Joined: 15 Aug 2006Posts: 2666Location: No Fun Town, USA
I've promised a trip report, so here's the short version: Bike camping on Lopez is easy to do and fun. A pack of Cub Scouts could do it pretty easy; there's a half-mile to 1 mile hill off the ferry dock which is kind of hard (not as hard as Vashon or even Whidbey), and from there you either camp at Odlin (1 mile from the dock) or take easy backroads 4 more miles to Spencer Spit State Park.
Roads on Lopez are relatively flat (you've ridden much worse on .83 rides); there's a Red Apple grocery store and a liquor store at Lopez Village, as well as espresso, ice cream and cafes. Drivers are nice on Lopez and traffic is very light (at least it was this weekend). There's a cool park (Shark Reef) on the SW side where the sea lions hang out.
Spencer Spit also has a lot of wildlife, and has 7 or 8 camping sites right on the beach with firepits and free firewood for the taking (you can gather wood on the south side of the spit, and there is lots of it). Cub Scouts will spend hours playing along the water and building driftwood forts; older bicyclists will do that, too, as well as spend hours around the campfire staring at the stars, the waterbirds, and the ferries passing by. During the summer Lopez Bike and Kayak rents kayaks directly on the beach at Spencer Spit.
Lopez probably isn't much of a cycling challenge for most of us, but once you pay for your ferry ticket from Anacortes, you can use the ferries for free by bike or on foot until you return to Anacortes or go to Sidney, BC. So you could day trip from Odlin or Spencer Spit to any of the other islands, or camp one night on Lopez, 1 night on Shaw, a couple nights on Orcas, whatever.
The Anacortes ferry terminal has lots of parking. It's roughly $10/day in the summer, $5-7 a day this time of year. Drive up on Saturday morning, take a late morning or early afternoon ferry and you still don't have to worry about campsites (unless it's the summer, in which case you should reserve a spot; Odlin and Spencer Spit have reservation systems for the summer and other state/county parks probably do, too).
Last edited by gsbarnes on Mon Oct 04, 2010 1:40 pm; edited 1 time in total _________________ I have always thought in the back of my mind: Cheese and Onions
derrickito
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 11:07 am
now with 50 percent more EVILJoined: 22 Jul 2005Posts: 10566
agreed 100 percent. lopez is a nice easy ride, and calm on traffic. one extra addition, if you take a left instead of turning right to drop down to the anacortes ferry, you can park in the neighborhoods for free. save yourself 10 bucks a day fee.
henry
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 11:19 am
somewhat piggishJoined: 05 Aug 2005Posts: 5415Location: on porch with shotgun
Those spots right on the water are awesome, but can be reserved in summer months and usually get booked as soon as they are available. Note that the hiker biker sites at Spencer spit suck. Better to pay for a car site.
Thanks for the trip report. We'll put it on the list for the Cubs.
gsbarnes
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 1:46 pm
Joined: 15 Aug 2006Posts: 2666Location: No Fun Town, USA
James, if you go with a Cub Scout pack to Spencer Spit, they'll probably want you in one of the group sites, which is probably where you want to be, anyway. They're up the hill from the beach in the woods, but the sites looked pretty good to me, the restrooms are definitely better, and you don't have to slog all the equipment down the steep trails to the beach. You can always grab a fire pit down by the beach for the evening and roast marshmallows.
Odlin Park I don't know about, but a friend says their Boy Scout troop used to go there every summer, and the whole park was reserved this weekend for a high school camping trip (which probably explains the gangs of teens we saw biking around the island), so they probably have a reasonable group setup.
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tictoc
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 4:53 pm
Joined: 08 Jul 2009Posts: 765Location: Right here, Right Now!
gsbarnes wrote:
the whole park was reserved this weekend for a high school camping trip (which probably explains the gangs of teens we saw biking around the island)
Yeah, My daughter was part of this group, 80 high-schoolers from Garfield. They all stayed in the park you speak of. And this is also why I stayed away from there this weekend.
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gsbarnes
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 7:23 pm
Joined: 15 Aug 2006Posts: 2666Location: No Fun Town, USA
Despite the fact that many of them were carrying golf clubs, I never felt threatened.
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