My (Alex) birthday was around the corner and I knew I wanted to celebrate it on a bike, touring some place. She Hulk (my 2004 Surly Cross Check) was already up in Washington from a previous trip . Unridden for over 2 years sitting in my friend’s garage collecting moss. Unfortunately, I had missed a trip up there the previous summer due to flight and scheduling issues. So naturally, I felt the need to make that up. Tom was itching for some bike touring himself. Between you and I, I also think he missed our old wrench Matt. So DLMR (Dark Legion of Midnight Riders) was back at it.
Wednesday April 26, 2017. De ja vu, I missed my flight again, doh! Fortunately, seats on a Delta flight 1 hour later were still available. Cheap! Didn’t break the bank. Blessing in disguise, maybe? I heard Frontier blew anyways. Turns out, Tom was on the same flight, haha! Arrived at 9:45am to be swooped up by our own personal unmarked shuttle. Matt owns a big white stupid van. Complimentary gift of fruit and energy gels were provided, hells yeah! Quick stop at the grocer for foods and beers and off to Matt’s to set up our rigs.
Thursday April 27, 2017. Happy Birthday to me! Let’s get this show on the road. Leave from Matt’s house in Bothell in route to Mukilteo to catch our first ferry. I love boat rides! Lets just get that out of the way. Snuck some whiskey shots with the bois. Snap shot here, selfie there. Quick boat ride later and we were on Whidbey Island. About 35 miles in, stopped for our second break at South Whidbey Island State Park. The park contains many mature specimens of Western Red Cedar, Douglas Fir, Sitka Spruce, and Western Hemlock. Some of the largest trees I’ve ever seen with an ocean view. Caught our 2nd ferry from Fort Casey to Port Townsend. Tom bought a round of IPA tall boy’s on the ferry. Who knew you can catch a buzz legally on a 20 minute ferry boat ride?
Port Townsend is a cool town for sure. Took a quick break at probably the world’s smallest park. Visited a couple local bike shops. The Broken Spoke was a mostly Trek shop with a little bit of everything and PT Cyclery was like stepping into a museum of classic road bikes from all decades. Even a Peugeot from 1951. Both shops were worlds apart different from each other, but were fascinating in their own right. Turns out Bob Chung over at PT Cyclery is good friends with our own local favorite Erick Cedeño of Bicycle Nomad in DT PHX.
After getting our fill of bike shops, we checked out Propolis brewing for some old world style beers. Really dig the ambiance. Post beer flight and bottle purchase we headed over to Sirens Pub to stuff our faces and eat all the calories. Little did we know the pub was up two and a half flights of stairs and we weren’t comfortable leaving our bikes outside with no way of seeing them. Matt investigated the option of carrying upstairs and discovered a large open hallway in which we could store our bikes.
Our evening was completed after a few miles of riding to Fort Worden Historical State Park to camp just off the beach. A former military installation, Fort Worden was built to protect the Puget Sound from enemy infiltration in the early the 1900’s. We were all pretty pooped after a 50 mile day. Set up camp, scored some free wood, kicked back some whiskey and prepared the night’s chow ;).
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”1″ gal_title=”Puget Sound Tour 1 of 2″]
