Cherry Point

It's an eight mile ride to Cherry Point, starting from the Haggen Store at Main St. and LaBounty.  Ride Main St. across the bridge and through town, where Main becomes Mountain View Road, with a short but steep hill climb followed by a few miles of small rollers.  At the entry road to the Alcoa plant, turn right on to Rainbow Road, and continue to the stop sign where you cross Kickerville Road on to Henry Road.

You'll see the bay at the end of the road, which curves down to the beach.  The water is chilly and the beach is rocky, but it's a peaceful and secluded spot for kayakers, beach picnickers, bicyclists and eagle-spotters.  The roadsides are lined with thimbleberry and blackberry thickets and though it's still too early for berries, the woods are noisy with birds.

If I recall right, several years ago a park and marine preserve was proposed for this site, probably as a condition of using 180 acres to expand the shipping terminal to handle 8.2 million tons of cargo, including materials like potash and coke.  Now a much larger project is being considered, over strong local opposition.  The new proposal requires 350 acres, to ship 54 million tons, including coal which would be brought by train through Ferndale and shipped to China.

The advantage to working weekends is enjoying quiet, uncrowded sunny Tuesdays.  After Cherry Point I rode to Birch Bay for ice cream and more beach walking.  Birch Bay Drive used to be a popular teenage cruising spot, and for a while it seemed to be getting to be kind of a biker hang-out, but now it's mostly retirees and parents with kids, co-existing with some bikers and cruisers and cruising cyclists.

Happy cows, with the Canadian Rockies in the distance