September 12, 2023
Wandering
I coast down through town and onto the ferry. First Shaw Island, then Orcas, and on to Lopez. The ride lasts about 90 minutes and I’m thankful for that. I forgot what it feels the day after sleeping on the ground. And my legs are already tired — I think the longest distance I rode in the last six years was about 20 miles, and I did that just once.
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The sun starts to break through as I climb slow away from the ferry dock. It mixes with the moisture of the morning and things get sticky. But no matter — I’m happy to be here on Lopez, riding easy, waving back at each passing driver. The world is calm and quiet, save for the wasps who hover too close.
It seems too early to stop, so I keep going without any goal in mind.
I pick roadside berries from the seat of the bike until the tips of my fingers turn purple. In the distance, cows moo, sheep do sheep things, and some pissed-off ravens chase each other around. I take a break along a stone-walled graveyard with headstones for dead people long since forgotten.
I coast down to the water at what’s left of the crumbling dock at Richardson. Along the shores of a calm harbor with the Olympics obscured by clouds across the Strait, I have a long chat with a couple of old timers that tell me about past decades on Lopez Island, and how things were without a doubt better back then because of something to do with fireworks and ice cream and to be honest I’m not sure what their other reasons were because when someone starts telling me about the greatness of the past and how awful modern life is, I start to black out and can no longer follow what they’re saying.
The past is past, the future is a prayer, and the present moment is all we have. I’m content to enjoy it.
I slow-pedal up the last hill into Spencer Spit State Park and grab a spot at the empty hiker-biker area in the woods. After the packed campsite last night, I figured it might be lively, but it’s just me and the birds and the bees and the bats.
The young bikers from last night were headed this way today. They must have set up somewhere else. Too bad — I was hoping for more deep thoughts about coffee.
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8 months ago