Leslie & Paula travel back to the Dark Side

We wintered in Arizona this year, and had a lovely time cycling around Phoenix and Tuscon. While there Paula began exploring two wheeled e-bikes. She purchased a Gazelle which she thoroughly enjoyed riding on the trails. She could explore the non-paved trails without worrying about the trike clearance issues.

Not wanting to be outdone, Leslie started looking at two wheeled e-bikes also. I’ve been looking at 20” wheeled bikes for quite some time, as I believe they’re easier to transport in our Coachmen Cross Trail 20XG and our Ford F-150. After lots of test riding, I decided on a Tern Vektron S-10. It folds for transport, and either fits in its soft-sided carrying bag, or in a crate we found at Home Depot.

Paula was very helpful in assuring I had a Kinetic seat post and a good saddle, as it’s been over 40 years since I’ve ridden an upright, non recumbent bike. After trying a half dozen saddles, I settled on a Terry. I still haven’t worked up to the metric century limit, but I can get to 45 miles without too much complaining. And here’s a shout-out to PortaPedal Bike in Tempe, Az for their perfect customer service.

After Paula saw how much fun I was having, she decided to get her own Tern. After a bit of fiddling around she opted for a Vektron also, from Clever Cycle in Portland. Another shop with excellent customer service. Hers is matte black and mine is silver. So from now on we’ll either be on our HP Velotechnic FS20s or our Tern Vektron S-10s. See you down the road or trail…

Lake Crescent to La Push along the ODT

 We just completed a camping trip to the Log Cabin Resort in Olympic National Park with a few friends. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, as we got to ride the Olympic Discovery Trail route all the way to LaPush and Rialto beach.

We arrived on Saturday, one day after the Log Cabin Resort’s official opening day. We had had our reservation since November, but they lost our site selection. Darn! We were able to do an alternate site, but the hassle factor still existed.

A bunch of us rode our bikes and trikes out of the campground to the Spruce Railroad Trail trailhead. Up the trail we went for almost eight miles. As it was a Saturday and one of the first beautiful spring days of the season, the trail was rather busy with walkers, but we had a lovely time anyway. We had Diane, Donna, Patty, Patty, Sile, Cyndi, Paula and Leslie on the ride. We returned from the ride for a lovely shared meal together.

The next day we retraced our steps for the beginning of the ride. This time the trail was slightly less populated, and we were able to travel further; 28 miles this time. We traveled from the campground to a crossing of Rt 101. We decided not to continue because the weather had turned quite threatening.

Today’s ride featured three pups: Moji, Luna and Cinco. It was Moji’s first long bike ride and after about 7 miles she was finished, so Paul and Bev turned around. In addition we had Patty, Sile, Kathy, Rolf, Diane, Leslie and Paula on the ride. It even included a short walk off the trail to take in the sight of the Devil’s Punchbowl.

On day three, we drove to the Camp Creek Trailhead, and cycled to the Fish Hatchery outside of in Beaver. Another great day of cycling, this time 39 miles. We had Paul, Paula, Leslie, Sile, and Kathy with us. I was remiss in taking photos on this day. Darn! But we did do the miles that we missed yesterday due to weather.

On Day 4 we drove our vehicles to Forks and cycled to La Push and Rialto beach. This time 42 miles. All the cycling was on roads, as the ODT hasn’t been completed to La Push yet, but it was still very pretty. Cars were mostly polite, and we could find places to regroup when we needed to. We didn’t see an vampires though — the sun was too bright. Cycling today were Cindy, Patty, Sile, Kathy, Leslie and Paula. 

By the time we returned to Forks, we were so hungry, we were looking for BBQ. No such luck unfortunately on a Tuesday. So we had Mexican for dinner, and very glad for this option. Then Cindy and Patty picked up ice cream for us to share back at camp. Yummy!!

Overall a wonderful four days with friends and lots of fabulous cycling. We covered around 125 miles.

Hike outside of Portland, Oregon: Tyron Creek State Natural Area

 On our return to Washington, one of our stops was outside of Portland to see our friends, Bev and Paul. We had a lovely visit, and Paul laced up a new rear wheel for Paula’s trike — THANKS Paul!! In our honor Paul wore his t-shirt that says “They’re here because Paula (or Leslie) broke it again!!”

Bev, Lorie, Lilly (Lorie’s beagle) and we took a lovely walk on one of the trails through Tyron Creek State Natural Area. Of course being in the Portland area in spring, it was wet. But glorious none the less. Check out a few photos below:

San Juan Islands Tour

We arrived home for four days before our trip to the San Juan Islands. Mel hosted a delightful adventure! We started our adventure by driving to Anacortes. The ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville departed on time, and arrived on schedule. Sylvia joined us on the ferry in her pickup. All our trikes were in both trucks. Also in our truck were four pies for the event:

We drove from Coupeville to Anacortes via Deception Pass. We had time to walk down some of the hiking paths. At the waterline, we watched many fishermen both in the water and in boats fishing for salmon. This is a beautiful area that I love walking around in.

Then it was on to Anacortes for the ferry to Friday Harbor. We unloaded the trikes, and delivered the pies and an extra battery for me into some of the vehicles that were driving onto the island. Sylvia and we left our pickups in the long term parking area. We were all supposed to take the 2:00 ferry, but it was canceled, and we didn’t finally sail until 5:30. It was a late night.

The next morning we all got the trikes setup to ride. After riding out to Roche Harbor, we stopped at Westcott Bay Shellfish Co. Mel arranged for an oyster tasting for the group, as he declared they would be a “life changing” experience. Paula tried them, and declared them delicious, but I wimped out.

The next day we were off to climb Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island. This is the highest point in the San Juans and has spectacular views. The climb is 2,409 feet in 4.7 miles for an average grade of 7.7%. Overall, we rode 38 miles and climbed 4700’ that day. We did it. Unfortunately, Leslie forgot the third battery, and ran out of battery on the return to the Orcas ferry terminal.

On the climb, we met two retired bicycle racers who were out for a ride. They were having a great time staging photos on a steep hairpin turn.

Back at the Orcas ferry terminal we had a nice dinner on the lawn overlooking the harbor at the Orcas Hotel Restaurant. While there, we heard that our ferry from Orcas to Friday Harbor was canceled. We met up with the two bike racers again, and found them to be freezing in their spandex waiting for the same ferry. They joined us in conversation, telling us of their exploits. We also determined that on the way down from Mt. Constitution I traveled at 47 mph downhill — 1.1 mph faster than one of the bike racers. Boy, that was tough for him to deal with.

The ferry system finally scrambled another ferry.  We loaded close to 11:00PM and got back to our guest house by 12:30AM. Another long day. 

Here are some photos from the day…

I loved this wind chime. It was about 20 ft in diameter.

Once we had completed the climb to the top, we all checked our brakes. Unfortunately, Paula discovered a leak in her hydraulic brakes at the summit and was safely transported down by the SAG support from Wildlife Cycles in Eastsound.

And one view from the top of Mt. Constitution.

And finally back on the ferry to Friday Harbor.

After another day of light riding around the island to the Cattle Point light station, the group enjoyed a final celebratory dinner at Friday Harbor House overlooking the harbor.

The next morning we got up early and queued up for an 8:00AM ferry. And as luck would have it, it was again canceled! We finally got underway back to Anacortes on the 11:00AM ferry. By now we were totally done with the ferry system, and drove overland from Anacortes and home to Sequim. Definitely the long way around, but at least there were no delays or cancellations. Whew!