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Excursion to Whidbey Island

3 Aug ’09

Greenbank Pie: Snack!

It’s nice to have friends with benefits. For example, empty double wide stocked with whiskey and LPs. Those are friends to not only cherish but cultivate.

Taking Friday off, Dave, Vic and I journeyed through the north suburbs using the North Interurban. Tricky in places, it seemed underutilized, like its southern counterpart, compared to the bike highway that is the Burke-Gilman. After a much needed bite in Everett, we wound down to Mukilteo and the well-timed meeting of the ferry to Whidbey Island.

In Langley, we filled our panniers with beer and steak, and scratched off that last four miles to the Doublewide in anticipation of serious R&R. This involved drinking our hosts’ whiskey, eating cheese, and playing video games in the wood paneled living room. It was like being in the game-room basement of the coolest kid in school in 1975, except the parents weren’t nagging us and the view was better.

Yesterday, we made the return with slight hangovers and filled with spirit by heading north on Whidbey to connect with the Port Townsend Ferry, which was filled with chatty bikers and bicycle admirers. After a great 1 pm breakfast at Salal, we had a pleasant roll through Paradise Valley and a much improved crossing on the Hood Canal Bridge to our afternoon refreshment stop in a little bar at Big Valley Road. The rest of the ride was pain, suffering and heat, but we’re pretty tough and rolled on to the Bainbridge ferry with time and attitude to kill. It’s another 2 miles uphill to our house from the ferry terminal, but we handled that with aplomb and picked up yet more steak and wine for a quick dinner of self-congratulations, small lies, and further adventure planning.

50 miles out, 75 miles back, and an interlude of Jedi Knight training and learning more about the history of English Magic while surrounded by your pals, eating cheese and drinking someone else’s whiskey! That, my friends, is a fine, fine bike tour.

Getting Started
Interurban Trail North
North Interurban

Mukilteo Lighthouse
DC Looking Swell
Jedis in Training

Whidbey Island
Greenbank Pie: Snack!
Ebey Landing

Ferry Map
Port Townsend Ferry
Paper Mill and Olympics

Eyeing Someone’s Breakfast
Paradise Valley
New Tarmac

Beer Break
Expeditioners in Action
Heading Home

Pacific NorthwestWashingtonWhidbey Island
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Bicycle Touring  / Bicycling

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3 Comments


Dave
4 Aug ’09 at 4:50 am
Reply

Really glad you had an adventure, sounds wonderful. I would like to hear more about the interurban. Does it take you from Seattle to Everett?



    Knox Gardner
    4 Aug ’09 at 7:42 am
    Reply

    There are two Interurban bike trails, North and South.

    The Southern one runs from Renton, past Auburn to Pacific where it T’s out and you can continue on the lightly traveled old West Valley Highway to Sumner and Puyallup with little issue. It is a very straight and obvious trail.

    The North Interurban officially runs from Seattle to Everett. It is more a collection of trail segments and road signs. For example, in Seattle we followed Phinney and then Dayton to 130 where you then pick up the path through Shoreline. You might recall seeing those fancy bike bridges crossing Aurora? It was a mostly pleasant ride, though not terribly scenic from there following I-5. It’s just tricky to find each segment. It pays to find a map ahead of time or mark the route on your phone.

    We rode it all the way to Paine Field where we got on a very short section of 526 and the dropped down to Mukilteo, not something I’d do with small kids, but certainly ok for adults who are comfortable with street riding.

Whidbey Island Tour
9 Aug ’09 at 8:55 pm
Reply

[…] Knox has a write-up of the weekend. […]



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