Back to the Bay

Tired of wearing a groove in the bike lanes on Northwest Drive, on Sunday I took a ride up to Birch Bay. The shortest route is only a little more than twelve miles, making a twenty-five mile round-trip, but I rambled around a bit and made it forty miles. With a stop to have ice cream and an americano on the beach.

The main bicycle route north out of Ferndale, on Vista Drive, is closed for paving and reconfiguration of lanes this summer - maybe I should have mentioned this earlier. For now the two alternate routes out of town are Portal Way, or Main Street to Mountain View Road, which is the direction I took.

From Mountain View, there are many turn-off roads to explore the small-farms and semi-rural neighborhoods in the hilly, sometimes woodsy area northwest of Ferndale. But I still bring a map with me if I plan to explore, and carry a little keychain compass, because it's easy to get confused and turned around, especially when you begin to get hot and thirsty. I remember one early ride when I could swear I crossed Kickerville Road three times. Finally I turned on to it, then rode up and down for two or three miles a couple of times because I couldn't tell whether I was going north or south, or remember which turn-off would take me back to Bellingham.

. . . but what about all those feet?

I believe this is a potato field in bloom

Sunday's view of Mount Baker