I shouldn't gloat, but … While most of my neighbors were surviving another gloomy, wet, cold, overcast weekend down around Seattle, I was bicycling under sunny skies in the San Juan Islands.
Here I am on Saturday at the Lime Kiln Point State Park lighthouse on San Juan Island. People had gathered there to try to catch a glimpse a recently returned pod of orcas with a young calf. We could see the whale-watcher boats, but the orcas never got close to shore while I was there.
What brought me up there was a bike-a-thon fund-raiser for the Stanley Stamm Children's Hospital summer camp. The camp has been held for the past 41 years for children with disabilities who can't attend most other camps; this was the 21st year for the bike-a-thon. It was the first year that Dr. Stamm, who'd broken his arm, couldn't ride his bike in it.
Forecast
Weather-wise, it didn't look good for this ride. It had been raining off and on all week; and no let up was forecast for the weekend.
But I've heard that the weather in the islands is often drier than that down in Seattle, and that proved to be the case this weekend. While we Stamm cyclists drove through pouring rain to reach the ferry terminal in Anacortes, we all saw that patch of blue off to the west.
That break in the clouds must have been hovering over the San Juans, because the skies cleared up soon after we landed at about 10. The sun shone on us the rest of the day, as most of us rode the 30- to 35-mile loops around the island.
Orcas Island
On Sunday I took the ferry over to Orcas Island, where I've never bicycled. The remaining Stamm cyclists headed over to Lopez Island, the flattest island of the three and probably the most bicycle friendly.
If there's a flat stretch on Orcas Island of more than 300 yards, I couldn't find it. (I'll post what I learned about bicycling on Orcas Island in a couple of days.) But it didn't matter, because I'd come to ride someplace new, and enjoy the sun.
Getting off the ferry after I returned to Anacortas, I ran into some other riders. We all had pink noses and cheeks from the sun and the wind. And we were all happy that we'd decided to take a chance on the weather up here.
Getting there
The San Juan Islands are hard by the Canadian border and accessible by the Washington State Ferrythat leaves from Anacortes. Check out “Bicycling San Juan Island” and “Bicycling Lopez Island.”
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