Day 1: Bellingham to Silver Lake County Park

What a day! We had a good night’s sleep with our host E & R. When woke up we said good bye to E and grabbed our bicycle suitcases and walked the mile to the FedEx store. Bellingham seems to have quite the homeless population, and one guy asked us for a dime, not sure he was referring to monetary type or something else. The FedEx store opened shortly after we arrived and they were happy to mail our suitcases. Only cost us $42/ each, seemed like a bargain compared to a small package we mailed for $11 the other day from USPS!

Then we wandered over to the Mt. Bakery Café on E’s recommendation. Umm amazing! We both got eggs benedict that came out with a base of quartered potatoes, half a Belgian waffle, toppings, eggs benedict with sauce all stacked on top of each other. We were stuffed and head back to the house.

After getting all packed up, Pam noticed that her bicycling computer wasn’t working, so we troubleshot it and figured out that the sensor probably needed a new battery. Luckily for us, we were planning on getting groceries anyways, so we headed out and toward Safeway, once getting lost and once finding a closed road. Picked up enough food for 3 square meals, and we were finally officially off! We left Safeway around 11am, which is a really late time for us to get on the road, but the sky was clear blue, and a breeze was blowing, and it was perfect.

The road outside of Bellingham was nice, with wide shoulders, and friendly people. The wind continued to blow in circles pretty strong: headwind, sidewind, tailwind, and repeat over and over. Cruising along at a slow 10mph +/- 4 mph depending on wind and hills, it was actually pretty flat. But along the route we had Mt. Baker to our right and Canadian mountains in front of us. We could have forgotten we were riding in Washington because it was sunny and perfect weather, but the tremendous amount greenery constantly reminds us we aren’t at home in the arid Southern California climate anymore.

Notable events from the day included a weird field full of horse signs advertising businesses, a tanker truck that must have had stuck brakes because it left a nasty cloud of burning brake smell for miles behind it, and friendly drivers giving us plenty of room with courtesy.

Cruising along we made it to Lynden and paused for a snack. It really was lunch time, but were still stuffed from breakfast, so a snack it was. After that we wound up on some remote roads with farm equipment and devoid of traffic. There were fields of blackberries, blueberries, and corn. Really that was it…

At this point we were riding parallel to the Canadian border and looking to the left was gazing over the border. Then we made our way into Sumas where we paused at a service station for Powerade and snacks. We had originally planned to stop at an RV park in Sumas but R recommended that we go to Silver Lake County Park past Sumas. We had 4+ hours of time left to ride so we decided to push on.

If you have followed along with us that last statement may shock you. In the past we wouldn’t deviate from our route by 1 bike length more than needed. However we are really wanting to enjoy the ride this time and be less focused on the destination / timeline. So in that spirit we detoured an unknown number of miles off-route and it was totally worth it.

Riding out of Sumas was tough, a very steep windy road up a hill with little to no shoulder. There was light traffic, just enough to be annoying. But we ground up it and made it to the South Pass Rd which was the turnoff for Silver Lake. Matt found this weird since South Pass Rd went North around the mountains but who are we to judge. It also brought us the closest to the border that we will get for our trip (by our estimation.)

A few steep climbs later (including a short 14%!) we made it to the campground. It is a clear water lake surrounded by mountains covered in trees some of which are starting to changing color. We wrangled our way through getting checked in and found a nice site. I think we are one of two groups in the entire loop because of the season.

We started to set up camp and a deer came crashing through the brush running about 10 ft from us, startling us both. After a brief moment a dog came barreling after the deer. After that we settled in and ate dinner, our second meal of the day, bowls of spaghetti. Then we walked down to the lake, crossed a neat little bridge with kids jumping off it in to the lake, and made our way to shower. After strolling around we made our way back to camp in time to have the sun go down and type up this journal. This place is great, so quiet! This tour is off to a great start!

Well at 8pm our one set of fellow campers decided they really like Tom Petty and should listen to their music loud enough to be very distracting. Finally at 9pm we got tired of it and Matt walked down to ask them to turn it down, which they did.

Pictures to follow, currently having trouble getting them up...

All packed up and ready to go!

Um yeah horses, advertising local businesses? 

Hello Mt. Baker

I think my mom has this puzzle

Silver Lake campground, some kids were enjoying jumping of the bridge

More of silver lake