9:30 to Anacortes from Lopez Island

Woke to cool misty grey so I'm happy to be heading back to Seattle. It is likely sunnier and warmer for the Monday holiday, so that's motivation. Here are the last of the bike packers, with a crazy assortment of camping gear lashed into beaten up Bob trailer and child buggies, trundling up the ramp at the Anacortes ferry dock. The guy on the right has a unicorn mask on the left side and a rubber chicken bungeed on the rear. No doubt there was a limited amount of riding and a whole lot of drinking last night at Spencer Spit.

Shark Reef

People were harvesting kelp from the rocks at 11am today.

Lunch stop near Agate Beach

Super low tides this weekend make for good beachcombing, and plenty of sea worms for sharp eyed gulls.

On Lopez Island

An exquisitely located farm off Burt Road, looks out over Davis Bay towards the Olympic National Park.

All aboard at Orcas

Cattle Point

Spectacular

Enroute to Cattle Point on San Juan Island.

Anacortes ferry dock

Taking the 6pm to Friday Harbor via Lopez Island for some bike packing in paradise.

A little bit of Nepal I Ashford

A mango lassi among the prayer flags decorating the Wildberry Restaurant, a place run by some Nepalis. I wonder if they have any familial relationship to Whittaker's Bunkhouse up the road a bit, also decorated with thanka and other things that mountain climbers would pick up in Kathmandu. I like Nepal. I must go back.

Big Boom Boom

Oh oh forgot the sun block

I'm "breaking in" a new car so I haven't got the provisioning figured out. Oh well I've had a lifetime of sun, and I'm not about to stop now.

Snow camping at Mt Rainier

Didn't get here until a month later than my custom, due to lousy rainy winter weather but it always delivers.

Poetry in an unexpected place

I stopped at Whittaker's Bunkhouse in Ashford, enroute to Mount Rainier National Park. This rather lovely quote is on the verso of a sculpture that I don't remember being here last year.
To my mind it's about a lot more in life than peak bagging.

Start of Centennial Trail in Snohomish

Today I started out in 75 degrees and highly anticipated sun at 2pm. Still, I swear that traffic on I-5 north seems much worse than May 2014 when I did a bunch of rides after my Friday class had ended. I wonder if this is a permanent change in a once quiet rural place. The last thing I want to do is drive 35 miles in city traffic to bike in Snohomish County. It destroys the relaxation I get. I'm going to have to go further out I suppose.

Enchantments from Ellensburg

From a drive East of the Cascades in search of better weather.

Wednesday with this week's free paper

Reading something well-written every day is the way I use to balance the challenges of teaching ESL writing classes. The VR piece is good. The comment on POTUS after yet another week of disheartening news is also helpful.

29 Pines on the West Teanaway road for Sat night

Camping used to be free here but now you need a Discover Pass. Don't have one but too early for anyone to collect anyway. Was mid-30s last night so my sun shower froze. Couldn't heat it properly yesterday on car top anyway due to ferocious wind. I ended up skipping the up and over via 97 as the wind gusts were brutal and there was a lot of traffic going the same way. I didn't want to be blown into an RV. So I rode Hwy 10 all the way back. Lightly trafficked but it still 3 hours, 1 hour longer than the outbound with the tailwind, and I had to walk a few hills as the wind gusts were just too scary and blowing the bike over. I ate left overs for dinner and slept warm because I'd cleverly remembered to pack in a sleeping bag liner. I set up a tent as I figured it would be warmer than simply kipping in the back of the Honda. Got warm by about 9am plus I'd brought wood for a morning campfire.

Trillium at Standup Creek trailhead

I went for a short walk up a very familiar forest service road after breaking camp at 29 Pines in the Teanaway. The hills are snow covered and spring is easily a month later this year. These flowers are usually spent by May.

Getting back via 970 into a full force headwind

I've decided to dig in and ride back on the high route. Usually I loop back south of I-90 through Thorpe, or even up and over the windmills. Today, its windmills on the northern mesa tops, via 970, with what I know will be a grand summit descent to Hwy 97. Any route back will be a battle into the winds. I flew out for the first 20 miles with a tailwind in low 50s. Now it's time to pay it back. I've had lunch, with good American-style chai. I'm taking half this excellent chocolate cake which I just can't finish, from the Yellow Church Cafe in E'burg, back with me. This is really the only justification for eating something like this. I expect I'll burn up the 700+ calories from this treat by trundling up and over. I was introduced to this place last month, during a Meetup hike up to the nearby Yakima skyline trail. My goal on any 40 mile ride like this one is calorie intake = calorie expenditure.

Robyn meets Woman on her Bike

Well, at least the bike. I've come over to the Teanaway with the idea of riding a loop from Cle Elum to Ellensburg and back, and, despite the blue blue sky it's barely hit 50. The high today will be a balmy 55 degrees. Tonight I plan to camp and test out my first overnight camping trip with Robyn. I didn't plan for it, but it turns out I'm commemorating an anniversary. Not celebrating, but marking an unwanted milestone. It's bittersweet riding this familiar route and parking in this same spot off Hwy 10.
Speak, memory.