Biking

I left last Tuesday for a biking trip on the San Juan Islands. In total, the distance was about 100 miles in four days. I really enjoyed it.

Even though I left on Tuesday, I should note that no actual biking took place on that day. We just went to Deception Pass, which isn't even on the islands, and camped out there. We still had a good time doing things like playing capture the flag and playing on the beach. There was even a lake right next to the ocean that we could swim, canoe, and even paddleboat (if that's a verb) in.

On Wednesday we took the ferry from Anacortes to Lopez Island. The total distance was about 30 miles, and it did not feel like something you'd want to begin a biking trip with. The scenery was nice, but the hills were annoying to an extent. It was nice coasting down them, but there were only a couple of occasions where one could use that speed to go up the next hill. That probably explains the fact that lunch was about an hour long.

The next day we biked 4 miles to the ferry, which took us to Orcas Island. The ride had slightly better hills than the first, but considering the fact that the ride ended with a 3 mile long uphill slope, I consider the ride harder than the first one. Some brave souls biked up Mt. Constitution, which was a 5.5 mile uphill slope, but I was not one of those souls. Most people said that it was basically "2 hours up and 20 minutes down." Fortunately, the adults were kind enough to let the wimps, like me, get driven to the top. If it wasn't for the haze, we would have been able to see all the way from Canada to Marysville (possibly).

Friday was the longest day distance-wise, but ironically the easiest. We started out by doing the previous day's hike in reverse in about half the time. The ferry took us to San Juan Island itself. Other than the intial uphill, the ride was very easy. The hills allowed us to coast down them and go over the next one for most of the ride, and we managed to do the first 10 miles in 40 minutes before stopping for lunch. That's what I call easy. Unfortunately for me, during the second half of the ride my hands were much more slippy, so I couldn't shift gears very easily. Then again, that doesn't change the fact that we arrived at camp over three hours earlier than projected. The only bad thing about the day was that scenery just struck me as dull.

Saturday was the best day for a variety of reasons. The hills were like the previous day's, but it did seem a bit harder; however, the scenery was much better and had much more variety. We even ran across a large group of runners doing something for some charity. The best thing about the day was discovering that we arrived on time for the 10:25 ferry, which meant that we arrived over three hours earlier than anticipated. The worst part about the day was discovering that it was stifling hot back at home. Oh well.