Thursday 26 August 2010

Day 97 Orcas Island to San Yuan Island

Tuesday 24th August
Daily mileage 26miles Average Speed 12.2mph Ride Time 2hr08min
Total Mileage 3906

Last night we could hear the patter of tiny footsteps in our food bag and had to rescue our bread from the mice who was enjoying munching on it. Amazingly we enjoyed 12 hours of sleep as we woke at 10.30am mostly due to the thick tree cover it still felt cool in the tent. For our shower we took a morning swim in the lake which was crystal clear and clean. Neither of us being strong swimmers we challenged ourselves to swim across the lake to the deck which we succeeded at, just.

We packed up the tent and we had decided that I would be missing out if I did not see the view from the summit so we locked up the bikes and I stood at the roadside with my thumb out. Believe it or not the first car that came up the hill pulled over and two lovely ladies stopped to give us a ride. I am so glad that we did as the view was great from the top. Many more photos later we got a lift back down to our bikes and were extremely thankful for the ride.
We rode back into town and found a café for a coffee and recharge of batteries. We had to cycle hard to make it to the ferry terminal by 4pm and the hills made this hard work. We made it just in time and boarded the ferry to Friday Harbour on San Yuan Island. 40mins later we arrived and after a short stop at the visitor information centre, market and liquor store we started pedalling across the island to a campsite on the west coast.


Despite the ride only being 10 miles and very beautiful it was challenging due to the steep hills and time frame to ensure firstly the campsite was not full and secondly we made it before sunset. We were pleased to find out that they reserve hiker/biker sites and our spot could not be more perfect. The tent was up in record time and we sat looking out across the ocean where the sun would go down with Vancouver island in the foreground.
As we sat soaking up the amazing colours we could see seals splashing about and before long we saw a pod of killer whales travel right across the horizon. We could even hear the water being forced up through their blow holes, it was breathtaking. We sat until dark taking thousands of photos and enjoying the peaceful surroundings. A very unusual black fox with a white tipped tail was lurking about us looking for scraps of our tasty chicken dinner.
 

1 comment: