Cycling in the San Juan Islands

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CYCLING IN THE SAN JUAN ISLANDS Andrew Sweet It was a book that got me started: That depends on what you call Next stop was the English Camp. BicycdingthePaciliCoast- A Complete "something"! Two hours later, I was Between 1859 and 1871 thel British and Route Guide from Canada to Mexico" eating my yoghurt and banana in the Americans were at war over the 1,987.3 miles in 38 days! bike-campman'swoodpile. Yes, ithad boundarybetweent CanadaandtheUs. a roof - at least sort of - but there Apparently therev was only one casualty kay, SO in the end only did 130 weren't any walls, sO it wasn't a shed, ap pig but both sides had permanent miles in 4 days at least I got in my book. camps which are still standing. through eight pages of thel book, and the rest of the route is very high on my He'db been al bit surprised whenlturned After the English Camp there was a 30 "to do"l list. up; "Nobody really cyclesroundherein km ride down the populated side of the winter, you know But I found a island to do some real estate spotting. The San Juans are a small clump of coupleofbitsofratinfestedfoam-rubber Lots of huge houses with their own islands on the border between in the woodpile and made a space private bays keep saving Andy! Washington State in the US, and British betweent the axesandsaws. Reminding Columbia in Canada. Vancouver is 40 myself that, a)he wash highly unlikelyt to On Day three I went to Orcas Island. kms north, and Seattle 200 kms south. be an axe murderer, and b) snakes are Yep, named after the Killer Whale They're empty, rugged, wet, and more scared of people than we are of species. Thisislandisevenmorer remote mountainous. But above all, they are them, Isettled downt fort the night. Apart and wild. I found a forestry road that incredibly beautiful. from the five seconds of terror beforel took me to the main town through the could find my torch when a slimy, real backcountry. My trip started in Anacortes with the extremely: snake-like slug crawled onto great news that the ferries are heavily my face, I had a really good sleep. The highlight of Orcas Island was the subsidised; $4.50 for a 21/2 hour boat 2,500ftMt Constitution. Ithas sweeping ride. Eatyourheartout, Thelnterislander! Daytwodawnedwith: slightlyl less drizzle views over hundreds of islands to the thanDay one, andifoundmyselflooking Cascade/Mountains, Vancouver Island, The boat pottered through five or six forwardto: some serious exploring. My and the Olympics. At least that's what islands oni its wayto SanJuan. Theyare first stop was Lime Kiln Lighthouse, mybookt tellsme. ljust sawlots of cloud very heavily wooded, right down into quoted in my infamous book as being from thet top; however, the alpine lakes rocky inlets with heaps of kelp and one ofthel best whale watching spotsi in and streams were great, even without frolicking seals. It was cold and wet. theworld. No whalest that day, butgreat the view. The mountain tops were hidden in the views across to Victoria, in Canada. low-lying cloud, and it was almost Day four involved catching the boat to totally calm. ORCAS Anacortes and cycling some TO ISLA AND S of the way back to Seattle "The best weather to see this MAUSOLEUM- AFTERGLOW VISTA SIDNEY B.C. before whimping out by place".Iconvinced myself So hitchhiking. What's the first shouldh havel borrowed a tent ROCHE HARBORZ TO thingldidonreachingSeattle? and snow-foam It's not S ORCAS ISLAND Straight into the bath with a thatbad, abackpackershostel - bottle of beer. Bliss!! won't cost much more than ENGLTSH U Ro SHAW CAMP US$20 a night, ifi it gets really tOReE ISLAND While it would be a lie to say wet. Ican afford to splash out - MITCHELL it was totally dry or warm on bucks BAY RD. SPORTS- - Nse or so MAN LAKE this trip, lended upt having a U of W. SAN LAB fantastic four days. I even WRONG!! After eight or nine JUAN A e BEAVER VALLEY spent a second night in the attempts, I realised there just COUNTY PARK RD, woodpile. The 30 ft piece of weren'tany: rooms under $80. LN JUAN FRIDAY HARBOR polythenelwrapped around Compiling imaginaryl letters to e VALLEY apicnictablef forr mylast night the author of rapidly LIME KILN R o - LITTLE RD. CE ME TERY was positively luxurious! dampening cycle guidebook- LIGHT- BAILER HIL RD. why did none of the listed HOUSE RD. can wholeheartedly hostels I I still exist? - rode off & recommend this area to all towards the so-called cycle N you cycling buffs out there. camp 20 km away. "Nah, he But threel bits of advice: First, doesn'tl have any cabins", the MILES take a tent, stupid! Second, unreasonably happy girl in AMERICAN A take four weeks, noti just four town had said, "but I'm sure SAN JUAN ISLAND CAMP days! Finally, don'tber macho he'll work something out". go in summer, huh? TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING