This past weekend COGS and MBBC combined for a bike camping weekend to commemorate Bike Travel Weekend the first weekend of June.  5 COGS members and 2 MBBC members met up at the Fairhaven Amtrak terminal in Bellingham. We were blessed with one of the warmest weekends as summer is approaching. This year we had to navigate around the closing of Chuckanut Drive, but we had the opportunity to be on quieter country roads along the way to Anacortes. Probably the most important stop of the day was at Mad Hatter's Ice Cream before we headed to Washington Park for the night. Those who wandered to the shore saw a spectacular sunset.

On Day 2 we ended up having a brisk ride with tailwinds along the Cascade Trail. Burlington was the halfway point for a very nice lunch stop at The Fairhaven. The most adventure we had for the day was staying out of a short mud section of the trail and having a few brief and shallow stream crossings. We reached camp in time to enjoy the Skagit River by Rasar State Park and had a great walk-in campsite. The tuckered out cyclists hit the sack by 9:00 PM.

On Day 3 the early risers woke up with the birds singing. We headed back to Bellingham via Cascade Trail to Sedro-Woolley while Richard Petters took some very nice side roads instead to enjoy a beautiful Sunday morning. Sedro-Woolley had their ‘Blast From the Past’ street fest with an antique car show going on. After a nice break we took a very nice route back to Bellingham on quiet country roads until traffic started picking up again as we approached Bellingham. We ended up covering about 135 miles over 3 days and everyone's legs felt it towards the end, especially with the last climbs into Bellingham. But the descent down Old Samish Road felt good to finish off the weekend.

Even if you couldn’t make it this time this is a recommended 3 day trip you should consider doing that is close enough to Seattle, yet may seem far away at the same time. The routes are always available on RWGPS.