On Sunday, Jaime woke up around 9:30, washed a few more dishes from our Thai feast the night before, bungeed our picnic lunch to the back of our bikes and rode out to the 11:40 ferry out to Lopez Island.

It was a gorgeous day of biking, beach, birds and ice cream cones. By the time we made it back for the 7:05 ferry to Friday Harbor and home, I was exhausted.

In all, including the ride from the farm to and from the ferry landing, we covered around 35 miles.

Sunning ourselves on the ferry ride over

Fast-moving currents at Shark’s Reef

Agrarian scenes on Lopez

Turkey vulture enjoying the remains of little creatures torn up by the haying equipment

A short visit to Spencer’s Spit inspired a promise to come back to bike camp later in the summer!

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I was on duty this weekend, which meant taking care of lots of chickens, keeping temperatures steady in the flathouses and greenhouses in a lovely orchestration of opening and shutting and venting, some watering duties, and feeding the cats.

In between all that, I managed to squeeze in a little bike ride:

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This time, I had companions… David who’s a jack-of-all trades who lives out on Sweet Earth Farm and a new friend Pritha who is an intern out on Heritage Farm.

David and Pritha looking at Mt. Baker

Still snowy out there.

We went almost out to the lighthouse at South Beach, but fell just shy (my 4 o’clock chicken date held us back), making for a total of around 20 miles round-trip.

Past American Camp a ways, we headed down a mini gravel path a little ways towards the water and were stopped by this curious guy. Pritha, the fox-whisperer, got him to come real close. Eventually, a friend of his came along with silver fur and eyes that were even yellower and more eerie.

Pensive fox.

Hungry fox.

Apparently, the red foxes on San Juan Island are a non-native species that was first introduced in 1947, and a few times afterwards to control a populations of (also non-native) rabbits which had been introduced in the 1890s and were out of control. Now there aren’t so many rabbits, but you can still see foxes all over the place.

Field + sea + mountains + sky = beautiful

The day started out a little dreary, and I was planning to stay in, but the sun came a’shining a little after noontime, so I bucked up and headed out on a ride.

I like that the roads on the island make loops. It’s so satisfying to keep moving forwards instead of doubling back on a road where you’ve been before.

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Like most of the island, this route was up and down and up and down, but I think I chose the right direction when I went counter-clockwise because I shot down some hills that could have been gnarly to climb. Maybe one day when I’m feeling intense, I’ll try going the other direction and see if I survive.

Despite the sun, the air was cool and I could smell blackberries and grass and sometimes the sea for the whole ride. So joyous! I want to figure out how to collect and dry blackberry leaves for tea. With that delicious of a smell, it’s got to taste good.

Overall, this came out to around 18 miles, and I did it in a little under 2 hours with three little stops to take pictures of the pretty beach.

San Juan State Park

Off Westview Road