Kim and I took a little trip, just the two of us, to Lopez to camp, bike and hang out for the weekend. Kim did all the planning, which was wonderful. We got to the ferry 15 minutes early thinking that would be plenty of time since we had bikes. Turns out that if you want to get off at Lopez with bikes, you have to be at the front of the ferry, and therefore have to get on before all the cars since there is no room to get your bikes through all the cars. So we had to go all the way to Orcas Island, get off, and then get right back on for the return trip. The ferry seems awfully expensive too. Even for two bikes which hardly take up any room, the price is over $30 and we had to pay $20 for parking for two days. I think you’re better off putting the bikes in your car and paying $50 for the car and bikes. But we were committed to biking which turned out quite well. For all my bitching about the ferries, in all fairness, they’re the cheapest and easiest (did I say only?) way to get a vehicle of some sort onto the island.
We took two backpacks with camping gear. I really ought to get some saddlebags for my bike, but I really think I need to get a new bike before I spend any money on other accessories. Kim looked comical since her backpack looks bigger than she does on the bike. Our first stop was a private campground a bit more than 2 miles from the ferry landing that Kim had found on the internet. I balked at the price at first, but it turned out to be a much nicer option than your average state park campground with packed in sites and RV’s running nearby. We dropped off our packs and headed to town for some food.
The farmer’s market was going on so we chowed on some burritos and got to see all the artisan crafts for sale: a lot of crap that I don’t want or need but looks nice. I wonder what all those artsy people do in the winter. We got there as the market was closing and I was still hungry so it was dessert time at the local soda shop/drugstore. Cool oldtime revival and good milkshakes. We got to see some of the local culture unfold there too: hippies vs rednecks. Two big, loud, burly, rude kids in flannel picked on a long haired, liberal-candidate-button-wearing, soft-spoken kid in a baggy t-shirt. I imagine that it’s a decent representation of the island culture, but I could be overgeneralizing.
Then it was on to the winery that was across from our campsite. We bought a bottle of Chardonnay because it was spicy tasting unlike most any wine we’d had before. Then we peddled across the street to lay in the hammocks and drink it while we watched the overpopulation of bunnies hop around. It was frickin superb to just sit and read in the sun for a few hours. No responsibilites. No schedules. Barely any people… The people that were there were two couples from France and England, and I think the English couple was biking too. How’d they hear about Lopez Island anyway?
The next day Kim felt ambitious enough on the bike to do an 18 mile round trip ride to Shark Reef. There you can sit and watch the seals sun themselves, but no sharks. Before leaving town I insisted that we stop at the bike shop to buy Kim some bike shorts, because as goofy as the spandexy things look, the savings in pain to your ass are priceless. There’s one big hill on the way there, but other than that it’s a very pleasant ride through farmland and forest.
We stopped for some ice cream on the way back and then the rain started. We had raincoats, but they do little good when you’re on bikes and sweating so that it’s as wet with one on as off. It was a tad miserable to ride back to the ferry, but we felt a sense of accomplishment after we did.
By an act of coincidence we met Jesse and Deborah on the ferry. They had been boating with Jesse’s parents and were headed home too, so we all stopped and had dinner at a Mexican place in Anacortes. Driving seemed even less fun after a weekend of biking, but home we drove to sleep like a thing that sleeps really soundly.