riding I found 3 surprise “off-road” paths to the route today that weren’t on the map, and I love surprise off-road excursions!

1. First was barely visible on google maps, pointing almost straight away from the campground (which was a couple miles off the main route I’m following), pointed directly back towards the main route, so it was an easy choice. Turned out to be land owned by BP, with a paved road through it, that was only open to pedestrians and bikes, for about 3 miles. I saw a couple of walkers and a dog, but no real indication why BP owned the land. There were refineries on the horizon, but it seemed like they were separated by a full public road from this huge parcel of shore-view property. Even without understanding why it was there, it was still quite nice to bike on!
2. Second was on a Native reservation which the route skirted the edge of. It was well-lit by solar-powered lights, and in general a well-engineered MUP that went along a road that was initially otherwise empty (it ended at a casino right at the edge of the reservation). It wound into a bit of a settled area and then my route diverged from it. Short but much appreciated on the side of the road with no shoulders and fairly steady traffic.
3. Was a short segment along the coast outside of Bellingham, gravel and shaded and on some empty land ending in a park where I got this picture:

At lunch I had a goal: I craved a burger. I let google help me find “brewpub with burger” and was not disappointed in the Chuckanut Brewery & Kitchen. Good beer, very good burger, and the waitress helped me find a bike parking spot I could see from where I was eating, and then suggestively dropped this coaster along with my meal, so I knew I’d found an afternoon activity:

Not sure if you can see that, but it says “Bike Party on Bay Street, May 17th 4-7pm”. Or, 2 hours hence, 2 miles away. How could I say no?

So, I checked into a cheap motel since camping in town can be really hit or miss (sketchy? next to the highway? actually 6 miles outside of town?), got cleaned up and then around 4:30 I wandered down to the Bike Party on Bay where I had a few beers, watched some folks race around on tricycles, and chatted with Mark who is a local who works for the city about local advocacy, nimbyism, bike facilities, and urban growth for an hour or so, found out about a bike polo tournament that night, and then had a very good grilled cheese sandwich for first dinner.

It didn’t turn out to be filling, so as I walked around downtown Bellingham waiting til tournament time, I stopped at a Mexican place and got a torta. It was only OK. Then I found the tournament and it was still heavily under construction (they were building the court in a parking garage, putting up boards and netting). Seeing as that wasn’t super exciting to watch, I wandered home via random neighborhood streets that were sometimes secret bike routes and I found the “bikey pointies” (my new term for sharrows) got me most of the way to my destination.

Tomorrow I haven’t figured out where I’ll go, yet. There’s plenty of commerce and camping to the south though, so it should be fine.

Photo album of those pictures at full res plus a few more

Written by Chris McCraw who resides in Portland, OR but maybe his heart is on the bike?