Padilla Bay

August 7, 2025

The morning begins at the crack of dawn, when one of our four large dinner plates slips through Rachael's soapy hands while she's washing the dishes from last night. Fortunately it's stoneware and only breaks into three neat pieces in the bottom of the stainless steel sink rather than shattering into a thousand splinters but it makes a frustrating start to the day, one we're excited about otherwise. It's Thursday, Taper Day, and time to turn it down another notch. Today the prednisone dosage drops to 20 mg/day, the level at which I started seeing symptom with my vision back in Italy last spring. My vision seems perfectly fine so far and I'm anxious to see the results of my next blood draw, scheduled for 10:30 this morning.

I want to be sure to arrive in time so I stop in at the Blue Cafe for my second coffee for the morning and my second strada in three days. While I'm there I reflect on the recent loss of a man I came to regard as a friend through about a decade of interactions on this website and CGOAB before that. I heard of Keith's passing from an email of a mutual friend, but there is also a forum thread developing as a tribute to him. If you have your own thoughts about Keith you might add to it, or if you know of others who would like to know you might refer them to the forum, since I don't think it's a place that gets routine traffic.

In Cafe Blue, remembering friend and CycleBlazer Keith Klein, who passed away a few days ago.

A day that began with frustration continues in the same vein when I check in for my appointment at Quest Diagnostics and find that I don't have an appointment here after all. Quest Dignostics is a chain with an impressive penetration in the United States - I'll be able to use them for blood tests all the way south to Santa Barbara when I'm not within range of a Kaiser facility.

And their penetration really is pretty impressive. There are four Quest storefronts in just Bellingham, and unfortunately I accidentally booked an appointment at a different one five miles away. I drive over but arrive too late to keep the one I was scheduled for, but fortunately another one is available in an hour so I settle in, work on the blog, and wait.

Unfortunately though when I'm called in I'm immediately bounced back out because I've brought some but not all of the necessary paperwork for my referral. So that's frustrating, but at least it's just an annoyance because getting tested isn't time critical.

Our ride destination for today is Padilla Bay, an estuary at the saltwater edge of the Skagit River delta. It is about eight miles long north to south, and three miles across. At Rachael's suggestion, we're going to plan our ride around a meal at Chuckanut Manor, a classy restaurant at the south side of Chuckanut Drive with what looks like a dynamite view across Bellingham Bay.

Our plan is to park the car there, bike south Through Edison and Bayview to the south end of the bay and then backtrack, returning in time for our 4:45 dinner reservation, so we begin by loading the bikes into the car and driving ten miles south down Chuckanut Drive. If you're familiar with this road you know that it's no place for a bike. The traffic is generally light enough if you time your ride right, but it's a death trap. A narrow two lane road with one blind curve after another, it's often completely shoulderless with the pavement hemmed in with a cliff on one side and a concrete barrier on the other to prevent you dropping off the cliff on that side.

It's a white-knuckle ride on a bike, it it's terrifying driving a car, particularly one I'm not really confident about the width of yet. Let's just say we were happy to arrive at the restaurant safe, and that I'm never driving that road again. I'd sooner bike it, and I'm not doing that either.

Once we start biking though, it's an outstanding ride all the way to the end and back. I stay with. Rachael for the first several miles, but lose contact when I'm forced to stop to check out a raven harassing a pair of vultures. Air wars!

Endless potatoes to the east, looking across the broad, ultra-flat delta of the Skagit River.

And whatever this is runs to the lip of Bellingham Bay to the west.

Tiny Edison Slough makes its small contribution to Bellingham Bay.

In the distance, a turkey vulture soars across the ridge line of the foothills to the east.

In hot pursuit is our first sighting for the year of a common raven (#184).

East of. Edison, near the mouth of the Samish River.

The view from bayview across Padilla Bay to Anacortes. I'm not sure, but I think the mountains on the horizon are in lower Vancouver Island.

From the same point, looking north across Padilla Bay. On the left (I think) is Mount Constitution on Orcas Island, while to its right is Lummi Island.

I don't see a name for these small channels that drain into Padilla Bay from the flats to its east.

This is the end of one of those channels, at the point where it empties into the bay after snaking its way across the exposed mud flats. It was high tide when Rachael and I biked through here six years ago on our ride back to Portland from Victoria, and I was shocked when a family of river otters swam up the channel to the low berm the bike path lies on top of. When they came to the berm they climbed up a low rocky slope, lumbered across the bike path about fifty yards in front of me, and dropped back into the channel on the other side.

Rachael waits up for me when we approach Edison, but I soon lose contact with her again and don't see her until she shows up in the distance on her way back. She's hungry, achy and ready to get off her butt so it's not long before she disappears in the distance in that direction too.

New helmet! Sorry it's backlit though. I should have asked her to double back for another shot so I could get a better shot.

Rachael's out of sight anyway, so I might as well stop for another vulture shot.

By Colony Road. I wonder what the history is behind that name - there's undoubtedly a good story.

Rachael gets back to the car about a minute or two before I do, even though she stopped every mile or two to rest her aching triceps. Unpleasant but basically just a training issue, it's good news that she has few complaints about her injured toe or arthritic wrist and foot. Her other complaint besides the triceps is at the other end - she hasn't spent any time in the saddle for awhile, and the four miles of crushed gravel along the bay were an aggravation for her.

We have a 4:45 dinner reservation to get back for but are more than happy to get seated when we show up almost an hour early. Chuckanut Manor is a splurge meal for special occasions like today, and it doesn't disappoint with either the setting or the servings. I'm pretty sure we'll find an excuse to celebrate again before we leave Bellingham, and maybe show up later to catch the sunset next time.

Celebrate! There's plenty of cause for it: lower prednisone dose, first bike ride for Rachael in a few weeks, new helmet, video.

Not a bad view, and not a bad meal: a shared plate of Brussels sprouts, hazelnut crusted rockfish, and a shared triple berry cobbler for desert. We forgot to take food photos, but I suspect we'll be back at the end of the month and order the same thing.

Courageous! And she's not even wearing her helmet!

An otherwise fine day that began in frustration ends that way also when we find that there's no video for the day even though I thought I was recording it until the battery ran dry. This one is on me, because I unloaded it from the last shooting. It's the first time I've done this, and it looks like I failed to insert the memory card all the way into its slot. It's a good thing I shot a couple of stills of Rocky pulling away in the distance at the end of the ride so we've got evidence that she was along for the ride.

Sad, but there's always YouTube as a last resort.

Oh, wait! Rachael just got up and let me know she unloaded the video to her iPad last night. So, a totally great day.

Sound track: 17 West, by Eric Dolphy

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Today's ride: 30 miles (48 km)
Total: 475 miles (764 km)

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Jacquie GaudetI'd only been along Chuckanut Drive in a car, and not for years and years, when I rode it on a Saturday in early May, 2017. I was doing a short solo tour, having picked up a new tent in Blaine and needing to spend 48 hours out of Canada to be able to bring it back without being charged duty and taxes. Chuckanut Drive was no problem that day at all. Or maybe that's just in comparison to King George Boulevard, which I'd ridden white-knuckled the previous day on my way to Blaine.
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1 week ago

Scott AndersonTo Jacquie GaudetTiming is everything on roads like this - not just in terms of overall traffic load but of where the encounters happen. We rode it ourselves - coincidentally also in 2017 - and it wasn't bad for us either. There are really some very badly pinched spots though, which are better with a bike because you can hear the cars coming and wait for a break. It's really a much better drive and bike to go around the east side past Lake Whatcom.

Not that I imagine you or anyone else up there will be coming down this way any time soon.
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1 week ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Scott AndersonNo, I won't be riding across the border anytime soon. Sad, because prior to last November, I was considering a trip to the Olympic Peninsula.
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1 week ago

Scott AndersonTo Jacquie GaudetAnd as much as I'd like to see folks up there, I'm not sure we're crossing the border into Canada either. It would be pretty irksome if some MADMAN has been monitoring my posts and reported me to the border patrol and we end up in an ICE box trying to get home again.
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1 week ago