The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

NorthWest Corner Ride

July 9th to July 21st

Ride Director: Ben Satterwhite
Ride Co-Director: Dianne Rappaport
Ride Driver: Robert Netteland
Report by: Alice Carter

 It was called the NorthWest Corner Ride, and that’s just what it was.  The far northwest corner of the continental U.S. welcomed us with tall trees, snow-capped mountains, oyster beds, and fields filled with ripe berries.  We enjoyed plenty of opportunities for fun; when we weren’t riding, we hiked, got a massage, took a boat ride, or attended an organ concert in a historical mansion.

Two dozen touring cyclists (and our pleasant van driver, Bob Netteland) explored this corner of the U.S. with an excursion into Canada for almost two weeks in July 2017.  Our first day was one of the best as leaders Ben Satterwhite and Dianne Rappaport routed us on Chuckanut Drive, a lovely road along the coast south from Bellingham, Washington.  The next two days we explored San Juan Island and Orcas Island. There were several other cyclists visiting the islands, so we had to double-park some of the bikes on the ferry! 

After returning to the mainland, we visited Deception Pass and the charming towns of LaConner, Fairhaven, and Lynden, where we found the Raspberry Festival featured ice cream from a local dairy topped with just-picked raspberries—absolutely delicious!  The northernmost part of our route included crossing the enormous Fraser River on our way to Harrison Hot Springs at the southern tip of Harrison Lake in British Columbia.  Nearby wildfires obscured the gorgeous views but otherwise caused no problems for us.  We were warned to watch out for Sasquatch in these parts, but we didn’t see him.  Then we turned south and visited Blaine where we saw the Peace Arch at the Canadian border and spent the night on a point of land surrounded by water on three sides—just about as far north and west as you can get in the continental U.S.—before returning to our starting point in Bellingham.

The trip was all you hope for in a vacation.  The weather was beautiful:  cool enough to keep the windows open at night and start the ride with a jacket, then reaching the 70s in the afternoons. Most of the roads were lightly traveled.  We enjoyed plenty of seafood and fresh-picked cherries, blueberries, and raspberries.  Many thanks to Ben and Dianne for sharing some of their favorite rides with us.