La Conner

July 30, 2019

Today’s ride down to La Conner was one of the best of the tour. We didn’t follow the route we had planned though, which was to follow scenic Chuckanut Drive south along the bay. This route has sentimental significance for me: it’s the way my brother Stewart, my best friend at the time Alan and I started out on a bike tour we hoped would take us to San Francisco after I graduated from Huxley College (the environmental studies college in Bellingham, not to be confused with Huxley University, the fictitious one in Horse Feathers, the Marx Brothers film). The tour itself was a fiasco: Stewart bailed out somewhere on the Olympic Peninsula for personal reasons, and Alan and I called it quits in Salem. Still, it was the first ‘real’ bike tour of my life, and it set the stage for what lay ahead in life. Chuckanut Drive invokes many memories for me.

It’s a narrow, shoulderless two lane road pinched between the bay and the cliffs, with a succession of blind curves. It was fine 45 years ago when traffic levels were much lower, but a bit tense now. Rachael and I rode it a few years back on an excursion from Seattle to Bellingham, and you can’t really enjoy the views because you have to stay concentrated on safety considerations.

We left Jamie and Seong’s home with the aim of riding down Chuckanut, but before leaving town we stopped and looked at our map again to see what the alternative could be. I was curious about this partly for Jimmy and Seong’s benefit, because they had given Chuckanut a try but bailed on it because it felt unsafe to them. I thought we could explore an alternative.

So, friends, this one’s for you: if you’re southbound from Bellingham on a bike take Old Samish Road, the inland route that skirts the backside of Chuckanut Mountain and takes you past Lake Samish. It’s a quiet, lovely ride with low traffic volume, and from our experience today probably sees many bicyclists. It eventually merges back onto Chuckanut Drive, but beyond the mountain and into the flats so visibility is no longer a concern. It would make a fine day ride to bike down to Lake Samish or even Edison before turning back, or to continue south as part of an overnighter.

Southbound on Old Samish Road. Chuckanut Mountain rises on the right and the freeway is just to the left, hidden by the trees.

On Old Samish Road. I’m not sure what these cliffs are composed of - mudstone, perhaps.

Crossing the western tip of Lake Samish. Quiet roads encircle the whole lake, so it could make a nice turnaround goal on a short day ride.

Oh, my gosh. What is this? It gives me a headache thinking of carrying those around all day.

I haven’t seen one of these in a long time. He saw the train/he tried to duck it/he kicked the gas/and then the bucket/Burma Shave.

The rail line crosses the road just past the Burma Shave sign. There’s a barricade, but the train doesn’t whistle or slow down here.

After 20 miles we rejoined Chuckanut Drive, just south of the Chuckanut formation and at the northern edge of broad Skagit Flats. A few miles later we stopped at the Edison Cafe for a second breakfast, enjoying an omelet sitting at an outside table where we could keep an eye on our bikes.

The remainder of the ride to La Conner was an excellent ride the whole way - almost no traffic, generally very flat, cycling past grain fields and small farms with views of the bay to the west and the mountains to the east. South of Edison the road skirts the edge of Padilla Bay, part of the time on empty Bayview Edison Road and part on the unpaved Shore Trail. This is country I’d be happy to bike through over and over again, in different seasons - especially in the spring to see the famous tulip fields, and in the winter to see the snow geese.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a Farmall tractor before. A model from International Harvester, they were manufactured from the 1920’s to the 1980’s. I should have poked around a bit longer to find the model number. From the photos though, it looks like a Model M, manufactured between 1939 and 1952.

Bonner’s Trading Post, in Bow. Unfortunately closed today, but a cafe in nearby Edison was open.

We stopped in at Edison Cafe for a second breakfast, but took a pass on its Wonder Bread. The sign shows it’s age: the product built strong bodies only 8 ways until the early 1960’s, when the other 4 were added.

Looking back north toward Chuckanut Mountain

Looking back northeast toward the North Cascades. I’m surprised by the mountains up here - this feels almost like it could be set in Austria.

From the signs, I think these are polo ponies. This group kept running in formation in a tight circle.

Looking across Padilla Bay to Anacortes and Guemes Island

Video sound track: Farewell to Bitterroot Valley, by Tracy Grammer.

We ended the day at La Conner, a place we’d like to have been more enthusiastic about than we actually were. It’s a little place along the Swinomish Channel, opposite the Swinomish reservation, and surprisingly historic. It’s core is a protected historic district that dates back to its origins in the 1860’s, and it has its share of restaurants, preserved buildings and art galleries to browse. To be fair, we didn’t give it much of a look - when we started out to explore it we got completely turned around and missed the entire town by the time we had used up the day. La Conner is right in the heart of tulip country, so we should come back then and give it a better look.

The faded paint says this is Washington’s oldest living weekly newspaper, but that’s very old news. The paper was alive from 1879 to 1982.

In our wandering in the wrong direction, we found the not so exciting skateboard park; but this massive black oak was worth seeing.

Great blue herons are such dramatic birds. I never tire of watching them. This one is focused on dinner, watching for prey that comes too close to the surface for its own good.

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Ride stats today: 39 miles, 1,200’; for the tour: 541 miles, 24,300’

Today's ride: 39 miles (63 km)
Total: 541 miles (871 km)

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Jacquie GaudetI was afraid of Chuckanut Drive too, until I rode it a couple of years ago. I rode as far as Larrabee State Park on a Friday in early May (I remember wondering how much further it would be and whether I'd run out of daylight). On the Saturday morning, after breakfasting and breaking camp, I continued on my way to Anacortes. The other person in the hiker/biker section (also a solo woman cycle tourer!) left earlier, saying there was a great place for breakfast in Edison.

I found the road very pleasant to ride--but that probably had a lot to do with timing!
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