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Samish Island Ride
It started out as a ride up to LaConner for lunch, but the weather was so nice that after lunch I continued north on Whitney-LaConner Road. After crossing the railroad tracks, it occurred to me that I had never been on this road north of Hwy. 20.
I rode north along the east side of Padilla Bay through Bayview and took a left at the intersection with Samish Island Road. I rode around Samish Island (which looks like a penninsula on the map and in person) and stopped to take some photos looking across Padilla Bay on the south side of the "island" and Samish Bay on the north side of the "island".
I left the "island" on the only road in or out, then headed east through Edison and Bow, over Bow Hill and across I-5 to Hwy. 9. My destination was the wide spot on Hwy. 9 north of Wickersham made famous by Mike. I wanted to take some photographs of Twin Sisters Mtn. with its first snow of the season. Mt. Baker can be seen just above the ridge to the north of Twin Sisters Mtn.
I took both regular and telephoto shots of the peaks looking east across the narrow valley of the Samish River. It is difficult to get good shots that are not marred by the pesky power lines which run along the east side of Hwy. 9. A couple from Whidbey Island riding a Buell sport tourer and a Suzuki cruiser stopped to say hi and offered to take my photo. The guy said he liked my Duc and that it was his "second choice." I took it as a compliment as he seemed well-meaning.
Although the valley and peaks were in brilliant sunlight, the road and my bike were in shadows; making the photos so-so. The sun barely clears some of the ridges as we are only 15 days away from its lowest point on the southern horizon at our latitude.
I turned around and headed south on Hwy. 9, then west on Park Road. It was a bit of a shock to remember that while it was only 2:30, there was less than 2 hours of daylight remaining. I didn't want to get caught in the hills after dark as it promised to be a clear but cold night. There was still frost on the hillsides which had not received direct sunlight today.
I headed west, then turned south on old Hwy. 99 at Alger to pick up I-5 just outside of Burlington. I was actually enjoying the ride on I-5 while I watched th sun getting lower on the western horizon. All was fine until I got halfway between Marysville and Everett. Even though I was headed south toward Seattle, the pre Thanksgiving Day traffic was just heavy in my lanes as it was in the northbound lanes leading away from Seattle. Traffic was horrendous all the way south to Lynnwood and on the suface streets all the way home to Edmonds.
Next up: Ice Cycle Run/2007 this coming Sunday.
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Bill Anderson & Darkwing Duc (06-ST3s, black) Edmonds, WA. USA
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