Tour de Kitsap

My extended weekend in Seattle was coming to an end.  Today's ride was the West Sound Bicycle Club's Tour de Kitsap.  I had planned on riding the 102 mile route.  I took the 7:30 AM ferry from Seattle to Bremerton, joining several of my Seattle bike friends for the voyage.

When we arrived in Bremerton we were met by "The Mayor of Kitsap", Leo Stone, who welcomed us to the Kitsap Peninsula.

The official packet pickup at the Bremerton Ferry Terminal

After picking up our ride packets Leo led us to the route and as he did so he pointed out bits of local interest that only a career navy man would know.  Information included such tidbits as "the motto of the Coast Guard is 'semper paratus', always ready. The motto of the Marine Corp is 'semper fidelis', always faithful.  The motto of the Navy is 'semper inebrius', always............"  Well, maybe all the tidbits he passed along might not have been officially accurate! ;-)

We pedaled 9 miles to the official start of the ride in Silverdale. I rode most of the first 9 miles with John Weller, a Seattleite who I've met at a few rides, including RAMROD and others.

 At the start in Silverdale there was the first of many food/rest stops.

Having had little time for a real breakfast I dipped heavily into the delicious offerings.
As I prepared to pedal the 102 mile route I noticed that the ride leader from yesterday's Cascade Bicycle Club ride to Alki, Jenny Anderson, was ready to pedal out too.  Realizing I didn't NEED to ride 102 miles I decided to ride with her. 

Thanks to Jenny and her GoPro for the photo

We were joined by a friend, Noelle.  We more or less rode together the rest of the day. I'm a bit faster on hills, and there were plenty of those today, but they knew the area better and were less likely to get lost, and less likely to keep stopping to take photos!

Some of the route was familiar to me as it shared roadway with the Kitsap Color Classic, which I have pedaled a few times.

As with many of the rides I've participated in when in the Seattle area, this one is seldom far away from water.

 The rest stops were plentiful and well stocked.

There were many places that just begged to have me take photos. If I had taken time to stop and set up I might have gotten some good pictures, but even from a bike they didn't turn out too bad.

And one was never far from good food!

 

The scenery was beautiful.

 And the food stops were just great.  At this one we were offered excellent sub sandwiches and hand scooped ice cream! I had last year's route on my gps, and ended up taking about a 3 mile longer route through Poulsbo, so my riding partners were already fed, watered, and ready to roll by the time I got here. As I was eating my icecream, it was pointed out to us that we were the last people into this rest station, all the other riders were ahead of us!  I guess we were just having too much fun.  It looked like one of us would be today's Lanterne Rouge.

 

We pedaled along with a bit more ferver, but still took time to note the scenery.

 We eventually arrived at the ferry terminal and decided to board the ferry rather than return to the official start/finish in Silverdale, where a root beer float awaited us.  Because of our start in Bremerton, we had pedaled the whole course, just with a different start/finish point.  We could live without a root beer float, and without the embarrassment of being the last to pedal in! We lined up for the voyage back to Seattle.

and soon boarded the ferry (bikes before cars!) for our trip back.

Another good day on the bike.  Sunny weather, good friends, and great support.

 ........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today........79..............0..............0..........0............79
 Jan.........105.............34.............0..........0..........139 Feb.........428............108.............0.........24..........536 March.......809..............0.............0.........22............831 April.........1010..............0.............0..........0.........1010 May..........1000..............0.............20..........0.......1020 June..........1500...............0...............0............0.....1500 July...........1518...............0................0............0......1518 YTD........6296............142............20.........46.........6504