June 18, 1996
Anacortes Island, WA to Rockport, WA
Is the tandem supposed to wobble like that?
What a beautiful day to begin our trip! Not a drop of rain; cool and sunny. It was almost 1:00 before we were ready to go in Anacortes. It was a longer drive from Vancouver than any of us had anticipated, with a half hour wait at the border (magnificent "Peace Arch"). Uncle Ross has gone beyond the call of duty in devoting his entire day, the truck, and gas to our needs. We couldn't get near the water at the ferry landing in Anacortes so we went to a nearby boat launching ramp and had a "bike launching".
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We passed through such a variety of terrain today, from the sea coast,
through farmlands,
along the beautiful Skagit River valley, to the foothills of the Northern Cascade mountains.
We are surrounded by pine-forested ranges and snow-covered peaks. The Skagit River itself is beautiful, fairly wide, a swift-flowing, sparkling green reflection of its forested banks. We camped right on its banks. The flora has been interesting, very large and lush. Every plant seems oversized, from the trees to the roadside shrubs, ferns and flowers. There is a familiar flower I'm anxious to identify. It's like our eastern Blue Bells, but the "bells" are amazingly large. The fauna thus far has consisted of deer skittering across the road, and numerous bald eagles (much to Dave's delight). We see many of them circling above and hear others screaming in the forest. When we were driving with Ross, I saw what I thought was someone's remote control helicopter, but it was an eagle hovering over its prey. Such friendly people so far on our first day; everyone is interested in and amazed at what we're doing. We purchased a glass of lemonade from two girls at a small stand and made of bonus purchase of four daisies for $.08. While eating lunch in a Subway, we met a tandem rider/bicycle shop employee. He's a serious cyclist and is preparing for a 200 mile race; his female stoker just qualified to compete in the "Iron Man" race.
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Locals were helpful in directing us to the county park for camping.
Also, I hope today's vehicular traffic is the norm. Drivers were extremely polite and gave us lots of room. We were attacked by only one dog today, and one spray of HALT was sufficient. What a fantastic first day!
Today's ride: 71 miles (114 km)
Total: 71 miles (114 km)
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