Summary: Salish Sea Cycling Loop, 15 days (293 miles)

What a fun trip! We made a complete loop around the Salish Sea along the northwest coast of Washington and dipping into Canada. We started/ended in Bellingham, but of course you could start anywhere along the loop.

Here’s a list of where we stayed. You’ll notice we stayed in a lot of WA State Parks because they have hiker/biker sites for $12 total and you don’t need reservations in advance — they have a ‘no cyclist turned away policy’!
– Larrabee State Park
– Bay View State Park
– Washington Park
– Deception Pass State Park
– Fort Worden State Park
– Compass Rose Farm
– Sequim Bay State Park
– Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge
– Warmshowers host in Port Angeles
– Island View Beach Regional Park (Canada)
– Gulf Island National Park and Reserve, Smonećten Campground (Canada)
– Peace Arch RV Park (Canada)
– Birch Bay State Park
– Friend’s house in Bellingham

We were fairly heavily loaded. Daisy and A were on a tandem, but since H broke her arm at the start of summer she was on a trailer bike (Wee Hoo) with Jason. Between bike, gear, and kid, the setup was about 150 lbs each, plus the weight of the adult. Yes, somehow we managed to have about equal loads without weighing them until the end!

Birch Bay to Bellingham (27 mi)

Car-less roads near the refinery

This was the last day of our summer 2023 bike tour! After breakfast, the kids and Daisy went back to the beach to play while I packed up camp and the bikes. The Adventure Cycling Route in this area (Pacific Coast #1) takes you on several no-car roads by the oil refinery. This was a quiet, pleasant stretch of the ride. We did have a little trouble at one of the gates getting our loaded touring bikes past, though. This was easily solved by taking the bags off, pushing through the small gully, and reloading them again.

There were then some minor hills, but the more important characteristic was that it started to get hot and sunny. And due to that I started to wilt. (One of the things Daisy loves most about me, you can be sure, hahaha.) We stopped at a convenience store and dumped ice cold water on my shirt to cool off. That helped a lot! When we finally rolled into town we stopped at Wood’s coffee at Boulevard Park. This is a great spot to relax, and get some snacks and coffee. We finished the day by riding to a friends’ house, where we camped in their back yard. We got some much needed showers/baths (H excepted, who continued to be a dirty little monster, I guess!) and enjoyed poke bowls for dinner.

Beautiful Mt. Baker!
Getting really close now!
A’s way to celebrate
H’s way to celebrate
Philtron family completes the loop!

15 days and 293 miles later, we were back where we started. We had a great time on our Salish Sea Bicycle Loop!!

Next summer we are thinking about a loop along the Sunshine coast and Vancouver Island north of Nanaimo… TBD!

Peace Arch RV Park to Birch Bay State Park, USA! (20 mi)

Yum yum yum

Today we passed more blueberry bushes than I’ve ever seen before. It was farm after farm after farm! We stopped at one farm stand and bought the minimum, which ended up being about two dollars for two pounds. They must have made a mistake?! They were absolutely delicious!! As we continued on the low traffic roads, we took note of a very specific pattern: each farm had a mansion next to it. We coined the term “blueberry barons” and continued on our way.

“Blueberry Baron” mansion
Very very steep hill
Suburbia is more compact in Canada

We arrived at the border a little before lunch and due to a lack of signage waited in line with the cars. Luckily, this only took about 20 minutes to get through the line. Of course, when we got to the border agent he said: “Did you know you could just go in the building over there?” Although I wanted to say some choice words about how we obviously didn’t, I kept it to a polite “No” since he was a border agent. Across the border in Blaine we found a crappy grocery store and an ok pizza place in the shopping center we targeted for lunch. We were excited to get back on the road and arrive at Birch Bay.

Birch Bay snacktime

Upon our arrival we stopped at a convenience store for a well-deserved ice cream snack. The town of Birch Bay is small, but there are a few tourist spots and the bay is beautiful. At the state park we asked a couple of volunteers for help finding the hiker/biker sites. Unfortunately, the two sites were inadequate: one was occupied by what looked like a long term resident, and the other didn’t have a large enough flat spot for our tent. We went to the regular campground loop and found a spot. While the girls got set up I went to pay at the campground’s check-in ranger station. We ended up paying the regular hiker/biker rate instead of full price, because the manager/ranger there has that policy. A pleasant surprise! The girls splashed in the bay while I cooked dinner. We had a relatively uneventful last night of camping before returning to Bellingham tomorrow.

Campsite in Birch Bay State Park
Walking to the beach
Calm water

Smonecten to Peace Arch RV Park (26 mi)

Drawing the puppy named “strapped-in”

The Swartz Bay ferry terminal is a massive complex!! The biggest we’ve seen. Must be because it services the traffic from Vancouver to Vancouver Island. In any case, there was a small food truck that was open in the morning and the kids got donuts. H also got a hot dog. The rest of us had our lunch in the cafeteria on the ferry en route. We sailed past several islands and across the strait to Tsawwassen. The exit was easy, but the thin strip of land was long to get over to the mainland. At the end we saw tens or hundreds of blue herons making an absolute racket in the trees.

The ferry is big!
Nesting blue herons

We made our way through a couple neighborhoods and ended up in the town of Delta to shop for groceries. Daisy went in to buy supplies while I stayed outside with the kids at a play area containing mini golf, ping pong, and a couple other games. It must keep kids happy while the adults shop! We also noticed that the parking lot was surrounding the small set of stores, which is the opposite of the typical strip-mall setup in the US.

Entertainment while Daisy went shopping
Cake!

On our way out of town we found the bike trail: a gravel path along the water. It was here that we also met a strong headwind! Daisy graciously took the lead to help block the wind. I am like a sail with how high I sit on the bike! We saw about ten bald eagles along the path — they liked sitting on top of telephone poles.

Trail along the coast
Bald eagles
Tent setup, done!

We were excited that the campground had laundry facilities, as they were sorely needed. The kids have been practicing setting up the tent, and this time they set it up by themselves with no help at all!