by Philip

Day’s mileage : 51

After many months of planning and preparation, and a few days sorting out minor things like buying our bikes, today was the day. The day of starting our expedition, of realising Liz’s dream, and of finally starting to ride from border to border.

We began by cycling from our amazing AirBnB up to the Canadian border so we could “officially” start the ride. Here we had our first piece of stress, when I found I’d lost a bolt in cleat in my cycling shoes … which meant I couldn’t get the shoe out of the pedal. Somehow, I managed not to fall off. Most remarkably, I had a spare bolt, and even knew where I’d stashed it!

Having sorted the shoes, we started off, cycling back down towards Bellingham. After some ten miles, whizzing down a lovely hill, one of my panniers made a run for it, flying off the bike. We are both struggling a little with panniers that don’t quite fit the rather chunky luggage racks on our bikes … but a couple of cable ties sorted that out once I’d recovered the pannier.

Lunch was, for the second day running, on a bench in Ferndale, and then we rode in to Bellingham to re-visit the bike shop. We needed some adjustments to be made having done about 50 miles since we got the bikes, and wanted to say goodbye to the lovely couple who run the shop.

A quick stop for a stash of cable ties for my pannier for the rest of the trip, and we were on our way further south. Once through Bellingham the scenery changed and we had several miles through beautiful forests before opening out at lake Samish (don’t ask me how to pronounce it). We had some hills to contend with, and enjoyed the power of our Dutch e-bikes as we climbed them. Leaving the forests we came across vast fields used for agriculture, with road signs warning we were entering a tsunami hazard zone. The fields looked as if they had been flooded, and there was evidence of crop damage. 

Finally, after 51 miles, we made it to our quirky 100 year old cottage. We decided on dinner at the local (500 yards) pub rather than another 6 mile bike ride to a supermarket, and had a lovely fish and chip supper (we weren’t convinced by the Skagit Gizzards offered on the menu), and I enjoyed the Larrabee IPA and Chuckanut pilsner to wash it down,

All in all, a successful first day!