Arlington to Bellingham

 Today is day two of Dave and my ride from Seattle to Vancouver BC.  The plan for today is to ride 54 miles from Arlington to Bellingham.  With just over 2200 ft of climbing, this will be just 200 vertical feet short of tomorrow's total, but we do it in 36% less miles.

We started off at 9AM after good breakfast at the nearby Denny's. We rode the 2 miles back from the freeway to the center of town and hopped back on the Centennial Trail.  The town has obviously embraced the trail (and the money it brought in?)

 

There was a lot of trail art and historical signage.  We stopped at all of it, having less than 60 miles to travel, and all day to do it.

We stopped at Big Lake on the outside chance to catch an acquaintance home, but as expected, our stop was limited to a view of the lake from the backyard.

We continued on to Mt Vernon, at 27 miles nearly half way into today's 56 miles,  where we stopped for chicken teriyaki, and a chuckle.

 

It was easy to determine where NOT to eat!  ;-)

 

Dave's photo

At mile 30 we crossed the Skagit River, famous for fish and Bald Eagles. We also crossed under I-5, to remain on the west side of the freeway for the remainder of our trip.

Skagit River

Not Bald Eagles, but still looking for a fish dinner

Dave's photo

In about 10 miles of headwind travel we arrived at fabled Chuckanut Drive.  It is a formidable hill as you approach it, but luckily we don't climb over it, but skirt our way along the lower edge.  It is a very scenic route.

Dave's photo

Dave's photo

 

Dave's photo

When mapping the route I noted that ridewithgps wanted to put us on a path that ran parallel to the road. I had only been up this way once before and didn't remember seeing a path.  We figured we'd play it by ear.  As we neared the bottom of Chuckanut the Garmin told me to turn right.  We did that, and found the trail, but it was gravel.  It was probably rideable on my 28's, and certainly rideable on Dave's 38's but we both decided that the paved road still descending looked like a better choice.

Dave's photo

We rolled down into Bellingham with the Garmin warning "off course".  We could see our planned route about 1/2 mile to our right on the Garmin's screen.  Eventually our destination was also about 1/2 mile to our right.  We turned right and rode up a steep grade (20%!) to get to our destination.  It might have been fun to follow the proposed route, just to see how far was gravel, and where it came out at.

As for today, we were glad to be done.  Dave's daughter had gone to college in Bellingham and was back this weekend to run a marathon with friends.  We met her for pizza.

 .......Road bike........Rollers.......MTB.......Lifecycle....Total
Today........56...............0..............0..............0..............56
Jan..........765.............0..............0..............0.............765
Feb..........248............0..............0..............0..............248
March......183...........0...............0.............0...............183
April........228...........0...............0.............0...............228
May.........200............0..............0.............0...............200
June.........199...........0...............26...........0...............225
July..........246...........0...............0.............0...............246
August.....502...........0...............0.............0...............502
Sept..........876...........0..............44............0...............920
Total........3393.........0...............70............0..............3463