US79: Washington Park, Anacortes, WA — Moran State Park, Orcas Island, WA

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Wednesday, August 3rd

I’m drinking a beer but I don’t feel i’ve earned it. It’s a Pacifico. The can is yellow with an anchor on it and it makes me think of Mexico. Unlike the other cans of beer i’ve sometimes drank at the end of a long day of cycling I don’t feel i’ve earned this one. I’ve only cycled 20 something miles. It’s been less than 24 hours since I reached the coast and I already feel slightly aimless. Perhaps this is why I didn’t take too much time off my bike in the last 80 days, because I don’t know what to do with myself when i’m not cycling from A to B. And I am terrible at relaxing.

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I took the ferry to Orcas island in the morning.

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But first I took a walk on the beach where i’d dipped my bike last night. I collected a few stones as mementos. It was the first time I felt I didn’t have to worry that I wasn’t cycling, though I still felt an urge to keep moving. I wondered what to do with the day, and quickly decided on the ferry before I had time to overthink or regret not hanging around longer.

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DSCF1157I cycled a mile up the hill then down to the ferry port. The building was small, scrappy. The coffee was bad and overpriced. Much like all ferry ports i’ve found myself in.

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I picked Orcas island as Aidan, one of the guys i’d camped with by Diablo Lake, had said it was the best. I didn’t really have many expectations.

A lovely but truly insane woman sold me the tickets and handed me about 5 different pamphlets of ferry times and maps. From what I could understand, ferries were free and frequent between the San Juan islands once I left the mainland to one of them, but, to begin transit to mainland Canada there was only one ferry a day – early in the day, to get to Vancouver Island. Then from there I could take a more frequent service into Vancouver. I’d worry about that all later.

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I waited outside the building with the coffee i’d just bought. I went to check the time but my watch was not on my wrist. I began frantically cycling back to the campsite, but half a mile in retraced the morning in my mind, checked in my wash bag, and it was there. I coasted back down and finished my coffee. I’m surprised I haven’t misplaced more things during the last few months.

The ferry left at 10.20 I boarded alongside a couple of other older guys with racing bikes.

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The ferry took an hour or so, first stopping at Shaw Island, before Orcas. The morning was dry but grey. From the deck islands drifted in and out view.

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I pushed my bike off the ferry and leaned it against the wall outside the Orcas General Store. I knew I was making a mistake going in there. One apple cost nearly $3. I bought as little as I could and left.

I took a left away from the port and was immediately struck by how hilly the place was. This day, or two days, were meant to be relaxing, but I was already sweating up an 8% grade hill. I passed a couple who were biking who said i’d managed to pick the hilliest of the islands, but before too long I made it to East Sound.

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East Sound is the main town on the island. A place with that chintzy craftsy seaside look and swarmed with families from Seattle and Vancouver buying $6 ice cream cones for their kids. But I was just tired and cynical, unsure how i’d spend the next few days ahead of my flight now I didn’t really have anywhere I had to be, I was no longer on a linear path.

So I stopped at a cafe and spent the next few hours writing up my final day, posting some photos, trying to find a place to stay in Vancouver.

The time went quickly and before I knew it it was after 4, it was sunny now, not grey, and I felt the day had slipped away a little. I cycled out to the bay, then headed towards Moran State Park where I thought I could camp, around 5 miles away.

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Most of the roads were downhill from here, though I knew i’d have to climb up them tomorrow in the morning to the port.

Hiker/biker camping was $12. As usual with state parks the ‘primitive’ camping was in an pretty, isolated forest spot, but a long way away from the lake and the main attractions of the park.

I found the last remaining bench and camp spot and sat and drank that beer and felt like I hadn’t achieved a lot but I knew i’d need to slowly begin to readjust or redefine what achievement was and what my expectations of myself were now the mission of ‘cycle across America’ had been completed.

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I made dinner then decided to go down to Olga before sunset. It was two miles, mostly downhill. There turned out to be nothing there. A tiny set of expensive houses, a long pier. I headed straight back past deer scattered across the lawns and forests, they roamed all over the island totally oblivious to people and cars.

I look at my pamphlets and the ferry timetables. I’d need to wake up and be cycling before 5am if I wanted to make it to Vancouver or anywhere in Canada tomorrow.

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So I decide to spend a day on San Juan island, hoping for something a little flatter which I could explore in a little more detail. From there I could head to Vancouver on Friday morning giving me the best part of three days in the city. Perhaps i’d worry less about having to have a purpose there. Then, soon, Europe once again.

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