It was the destination of these dilettantes that interested me, so when we had a little break in the weather one day last week and I was able to knock off work a little early, I grabbed my bike and zipped two miles down the hill to catch the ferry to Vashon.
I had, of course, checked the schedule, so that a boat was there and about to leave. I paid my $6.45 and, less than 15 minutes later, I was walking my bike onto the dock.
Since I spend far too much of my day dreaming and planning for various bike rides, I already had a Vashon route programmed into my GPS. When I had put the route together weeks ago, I saw that it would start with a harsh hill. I almost made it all the way up without walking, but cold legs and the heavy bike I was on that day proved too tough a combination to overcome.
At the top, I followed the main road across the island for about a mile, and then turned onto a quieter road. A very quiet road. Maybe even too quiet ... The kind of road on which you begin to think that the pavement is going to end at the bottom of a steep hill where there used to be a bridge.
Pretty soon, however, I realized that, no, the pavement was going to last, but that the road was used only by the people that live off of it. That's because nobody in their right mind wants to meander on any road that is this winding and has this many really steep ups and downs.
The painful road eventually ran into another quiet road that was much less painful. While I had enjoyed the forest views of the painful road, the new road soon had me rolling past fields of cattle and sheep. Although it was mid-afternoon on a "work day," the few cars that passed me were all friendly.
A few miles of this took me across the ridge on the west side of the island before rejoining the main road. I descended the wide shoulder of that road all the way down to the other ferry on Vashon.
Then, of course, came another climb. Maybe my legs were warmer, or maybe the road wasn't as steep, but I was able to make it back up away from the coast without walking this time.
I was soon on the main road, which took me to Magnolia Beach.
Since the road at this point stayed close to the shore -- and since the wind from the south was now finally behind me -- I cruised along this section to Burton.
There was a nice loop here out onto a peninsula full of lovely homes, after which I stopped at the store and refilled my water bottle. Then I continued along the shore to Portage, where I turned off to loop a larger peninsula. After a few more hills, I descended into Dockton.
This is a cute quiet town, and the road that I took back out had an excellent climb. At the top, I passed through Dockton Park, which has miles of mountain biking trails that go all the way to the beach.
After rolling along the top of this ridge, I came to a spot with a scenic view.
Tacoma looks nice from here.
I descended down to the easternmost point, where there is a lighthouse. Since the road to that involved a hard half-mile climb -- and because I was running out of daylight -- I left the lighthouse for another day and headed towards Fern Heath.
This was another of those roads with tough climbs and no traffic, but you could see the houses from this road. Since most of the homes were on the shore, they were really really nice.
The other side of the road was more of a fern gully than a fern heath.
Soon I was leaving the peninsula via Portage and biking along the water to Ellisport. From there, I climbed inland and hit downtown Vashon.
The downtown area has a number of shops and restaurants. Fortunately, the bakery that I found on the main drag was still open. I bought and scarfed a couple of delicious coconut macaroons.
My planned route included one last loop east towards the coast, but I was running out of daylight so I stayed on the main road all the way back to the ferry. Although it had faster traffic on it, and much of it was the ever-speeding commuter type, this road has a pretty good shoulder and I had no trouble.
When I got to the ferry dock, a boat was just leaving.
By the way, that $6.45 that I paid earlier is for a round-trip, as I discovered when I tried to buy a ticket back to Seattle. The nice man at the terminal told me where to wait, and I hung out while more commuters showed up to stand with me in our little pedestrian pen.
Eventually, the ferry came and took me back to Fauntleroy. A light rain had begun as I headed the two miles uphill back to the house, but the views on Vashon were totally worth getting rained on.
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