In Memory of Warmer Summers

June 7th

Meet Ingrid with her parents Michael and Kim.  These three are launching from Anacortes on a shakedown tour of Salt Spring Island, Canada.  This is in preparation for them to do the Northern Tier starting in July.  Michael has secured a job back home in New Hampshire and will be leaving Seattle after eight years.
Ingrid is an enthusiastic one year old.  Anyone can do this!

Having returned to Anacortes, we are tied up a day or two with some bike parts shipping overnight from my fabulous bike shop at home in Fernandina Beach.  Andrew (Drew) Carver is taking good care of our needs from his new shop, Supercorsa Cycles on Amelia Island.

I am having some difficulty with my app for WordPress and this Android tablet loading things offline.  I intend to post smaller samples to see if things go smoother.  Please be patient as these bugs work out (or ship me a iPad please, I just don’t relate to Android I guess).

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Back in the Day, Planes Were Waterproof

Arriving in Seattle finds us about eight to nine hours later than scheduled due to the graces of American Airlines cancelling flights.  Apparently there was some rain in Dallas, heavy rain as it turns out, but having lived there ten years I know the habits of DFW Airport and our chosen airlines.  The bottom line is we get to sleep in Seattle about the same time we wake up in Florida and we have a shuttle to catch to get us to Anacortes in just a very few hours.  This places us in a state of fatigue that will tax us fairly significantly for several days.

Back in the day, planes flew in the rain and for our part, I confess we were significantly less impaired by schedule interruptions, jet lag and time shifts of three time zones.

Finding our equipment successfully shipped to Skagit Bicycle Shop, we avail ourselves of a couple of parking places out back and I somehow in my fatigue succesfully put two bicycles together without exchanging parts.

Folks have asked what my “bike in a suitcase” looks like

Leaving camp at Washington Park on Anacortes for the ferry to the islands. Bags packed; bags under the eyes

Sallie engaging with other cyclists

A beach on Lopez Island

Pink parts on Sallie’s; black parts on mine. Easy peasy.



Lopez Island campground

Sunset on San Juan Island

A real treat. Orcas making an appearance off of San Juan Island for us. They had not yet been spotted this summer, and we saw two pods coming through.

Meet Olivia from New York and Emma from Berkley. They are on their way to the U.S. Mexico border from Vancouver.

On June 6th we rode up to the summit of Mt. Constitution

From here they say there are some of the best views in the world. Let’s take a look…

Looking west toward Victoria and Vancouver Island

The Olympic Mountains on the horizon barely visible through the mist

Mt. Baker and the Twin Sisters covered in snow on the horizon

Obviously the weather was fabulous and visibility about as perfect as one sees from Mt. Constitution

For our cycling friends: Not uncharacteristically, we encountered some poorly chosen advice from folks. Unfortunately, many of the sources of poor advice were cyclists. Pretty much everyone said Lopez Island was “flat”, San Juan was “hilly” and Orcas Island was some sort of killer of cyclists and their bodies pile up in the forests as they topple from their bikes from exhaustion trying to scale the grades and climbs. Nonesense. All of these islands have significant climbs and were taxing to two folks from Florida, but come on. Lopez was not flat and Orcas was not any worse than any other.

Most importantly, we were told over and over by everyone that the last two miles of the climb up Mt. Constitution was some sort of death match with gravity. I suspect this is an uban legend that gets passed on from cyclist to cyclist, scares people off the attempt, and folks take their rented car up there instead. The truth is the last two miles of Mt. Constitution were the easiest part of the entire climb.

Finally, for those who want to explore the islands, I recommend using Lopez Island as your base camp. The campground on Lopez has the fastest, shortest ride to the inter-island ferry and will serve you well to take day-trips to any other island from there.

P.S. A tip of the hat to the Washington State Ferry System. Cyclist pay a fee to leave Anacortes, but from there on the inter-island ferry system is free to all hikers and bikers. The ferries run on time and they are a jewel to treasure.

I’ll be back next week with more. In the meantime we are back in Anacortes awaiting a Fed Ex shipment of some needed bike parts to help with a problem I developed. It’s not a big deal, and we’ll start our trip east very soon from this, the starting point of the Northern Tier.

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Websites like this are visually active and realizing it’s been five years since any photos of the adventurers, it’s time to update things and introduce another vital part of the team. This is Sallie. She’s responsible for the idea of the Northern Tier and she (sort of) patiently waited for me to clear my calendar, finally retire, and wait for the opportunity to do a another long journey.

We are most often asked about how long this will take. Without the pressures of deadlines, return dates, or other concerns of time, we are most often heard saying “three or four months. Sallie’s current version is, “We guarantee we will be done by winter in the Northeast.” Looking at the weather in these photos, you may understand the need.

Sallie relaxing on a neighbor’s boat. The picture of tranquility as she contemplates what’s ahead.

This is the two of us. I traded in my office pallor and have been out in the sun pretty regularly in the last two months. Florida very much agrees with me. Cyclists have strange tan lines and you can see a trace of a line on my right ankle, however the dead-fish white is gone from my “office feet” and creeping in is a bit of color Sallie refers to as “Florida Feet”.

This is Sallie’s husband Bob. He’s going to hold down Command Central for us. His duties include taking care of dogs, two houses, mail, bills, etc. while fielding daily calls from Sallie, and of course golfing, fishing, and other distractions. I think it’s a little unfair for him. We have the journey, he has the necessary details. It’s clear we could not do what we do without Bob’s dedication to the task.

Here’s some folks from the neighborhood. We could not turn down the offer of a sunset launch on this fine boat. Also supporting us in so many ways are a large cast of friends, family, former colleagues, cyclists, and other assorted folks. We’ll try our best to keep you entertained.

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We leave in six days.  Two boxes of gear have been shipped, along with Sallie’s bike.  We’ve once again placed our faith in Fed Ex. 

As things go right now, my life may settle down once we get on the road and the touring routine sets in. I retired in April and promply moved to Florida executing a plan I settled on five years ago during our last tour.

The transition has been eventful.  I have a house I am trying to settle into here, organizing a new residence, meeting new friends, and trying to get used to the various ways in which my life is now affected by not having Monday-thru-Friday calendar.  Please don’t think I’m compaining though.  This has been pure joy.  Daily walks on the beach have helped center me and I’ve always enjoyed learning curves. In the meantime, Sallie and I have kept up with our training, gone on several multi-day rides, and we tackle the first of several hundred miles of mountains soon. 

Please follow along.

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