Aug 14: Birch Bay State Park to La Conner (64.9 miles)

I slept great! Since I was camping so close to the bay, I was worried about waking up covered in dew, but was pleasantly surprised to find my tent an sleeping bag dry.

I’m carrying my 2-person tent for just a bit more room. I had unpacked all four panniers the previous night and so need to repack everything again, but I have not yet memorized where everything goes. I need to balance weight on the left and right sides and keep more often items easily accessible. I keep a list of what goes in which bag as a Note on my phone.

My route today is southeast to Bellingham and then south along the coast to La Conner.

The start of the trip meanders through forest and farmland on a series of roads. Unfortunately I missed the turn 3 times and had to stop, reassess where I was (thank you Google Maps) and correct. This added a few miles to today’s ride.

It was a warm morning, eventually rising to 80F in the afternoon. There was a lot of smoke haze, so not much sun. I stopped for a snack east of Bellingham next to a farm. Very pleasant.

Two bikers soon arrived to join me. Bill was riding a recumbent bike (no photo) and Dave was riding a CoMotion Americano – the same bike as mine:

We had great pizza for lunch in Bellingham where I learned they are biking the Washington Coast from the US border down to Oregon. We rode together the rest of the day.

We biked along and above the coast through Chuckanut and had intermittent views of Samish Bay. We stopped in the tiny artist colony town of Edison and visited the Breadfarm Bakery where I was introduced to my new favorite treat: a crispy-outside, soft inside, Carmel croissant muffin known as a Kouign-amann. I should have bought a bunch for my ride!

I left Bill and Dave at Bay View State Park and proceeded south on a bike trail along the bay:

I arrived in La Conner at my step sister, René and her husband Jack’s house. I’ll be here for a few days visiting with other family that lives up this way (step mom Janet, step sis Michele, and step niece Julie and her fiancé Eric), learning about their seed farm business, boating in the Deception Pass area, hiking in the Mt Baker area, and eating well!

Thanks for reading!