Weekend 7 (Saturday): Whidbey Island Bike Tour

My god, I am incredibly behind in posts... drastic measures must be taken. I am going to hold off on uploading a majority of the photos. I love for everyone to have the full size images, but it just takes too long. Also, if I keep showing all the photos from my trip as I live it (ok, so a few weeks after the fact), I will have nothing to show when I get back from WA. My presentation would consist of me saying, "So this is _____" and you all yawning saying, "Dude, we've seen it."

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Ok, onto the post. I'm not sure how many of you know that I was actually born in Washington. yes, born in Washington, raised in New Mexico, and sold into slavery in Virginia... I have lived a magnificent life.

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While many of my trips have been organized events put together by the Cascade Bike club or at the suggestion of the madman, Jared, I did arrive in Seattle with at least a few “goals” for the summer. Among these, returning to my birthplace of Oak Harbor located on Whidbey Island Washington held quite a high priority. It was my desire to hop on a bike and take a tour of the island in order to take in the fields, forests, farms and families from a reference frame moving along at an average of 17 miles per hour. Lucky for me, my plans coincided with those of Gary Strauss, the great bike trip organizer from Cascade, on what he called the Whidbey Island Loop (Century Plus).
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The route: Ferry to the southern tip of the island and weave east and west across the main highway 125, always progressing north to Oak Harbor. From there we would cross Deception pass, the scenic bridge allowing passage from Whidbey Island to Fidalgo Island. Continuing north-east we would spin through a few of the small towns of the island before crossing back onto the main land where we would make our way through miles of fields on the old Pacific Coast Highway, returning eventually to our cars at the Whidbey Ferry.
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I begin the ride by missing the train when it left the station. Gary told us that we would leave for the ride at 7:30am, a time dictated not by the arrival of the last rider as it had in the past but rather by the departure time of the Island ferry. Being the schmuck that I am, I decided that a delicious omelet and a French press of Sinful was necessary to start my day. Worse yet, I decided to kick back and enjoy it. Needless to say, I missed the first ferry. No worries, I met up with another rider who had also missed it. He wasn’t concerned, “We’ll catch them” he said with an air of confidence I felt was a bit strong considering his "I survive on donuts" appearance.

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As expected, the guy dragged ASS. Not wanting to follow the cue sheet, I followed him, cruising along at average of around 15 mph, bloody slow for any crew chasing down a pack of riders who promised a pace of ~18 mph. In fact, even one who hasn’t had the pleasure of freshman physics would likely reason that it was impossible to catch the front pack at such a rate. I casually spun along with him for a while (around 26 miles) before asking, “Are you trying to catch the riders, or you just wanting to keep a 15 pace?”
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“Nope, just riding.”
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"Interesting," I reply. "Welp... see ya later," I say, while kicking it up a full chain ring, pulling away never to see him again. My guess is that he turned around at the next intersection.
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I caught the riders at 36 miles, pulling into the group at their 3rd regroup point amidst questions/comments of “Now, just where the hell did you come from?!” and “I knew you’d miss the ferry! I’m glad you caught us!”
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I enjoyed being with the pack again for the remainder of the day, getting to know a few more people, and getting to know a few others even better.

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As the majority of the trip was spent pedaling along and my camera isn’t the most compact point and shoot, I took most of the pictures at the regroup points where people grabbed a snack (perhaps an enormous cinnamon roll from a small town bakery) and carried on about how well the ride was going.

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A few of the highlights:

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1.) Eating a cinnamon roll as big as my head (and I have a BIG head) when I finally caught the group after 36 miles.

2.) Entering Oak Harbor, the city where I was born.

3.) Crossing Deception Pass an a narrow-ass bridge and snapping pictures all over the place.

4.) Celebrating mile 79 with a frosty mug of NW Washington Micro-brew Porter.
5.) Passing the 106 mile mark... making it the longest ride I had ever been on.

6.) Riding the old pacific northwest highway in some speedy pace-lines.

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Pictures!

Approaching the island from the ferry.



I finally caught up with the pack at around mile 36. I celebrated with a GOOEY Cinnamon roll.

Welcome to Oak Harbor, the birthplace of Devon Patrick Murphy.

Deception Pass. There is something about wild currents, windspeeds, water levels that makes this place difficult to navigate through on a boat. "Great story, Devon."

Entering La Conner. Such a quiet place to live.

Lovely Porter from La Conner Brewing Company at mile 79.

Nice contrast.

Riders on the Old Pacific Coast Highway in perfect weather. This was about 20 minutes after a terrible crash where one woman nearly broke her hip. The guy who caused the crash, a real piece of work, is likely banned from riding with the club (at least on Gary's rides) again. Good riddance.

Farms.


The beach across the water from Whidbey directly after the ride.

Do you see it!? (Yin Yang) Very cool.