Ashley & David on Tour

Day 1

Friday morning our friend and host Joseph (Sign with Your Baby) shuttled us to the Canadian border near Blaine, WA–by way of a delicious breakfast at the Wake-and-Bakery in Glacier. We got to the Peace Arch–a little bit of pastoral beauty sandwiched between two lines of border-crossing traffic–at 10-ish. A lovely passerby snapped the obligatory back-tire-in-Canada pics for us, and we were off.

The first hour or so of our short ride back to Bellingham was spent getting lost and found, troubleshooting the Garmin (instead of just shooting it, though we were tempted), and rearranging the content of the bags. 32 miles and a thousand feet of climbing, and we were back at Joseph’s and ready for a night on the town.

That night ended back in peaceful Glacier, with a drink at the local pub Graham’s and a pre-bedtime soak in the hot tub under the stars, with a lot of quiet and with a clear view of the startlingly proximate Mt. Baker, a 10,780-foot active volcano with one of the highest snowfalls in the lower 48.

This weekend the annual ” Ski to the Sea” race features relay teams of locals and visitors who ski or board the mountain, kayak and raft the Nooksack River, bike, run etc. down to the Bellingham harbor. We, however, are riding our own ride.

Day 2

Up and off from Joseph’s (where we’d parked our bikes the day before) around 10, a little later than intended but only because we were enjoying the company of our friends.

After navigating our way down to and out of the city, in city traffic, we enjoyed a nice climb with a clear view of Bellingham Bay.

Maybe the riding highlight of the day, despite being mansplained to by a couple of guys on road bikes who knew everything and then some about bike touring. We shook them, and rolled into the adorable, bike-friendly town of Edison, then Bay View, and finally Whitney for lunch at what felt like a very midwestern joint.

After three more hours of riding, and several more unexpected climbs, we made it–cold, hungry, happy–into Coupeville, WA, a small waterfront town on Whidbey Island, where we snagged the last room in town. Day 2 totals: 70.5 miles, 3261 feet of climbing, 6 and a quarter hours in the saddle. Hoping the perfect weather continues–maybe we can just mail our rain gear home?

Wednesday morning we packed the rental van with our bikes & bags, and bid adieu to home and (one of us more philosophically than the other) cats. North across Lassen, Modoc, and Siskiyou counties, a quick lunch at Klamath Basin brewery (where we decided we could fit a tin tacker and pint glass in the box we’re mailing home from Bellingham), and seven hours later we arrived in Bend, Oregon.

There we were swept up by the whirlwind hospitality of Todd and Cindy, who took us on a pub crawl through Deschutes (where we decided we could fit a second pint glass in the box) and 10 Barrel (where we decided we could fit a third pint glass in the box) brewpubs. Lots of talk, lots of fun, late to bed.

Another eight hours’ drive, over Mt. Hood, across the Columbia River and up through Seattle–where we crept slowly along the accident-plagued metropolitan traffic at rush hour.

Arrived at rental returns at the Bellingham airport, where friend Joseph, the wizard of East 542, renaissance man and most generous host, collected us, bikes, and bags. Got a late dinner at Boundary Bay brewing (where we decided we could fit a fourth pint glass in our box).

Drove thirty miles to Joseph and Dara’s beautiful cabin in Glacier, in the shadow of Mount Baker. Another late night, but reveling in good company and very ready to get this southward show on the road.

Spoiler: all four pint glasses didn’t fit in the box. So we threw out the clothes we were going to mail home–cheers!

The countdown continues as we complete last-minute prep like loading maps on devices, wrapping new handlebar tape, and color-coordinating our riding outfits. Nervously we watch weather forecasts for the Puget Sound area. And, as always, each of us spends an hour or two most days pedaling the stationary bike through various virtual landscapes, some of which resemble, in weird science-fictiony ways, the actual 3-D Pacific Coast. And some of which do not.