Biking the San Juan Islands

This past week I set up camp in the land of my birth, Anacortes, Washington at Washington Park, a very awesome place to spend a day, a week or even two.  For me it was five days, which is all I could reserve for back in May when I made my reservation.

One of the days I had plans to take my E-bike on the Ferry to Lopez Island, one of the most popular biking Islands because, although not flat, it is less “hilly” than the others.  Although cold and foggy in the morning when I climbed aboard the Ferry, it cleared up nicely and ended up being a really beautiful day.  I biked through meadows, farm lands, and long country roads with amazing views of the Bay.  I brought my lunch and ate it on the far southern end of the Island at a little park overlooking the Bay and then headed to Lopez Village, hoping to find a little coffee house to have a cup of tea and linger for while before the evening Ferry arrived.  All the shops were closed by 3pm and so I went instead to the State Park near the Ferry Terminal and hung out on the beach until it was time to go catch the Ferry.

By the time I got to the Ferry my battery had only one bar and it was flashing, alerting me to the unhappy reality that I may not have enough battery power to get home from the Ferry.  I had biked over thirty miles with some hilly areas where I used more of the pedal assist and thought I was doing okay, except when I was on my last stretch, the reality of my battery life hit me.

We deal with batteries on our phone’s and our laptops and it is never convenient when a battery dies, but with a 72 pound E-bike, trying to ride without pedal assist is near impossible, when there are hills involved.  Fortunately I had met a group of people who were also biking Lopez on their Rad E-bikes, but they didn’t ride nearly as far as I did.  So they had more battery life left.  As I was leaving the Ferry Terminal, with my one flashing bar, I realized I wouldn’t make it back.  A couple in the group said to me “why don’t we lend you one of our batteries and we will come to your camp after we get our bikes loaded and swap it back out.” I jumped at the opportunity and had plenty of battery to get back to camp.  They arrived shortly after, we switched out the battery and said farewell.  It was nice to know I was being looked after.  And I learned that I can’t always trust my “bar reading” on my bike.  I needed to be more careful in the future.

I spent the next day working and boarded another Ferry the following day to Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island.  I decided to bike to Lime Kiln State Park, the best Whale watching place in the area, which was only an 18 mile round trip, but had some really long, steep hills.  I felt confident I would have plenty of battery power for this trip.  It was a beautiful ride, once again through farm lands, berry fields and amazing views of the water.  I was a little embarrassed as I quickly rode by bikers, who were obviously very seasoned bikers on bikes that were NOT electric.  At one point, going up a long hill, I passed two men on bikes and they looked at each other and started laughing.  Yes, I was cheating, but it was so much fun.  I always wanted super powers, and now I had them.

I spent an hour at Lime Kiln park, starring out over the water, hoping to see a pod of whales, or at least a whale, but no such luck.  A friend told me they were spotted in her area near Bellingham, a week or so earlier, but today wasn’t the day.  So I took the nine mile ride back to Friday Harbor, again thinking I would grab a coffee and chill.  But the shops were all closed once again.  I found a little park at the Marina where a Marimba type band was setting up for a concert.  I waited there for the Ferry and enjoyed the music and Island culture, talked to Island locals and enjoyed the beautiful day.

This time when the Ferry arrived back in Anacortes, I had plenty of battery power to get back to camp.

It just so happened that the next day was an annual art fair in Anacortes, where the main street was blocked off for many blocks to accommodate the rows and rows of art booths.  I met with a client for a coffee that morning and we decided to check out the art show, which was fun.  After that I stocked up my groceries and went to Deception Pass where I made breakfast and chilled for a couple hours before heading to the Port Townsend Ferry where I would be going to the Olympic Peninsula on the long road to my Sister’s house.

This week was a lot of Ferry’s, beaches and long country roads.  It was a trip I was really looking forward to and very much worth the journey.