june 19: 37 mi to sedro-woolley

finally couldn’t put it off any longer: it was time to ride!

but hold on, before i forget, you have to see the dish i had yesterday midday at bob’s chowder & bbq salmon, a tiny little place across the street from our anacortes motel. i’m pretty sure the salmon came out of the bay that morning. it couldn’t have been fresher … & was grilled to perfection. those are huckleberries on top, from a grower nearby. i mean, whatta dish! makes me salivate all over again just glancing at the photo.

back to this morning: it was overcast & cool, but at least not raining …. pretty much ideal for cycling, in fact. i went out to the snack table to collect a baggie of gorp for the road. among the riders milling out there were these, who were all on the ’07 mississippi trip….from left: me, clark, holly, joann, & kathryn. (clark isn’t dressed in her biking gear because she’s in group #2 of the northern tier; that group leaves anacortes tomorrow.)

at 8 we headed thru anacortes to washington park beach on fidalgo bay. here’s a photo of me at the beach.

& this shows most of the larger group gathered there. a few riders dipped their tires in the water, especially those who have already signed up to complete the northern tier route with womantours in 2011.  the rider in front on her new carbon fiber easy racer recumbent is gloria smith, founder of womantours.   she’s a rider on this tour.   alas, her chain broke during today’s ride, but the van took her & her bike to a bike shop in burlington; a new chain was installed & she’s good to go.

& this photo is particularly for sari. that’s patty jackson & me. patty was the incomparable chef on the 2000 x-country ride that sari & i (& 15 others) did. it is such a treat to be part of a patty jackson outing again. to tell the truth, finding out that patty was the chef for group #1 of the northern tier ride convinced me to sign up. we both wish sari were on this trip with us.

once we’d gotten all the photos taken at the beach, we retraced our route thru anacortes & headed east on the trail i mentioned yesterday. here are some of the riders at the east end of the trail. a couple of local cyclists were asking us the usual questions about what group we were & where we were going. they clearly wanted to go along. notice the sign on the gate: CAUTION CYCLIST. TIRE HAZARD. BROKEN SHELLS ON TRAIL. & there were certainly lots of broken sea shells on the trail. i don’t know if the seagulls leave them there after dining or what.

we had to ride on the shoulder of a busy highway to leave anacortes … & (EEK) up over a good-sized bridge. then we went onto some side roads that wound thru the countryside, finally leading us here to sedro-woolley. it was a pretty flat & uneventful ride. we arrived by noon, & since our rooms weren’t available yet, walked a few feet to a pizza buffet. their salad bar was extensive. i really made the most of it. walked over to a visitors’ center across the street mid-afternoon. picked up a ‘visitor information guide’ on the north cascades & mt. baker, & learned more than i really want to know about the miles of climbing we’ll be doing during our 91-mi ride on monday.

supper was sensational, as it always is with patty in the galley. we dined on chicken or tofu curry, a green salad that included black beans & avocado, brown rice, & fresh strawberry shortcake. there’s a new wrinkle on this ride that makes sense: each diner washes her own plate & fork, dries them, & stacks them in the galley. it’s quick & easy for each to do her own, & saves the staff lots of clean-up time.

during the map meeting for tomorrow’s ride…held as we were sitting in our circle of chairs after supper in the parking lot…gloria shared a piece of trivia:  the median age of the riders in our group is 64-1/2.  that means that 11-1/2 of our 23 riders are over 64-1/2 years of age!  i know of at least a couple in their early 70′s.

sending messages & photos to friends & family is a common after-supper activity.  this evening claudine (on the left) came to our room to have joann help her do something on her new ipad.  we grouped joann’s iphone & her macbook, along with my macbook, into this photo.  there are several iphones on this trip, & at least one other ipad.

tomorrow’s ride to marblemount is something over 52 mi. we stay at some cabins; there’s no internet there, so sunday’s & monday’s reports will come together from winthrop (if i succeed in getting there!). guess there are more hills on tomorrow’s route, but nothing major. major comes on monday!