Just a few weeks after our Kidical Mass Bike Travel Weekend group bike camping trip to Illahee State Park we led our annual Fay Bainbridge group bike camping trip for Swift Campout.

* All the photos here: Seattle Kidical Mass Swift Campout to Fay Bainbridge Park – June 24-25, 2017 – 193 photos · 1 video
* Details on timing and routing here: Swift Campout Kidical Mass June 24-25, 2017
* Our group numbered 44 humans and two dogs. Six kids were on their own bikes!

More detailed stats:

• 6 kids on bikes
• 10 regular bikes:
  • 4 regular bikes without attached stuff
  • 1 regular bike + Weehoo iGo trailer bike
  • 1 regular bike + Burley Piccolo trailer bike
  • 2 regular bikes + kid trailers
  • 1 regular bike + dog trailer
  • 1 regular bike + Burley Travoy cargo trailer
• 2 Yuba Spicy Curry e-assisted longtail cargo bikes
• 4 Xtracycle EdgeRunner longtail cargo bikes (3 with e-assist)
• 1 Surly Big Dummy longtail cargo bike

Each kid-carrying bike carried just one kid (except for mine which carried zero kids). A couple younger sibling babies who aren’t on bikes yet joined us via car.

This was our sixth year camping at Fay Bainbridge Park and it was as awesome as always. We’ve done a lot of trips with groups and a lot of trips just the three of us and there’s always something new to learn.

Some neat new-to-me camping products:

• Bear Bowl Cook Pot
  
   
• Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ultralight Pyramid Tent
  
   
• Lumos helmet with front and back LEDs
  

Also new this year was a new route. It was kind of in between the two main routes we all use, the flatter highway route (my favorite) and the hillier scenic route. I still can’t decide if it’s the best of both worlds or the worst of both worlds. It’s definitely a third option, though! The route was suggested to us by the Bike Barn Rentals guy as we were waiting on the next ferry to bring some of our campers to us. This wasn’t his original suggestion–that was a bit hillier, though not the same as our regular hilly scenic route. I tried to explain that with 150 pounds of bike and gear I didn’t agree that a couple steep sections could equal a better route. He may not have agreed with me, but he did make some changes to the route. I took this new route on the way back, too, to see if that would help me decide if it was a keeper or not and I still couldn’t decide. I’ve since learned (thanks, Chris!) that looking at the grades of a given route are a good indicator of if I’ll like something or not. In general, I like things less than 6%, so the 6.4% of this new route is also iffy. I’m mostly torn on it because it still contains plenty of highway and plenty of shoulderless side roads, so it’s certainly not all good if you ignore the one big hill.

But there was some great stuff about this new route:

* We biked by the Bainbridge Island Blueberry Co. which has U-pick blueberries! I prefer rushing straight to the campground and settling in, but lots of families do stuff on the way to camp and this would be perfect for that.

* The Port Madison Lutheran Church where we turned off Madison Avenue had lots of shade, a water faucet, blackberry bushes, and a play structure! It was a wonderful spot to rest and snack at the five-mile mark (out of 6.3 miles).

* It was very nice to arrive to Fay Bainbridge Park from the south along a relatively flat section. The big hill (only 5.6% sez Ride with GPS but it feels steeper) at the end of the “flat” highway route is right at the end which makes it that much more unpleasant.

It was nice having the three reserved camping spots this year and not having to worry about space. It was also neat having the car parking spots that came with the three sites to allow a few families to do supported bike camping. We’ve been joined by car camping, or partially car camping, families in the past, but they had to find and figure out the car parking those years (though I’ll admit I don’t know if that’s difficult or not, not having car camped at Fay Bainbridge Park myself).

This was my kids’ first time biking to Fay Bainbridge on their own bikes since I was biking with a broken foot. I was extremely impressed with them. Quite different from last year’s Family bike camping Bike Overnight to Fay Bainbridge with the tandem + trailer bike where I’m pretty sure I was the only pedaler. It was hard for me not to think back on my own trip last year for 2016 Swift Campout to Ipsut Creek with Swift Industries which was one of the biggest rides I’ve ever done and felt so unobtainable in my broken state.

I had planned on staying two nights so the kids could play all day Sunday (and I could rest all day) and have energy for riding home Monday morning. It’s always fun to watch the different groups take off when you’re the last to leave. However, after playing all day we all felt done with the beach and with camping so I cooked our dinner for a late lunch and we hit the road. I am so incredibly amazed that my kids made it without complaint! We took our time and met up with friends at the ferry which helped immensely. And we stopped for the spray park on the way home.

Happy Solstice!