Lee and I got in a s24o on Friday night after work over at Manchester State Park. Despite the threat of probably showers we stayed dry. We met at my place in West Seattle after work. I finished packing and we were on the road by 6:20 towards the Fauntleroy ferry dock. Lee got some dinner at Thriftway and ate on the ferry. I intended to cook when we got to camp. They were playing with the ferry dock, lower, raise, lower, load 3 cars, raise, lower, load, raise, so the 7:20 boat left closer to 7:50. From Southworth it was about 8 miles to the park. We registered at the gate house for a 14$ primitive campsite (online said 12$). Primitive it was, we had our pick of 3, only the second one had a very visible tent area. We had hammocks so the close proximity of trees was good but we still had to set up over some undergrowth. We were racing the remaining daylight while setting up but finished and the set out to find a table so I could set up my jetboil and make my dinner.
We went to the day use part of the park near the old brick building that had stored torpedos(mines) for pre-WW1 Puget Sound defense. (1900-1910). The mines were pre-placed and in the event of enemy ships in the nearest mines would be detonated from a control booth nearby. The site wasn't used during WWII since the 4 gun emplacements at Ft Warden on Bainbridge Island was considered sufficient to defend the area.
I ate some bland freeze dried chicken and rice and we headed back to the hammocks around 10:30
Lee chanced the probably showers and left his rainfly off. I had set mine up since I didn't want to trip around at night setting it up and for the additional heat retention it may have provided. I woke up once or twice in the night and may have been from being cold, I had a sleeve of a sleeping bag rated at 45degrees, I had a 3/4 length pad and I did notice my feet were cold. I had a thin fleece and hat on so my core was pretty warm though
We got up at 8:30 an packed up, I forgot to bring coffee or tea so I didn't fire up the stove and just ate a granola bar before hitting the road. We followed the same route back till we reached Banner Rd and climbed up a relatively steep route (about 400 feet in a mile). We went down to Banner Forest which is about a square mile of public land with foot, bike and horse trails. We rode only a dirt access road, it was pretty quiet and we only saw a few users. I plan to come try the trails more on my mtn bike sometime soon, they looked like fun singletrack. It is only about 3 miles from the ferry dock.
We canned the Vashon exploration for this trip and went straight to Fauntleroy, stopped by a busy ABR shop for a few minutes then made it home a little after noon.
Grumpy GreebJoined: 20 Aug 2005Posts: 5329Location: flavor country
radical.
when did the strippers come?
dennyt
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:21 pm
rocket mechanicJoined: 02 Aug 2005Posts: 2708
Nice!
Ashley and I hit up Fort Ebey on Whidbey Friday night. 36 miles with some hills. Poached another 2-person spot on the edge of a cliff over the sound. Like we do.
lantius
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:07 pm
1337Joined: 22 Jul 2005Posts: 6705Location: right over
yeah, i'm thinking that's definitely the way to go. it's like the state parks service doesn't want people to arrive by bicycle or on foot. i took a look at some of the water trails sites as well, they were even more overgrown than the hiker/biker sites. hell, banner forest had better-looking spots for bivouacing and it would have been easy to be up and out before anybody else was in the area.
i'm heading over to south whidbey this coming weekend, looks like you went through it about halfway in. decent ride out there?
joeball
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:15 pm
Joined: 24 Jul 2005Posts: 6037Location: Ether
dennyt wrote:
Nice!
Ashley and I hit up Fort Ebey on Whidbey Friday night. 36 miles with some hills. Poached another 2-person spot on the edge of a cliff over the sound. Like we do.
Looks awesome, the Ebby bluffs are beautiful, lots of good trails that if you set up camp a little later in the evening you should have all to yourself, that is where I was when 9-11 happened.
Did you just park at Mukilteo? What time was the ferry you caught?
Did you have mesh on your bivy sack? It was pretty buggy where we were so the mesh was pretty much necessary.
dennyt
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:16 pm
rocket mechanicJoined: 02 Aug 2005Posts: 2708
Yeah, it was a good ride. Some hills, but not as bad as Vashon.
langston
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:31 pm
Joined: 25 Jul 2005Posts: 5547Location: Columbia City
lantius wrote:
i'm heading over to south whidbey this coming weekend, looks like you went through it about halfway in. decent ride out there?
At South Whidbey SP there is room to sleep on the beach, right at the tide line. I bike-camped there a few years ago, about mid-moon and the tides came right up to the 4ft tall driftwood wall. It was exciting in the middle of the night, but dry. There are usually a few drift wood shelters set up within 50ft of the stairs, just make sure to come around dusk and slip by the campground hosts ninja-style.
gsbarnes
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:16 pm
Joined: 15 Aug 2006Posts: 2666Location: No Fun Town, USA
lantius wrote:
i'm heading over to south whidbey this coming weekend, looks like you went through it about halfway in. decent ride out there?
I rode Whidbey all the way up to Deception Pass about 10 days ago. It's much flatter than Vashon, at least on the main highway, which was all I took. My only complaint was one stretch of Highway 20 with next to no shoulder, which I see Denny managed to avoid.
Also, it was pretty windy the day I did it. And signs on the highway indicating 'strong wind gusts' (or the like) lead me to believe that was not an uncommon state of affairs.
I rode straight up to Mukilteo from my house. It's actually almost dead north from, say, 3rd Place Books in Lake Forest Park (here's a route - take 99 instead of Beverly Park Road if you want, but that gives you an extra hill) Except for the stretch in (gah) Lynnwood near I-5, it's not bad. It's roughly 20 miles to Mukilteo from my house at around NE 70th.
There were signs for fresh seafood from Coupeville on, which I was going to treat myself to on the way back. Except that was the day we got 8+ hours of steady rain, and I rode back in someone's minivan instead.
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