July 1: Bellingham
They say that the best weather in Seattle runs from July 4 almost to Halloween. I had thought that we might have an early start to the good stuff ... but that didn't quite work out.
It was raining when six of us left the hotel Sunday morning. Steve and Joyce took the van and RandoGirl back to our house, where they would cannibalize our tandem to get a replacement rear wheel for their bike and a replacement front wheel for Tom and Judy's bike. The plan was for them to then meet us halfway and swap out driving duties with Tom and Judy, since this was our longest day.
The road out of Everett was fairly calm and easy, but wet. The climb up towards Lake Stevens was also wet, but busy. Fortunately, it had a good shoulder.
Once on top, we passed through Lake Stevens. I would have gotten more pictures, but it was still raining and/or we were getting a lot of spray from the road. Suffice it to say that the lake is very pretty.
Soon we were cruising north on the Centennial Trail, making very good time. As we approached the railroad tracks crossing the trail just before Arlington, I had just said something about "It goes without saying that these will be slippery," when the tracks caught the front wheel of Tom and Judy's tandem and they went down. Cathie was riding right next to them, and she crashed as well.
Fortunately, although everyone was banged up and scraped up, they were still functional. We got off route for a bit and went to the Bartell Drug Store in town, where we bandaged folks' scrapes and cuts. Tom had banged his head hard enough to break his helmet and give himself a mild concussion, so we stopped at the bike shop in town and bought him a new helmet. They would not sell him a new head.
I had alerted the van folks about the incident, so they re-routed to the trailhead near Lake McMurray. When we got there, we put Tom and Judy in the van (after Tom assured us he was okay to drive), and RandoGirl and Steve and Joyce got on their bikes. The sun then came out as we headed west on Hwy 534 through Conway and towards the coast.
The wind had come up as the rain ended, and we all welcomed a break for ice cream on the flat roads here.
Then we continued north to the other payoff road on this route: Chuckanut Drive.
This gorgeous road brings you almost into Bellingham. When we got into town, everyone else turned off towards their hotel while RandoGirl and Jeff and I took a nice gravel trail down towards a hotel closer to the shore. Jeff headed off north from there, and RandoGirl and I locked up our bikes, checked into our room, and turned on the fire in the fireplace. Our group was among the last of the patrons at the restaurant we visited that night, but we had made it.
July 2: Vancouver
Although the day began with sun, the night had been rough for some. To top off his scrapes and bruises, Tom had gotten food poisoning during the night. Judy and Cathie went with him to the hospital, to help Tom and to have their own scrapes and cuts tended to, and Jeff drove them and managed the process. None had gotten a good night’s sleep.
We decided to give Tom and Judy a few days off, so they stowed their bike at Jeff's hotel (making the best use of his frequent-stay status) and took over driving duties into and out of Canada. The rest of us had a late breakfast in town and rolled out about 10 am.
The rain wasn't done with us yet, and we had about 10 wet miles as we headed north and then west through Ferndale. Once up on the ridge out of town, however, the sun finally came out to stay.
We wound our way through the farm country, which got a little busy near some of the state parks, and then through Blaine to the border.
The line was shorter for us since we were on bicycles. The Canadians customs officers asked us a few questions, looked at our passports, and sent us on our way. A few miles later, we were doing the tough climb in to the suburbs of Vancouver.
We stopped soon afterwards for lunch.
Then we got on a few multi-use trails.
These would end at weird places, double back, or narrow and turn in ways that were definitely not tandem-friendly. At one point, we found ourselves under the bridge that we needed to be on.
RandoGirl got directions, however, and we made it up and over. As someone who is very afraid of heights, I must admit that this part of the trip scared the crap out of me. Although the bridge has a narrow catwalk of a trail tacked onto the side for bicycles and pedestrians, the way that the plates popped under the wheels of the tandem in front of me while we rode did not inspire confidence.
After more shifts and jumps from trails to sidewalks to roads, we crossed the river again.
Then we got to the payoff on River Road.
This was a great way to work our way further west, rolling along the river and admiring the views of Vancouver across the way. At this point, we didn't mind a nice flat road
There were a few more tricks at the end of River Road before we could enter downtown. It was rush hour then, and we got lost a couple of times before finding the quiet road into the old section of Vancouver. Soon we were rolling past crowds of slow cyclists and even slower walkers down by Granville Island before we at last got to our hotel. Although the trip had been fun, at this point we were all looking forward to a day off the bike seeing the sights of Vancouver.
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