There's nothing better than a long weekend. An extra day. To do whatever you want and not be at work. Though our summer is jam-packed with weekend plans already, we hadn't nailed down Memorial Weekend until shortly before it came up to bite us: A bike touring trip, something we've wanted to do for the past two summers. Friday night, Tyson and I loaded up our panniers and parked the car near the Mukilteo ferry en route to Whidbey Island - a special place for us and one made even more special this past weekend.
The plan was to ride the nine miles to the ferry and then nineteen more miles to our campsite once we disembarked on the other side. Except the plan was also supposed to happen a lot earlier than it did. We didn't land on Whidbey until just after 9pm and with nearly twenty miles to go we were guaranteed some dark and chilly biking. Our tardiness afforded us this unbelievable sunset from the ferry though and also one of the best parts of the trip: NIGHT RIDING!
Though not ideal, we biked most of that first night in the dark, and actually, some rain. But once we turned off the main road we had ten miles to go and almost no cars to bother us. We biked along on perfectly paved roads with only the smells of the forest, the sounds of frogs and a sky of stars above us. It was truly, truly superb. I mentioned to Tyson that only because it was pitch black, and our senses of smell and sound so heightened, were we able to have such an experience. It was so peaceful. We just laughed and pedaled and I felt like a little kid again. I still think that this seemingly unfortunate mistake actually turned out to be the best part of the trip for me. So, so peaceful and unexpected.
After stopping for some food we arrived at our campsite around 11:30pm. We set up camp, poured ourselves a glass of wine and played cribbage until 2am. I can't say it enough, this was an incredible night.
In the morning Tyson discovered a .5 mile hike to the beach from our campsite. We lugged our backpacking chairs and a camp stove down to prepare some breakfast burritos on the beach overlooking the Olympic Mountains.
Throughout the weekend we pedaled around for almost ninety miles looking at tons of things that are ***GORGEOUS**. Like big trees, spring flowers, mountains, fields, and the Puget Sound.
Sunday we packed up our site and pedaled over to Langley for some coffee and lunch. We walked around the shops and marveled at what an incredible weekend we'd had. I actually haven't been able to stop thinking about it and have already selected two other touring trips I'd like to do: Lopez Island and the Methow Valley in the North Cascades. So. Fun. Touring is the bomb. Basically just riding and chatting and stopping for snacks and camping and riding some more and seeing beautiful amazing things. Sounds good to me.
