I don’t usually post things that don’t pertain to family biking or cargo biking, but this small-bikes-no-kids camping trip was essentially a test run for our summer Kidical Mass bike camping trip and I want to remember my observations and solicit advice, so on the blog it goes!

Last weekend’s camping trip was just three women, two of us with two kids a pop left at home, all three of us with longtail cargo bikes (Ellie: Kona Ute, me: Surly Big Dummy, and Alyssa: Xtracycle EdgeRunner) left at home in favor of our regular bikes (Ellie: Soma San Marcos with Nitto Albatross bars, me: Surly Straggler with Soma Sparrow bars, and Alyssa: Surly Cross-Check with Surly Open Bars).

For background, here’s the 2014 family bike camping trip, the 2013 family bike camping trip, and the 2012 family bike camping trip. And you heard it here first: this summer’s family bike camping trip will happen August 15-16, 2015. Maybe even August 14-16 because I want to do two nights. Note: this is the week after Bike for Pie because I’ve decided it’s just too much to do both. There will probably also be a big family bike camping trip June 20-21, 2015.

I’m still getting the hang of carrying stuff on the Little Struggler (that’s the Straggler’s name if you couldn’t guess) and often can’t close my panniers when I take it grocery shopping. Here’s my array of items to take camping:

And here it is all loaded on the little bike! I put most everything in the left pannier to leave the right pannier available for the tent. I shoved my sleeping pad on top of the tent and intentionally stuck the mugs on the outside of my left pannier because I thought they’d look cute out there. My front basket holds just snacks and dSLR camera.

In past years I’ve taken our four-person car-camping tent, the REI Basecamp 4, on the camping trips, but for this trip I’m carrying Alyssa’s four-person REI Halfdome 4. By the way, there is nothing funnier than watching cargo bikers argue over who gets to carry the tent. But there is nothing less funny than having to listen to the “cargo intervention” jokes by the other two cargo bikers at the expense of the winner! Obviously, I won the right to carry the tent. Woo hoo! Note: I recently got an REI Halfdome 2+ for me and the kids to use this summer which will open up so much cargo space on the Big Dummy. I can’t wait to test it out!

Alyssa and I arrived at the ferry quite early (which takes Orca cards now! That may or may not be new, but it’s new to me!) so we parked our bikes in the bike lane and hung out in the unseasonable sun.

We learned there’s a Top Pot Doughnuts just across the walkway accessed from the ferry passenger terminal so we went for coffee and doughnuts. For summer family visitors: there’s no bathroom at this Top Pot, but it’s an easy walk with little legs and there’s a bathroom in the passenger terminal (as well as other food options). And look: bike street art on the walk back to the ferry!

I might aim to come early for our next camping trip because it’s fun to watch the ferry pull in:

I still think there is nothing like biking onto the ferry. So exhilarating!

Cargo bikes get to park at the very front of the ferry on their burly centerstands, but regular bikes tie up to little yellow ropes alongside the cars:

Ours was a very scenic ferry ride given the clear skies and big sail boat race. There was also extra ferry honking at boats who strayed into our course. That’s downtown Seattle off to the left. (“I can’t see my house from here!”)

We arrived and biked off the ferry, but stopped halfway up the hill, deciding to wait at the former gas station for the aggressive car traffic to clear out. This would be a good pitstop for the family biking trip, too.

In the past we’ve followed the Chilly Hilly/Bike for Pie/non-highway route to Fay Bainbridge Park, but this time we tried the highway 305 route and OMG it was so flat! Granted, it’s hard to appreciate the difference riding with 75 pounds of bike + gear versus 200 pounds of bike + kids + gear, but I’m pretty sure it was much much milder. Though also much less scenic.

It does feel like a highway, but the shoulder was very wide. And at the beginning, we followed signs to leave the side of the road and share a bridge with pedestrians:

Later the speed limit increased from 40 mph to 50 mph, but it still didn’t feel worrisome with the nice wide shoulder. I’m curious to hear from the family bikers who’ve taken this route: did you like it and would you do it again? Tell me below in the comments. I think I’d like to do this come summer.

We moved pretty quickly on our little bikes and before we knew it, we were following signs for the Phelps Road exit towards Fay Bainbridge:

After four miles of highway with lots of cars and wide shoulders, we had 2.5 miles of quiet roads with no shoulders (which is the style of the bulk of the scenic route). There was only one big climb, which is hard to capture with smartphone picture, but I think this is the only hill family bikers might need to walk:

In the past we’ve always camped down on the beach in the kayak-in spots, but this year we pitched our tent in the hiker/biker spot near the top of the hill. This was partially to honor the letter of the law, partially because the new camp host last summer wasn’t so cool about bikers camping on the beach, and partially because Jason Goods of Swift Industries/Get Lost Adventure Club camped at Fay the previous weekend and said it was cold and windy down on the beach.

There are picnic tables and fire pits, but no bathroom up here. Plus it’s far from the playground. And kids have to walk down and up the car road to get to the bathroom and playground. So I’m undecided this is a better area to camp in the summer. I think it’s probably worth parking up here and then having one or two families walk down to see the cammp host and check on space. We saw a pair of bikers camping in a car spot. At $7 per biker, it might be worth squeezing into a car spot, though they’re not as nice and open as the kayaker spots. Again, thoughts welcome in the comments below!

Unloading our gear, I noticed how bulky my sleeping bag/pad situation was compared to Alyssa (left) and especially Ellie (top). I might keep an eye out for a smaller sleeping bag. And a smaller but squishier pad because my hips could feel the ground through my Thermarest pad.

I wasn’t sure what to do with myself once we were unpacked–I haven’t been camping without kids since I was a kid! With no potty breaks to administer, snacks to dole out, or rock throwing to referee, we snoozed on driftwood at the beach. I found a heart-shaped shell and admired Mount Rainier.

But it wasn’t too boring! Apparently I had told Alyssa that Ellie would bring coffee beans and told Ellie that Alyssa would bring coffee beans. Thankfully we discovered this Saturday evening and not Sunday morning. Alyssa helpfully offered, “Well, at least we have the instant coffee you brought!” but I decided that would be overkill with my chocolate-covered espresso beans and their beans and left it at home. So I offered to ride back across the island to the grocery store and pick up coffee beans.

It was nice to get a sneak peak at our return route. I noticed one possible problem area on family bikes: approaching Madison Avenue there’s a narrow bike lane between the through-traffic lane and right-turning lane. It’s fine on the way north since it’s downhill, but a little claustrophobic on the uphill southbound route. So come summer I think we’ll take the right-turn bike lane on the edge of the road and then carefully make our way over to the left at the intersection.

At the grocery store I got coffee beans, instant coffee, and the last box of Girl Scout Tagalongs. And met a women who said, “What a great idea! Going grocery shopping with a little basket on the front of your bike!” I hope she’ll try it soon.

And I saw the world’s coolest dog. Whom I think I saw in Seattle the other day. Unless dogs lounging out the window is a trend.

While I was gone, Alyssa and Ellie prepared dinner in my little percolator. Oh, in case I forgot to mention it, I not only flubbed the coffee beans, I also forgot that I was the one who said she’d bring the cooking pots. It’s nice to have all this room to improve on next time!

The morning was amazing, but I think we would have come even if it’d been drizzly. I started the morning with a long quiet walk on the beach and then we had coffee and pancakes (cooked in my percolator) down at a picnic table by the beach rather than up by our campsite.

One advantage of camping up in the hiker/biker spots is not having to bike uphill from the beach, but I discovered last summer than it’s possible to bike a fully-loaded cargo bike up that hill provided the kids walk on the side. So I packed up my bike and brought it down for a photo. And Alyssa took her tent poles (cargo bike intervention, sigh) so I was able to close both my panniers for a [slightly] sleeker look.

Climbing back up that hill wasn’t all that easy, but it certainly was doable. I was happy to rest a bit before we set out. And capture my sock situation for an Instagram: hi-vis Sean Sako‘s DeFeet on the car-side and punk rock Cars-R-Coffins on the forest side.

I got a pretty good group shot on our way out with my iPhone wedged in my helmet vent across the street and my TimerCam Pro app set to 30 seconds while we changed the ABC song (this works great with kids!). Excellent timing because a car zoomed between us and the phone less than a second after the click.

We opted to backtrack the route back to make sure it was as flat in the way in. Despite the lack of scenery compared to the hilly route, we still pass Frog Rock. I remember the good ol’ days when there was never a line at the frog, but we waited patiently while two guys on road bikes climbed around the frog and then took turns taking pictures of one another.

And more pictures of the bike lane leading up to Madison. It might be worth exploring leaving 305 before this point. I think I might need another test ride/test camp.

Not to mention the SHOULDER–FERRY WAITING ONLY signs that started quite a ways before the end of the highway. It wouldn’t be very pleasant to share the one car lane during a busy summer Sunday.

And then back on the ferry. The mom and daughter in the foreground were part of a family of four and the father was riding a bakfiets! I’m guessing they live in Seattle, in a flat neighborhood.

As fun as it is to leave Seattle behind, there’s nothing like the view of downtown looming closer and closer as the ferry approaches pier 52.

So, who wants to go camping??

UPDATE:
From Kristin:
“Madi, there was a porta-potty at the top camping site in the summer. It was pretty clean, so not bad. We only rode on 305 for a short bit. We followed Miller Road back some of the way. The Pie and Pints ride (I think) was the same weekend and we followed a lot of that route back to town.”

Family bike camping 2014 was a big success! Three families (4 adults, 5 children, 2 Big Dummies, 1 Xtracycle EdgeRunner, 1 Xtracycle FreeRadical) met by the Fremont Bridge to ride to pier 52 for the ferry to Bainbridge Island. This was our 7.6-mile heavy-bike-friendly route. A fourth family (on two regular bikes with double trailer holding two kids and single trailer holding gear) came on the next ferry and joined us for the ride from Winslow to Fay Bainbridge Park.

I packed much lighter than last year and was quite proud of myself. No camp chairs, no full-size pillows (or pillows of any size, for that matter), NO STUFFED ANIMALS. Not to mention I was the only parent of our family this year and got to carry it all myself! I can’t believe I made it happen. I loaded up the right side of my bike the night before–I stuck on the Xtracycle WideLoader and piled on tent (REI Base Camp 4, kinda big), three sleeping bags, and three sleeping pads.

The three bags on the left side of the bike are food, clothing, and kitchen stuff.

But Matt gets the awards for both Cutest Backpacks and Most Symmetrical Packing:

The bike lane to the ferry tool booth worked well again. The lanes were all backed up with cars, but we were able to follow bike icons on the sidewalk to make our way to the front of the line and pay between people in cars. I think we were about 20 minutes early for the 10:35 ferry; people in cars coming through at the same time were assigned to the following ferry.

There were several bicyclists waiting to board. I saw these guys get started from Gas Works Park and was surprised we beat them to the ferry, but they had taken a loop around Magnolia on the way over. The other bicyclists were also day trippers. As were all the motorcyclists in the lane to the right. Fun mix.

Once on the island, we headed straight for the Winslow Wharf Marina by Pegasus Coffee House to have lunch outside while the kids explored. The family on the later ferry caught up and we were soon on our way.

Bainbridge was as lovely as ever.

And as hilly as ever. I love this “husband assist” by the TAKE YOUR TIME heart sign. I hate to badmouth trailers because they’re great: they’re easy to add to any regular bike, they’re great for naps, contain toys and snacks, and keep passengers warm, dry, and shaded. But they’re a pain to lug up hills. I much prefer my cargo weight all up on two wheels when there are uphills involved.

Finally on the last stretch, a 2.7-mile up-and-down along Sunrise Drive, we met with an unexpected DETOUR AHEAD sign less than a mile in. I convinced everyone we counted as local traffic and should keep going straight. So we started down the ensuing hill and thank goodness we met my friend, Victor, coming from the other direction who warned us to turn around. So we took a mile-long detour of unfamiliar hills. I think it was hillier than the original route, but who can tell on Bainbridge?! Here’s our detoured route to the camp site. I’m not sure what I would have done had we biked all the way to the road closure. I think I would have screamed, cried, and set up camp right there by the excavators.

About an hour and a half later (I forgot to time it!) we arrived to Fay Bainbridge Park. The kids immediately hit the beach while I set up camp.

In addition to this being my first time carrying all the stuff, this was also my first time setting up the tent (well, other than practicing in the back yard on Friday). Success! In previous years, we’ve camped on the beach, which I thought was the hike-in area while the regular bike-in area is higher up the hill. We couldn’t locate the camp host upon our arrival and there was plenty of room on the beach (though we ran into a fellow family biker who arrived Friday when it was full and was camping in the high spot). The camp host–a new one this year–drove up soon after and let us know the beach spots are reserved for kayakers following the marine trail and cost $15 instead of $7, but since we were only four tents and had already set up, we could stay if we paid the remainder. Phew.

I made a couple great discoveries in setting up camp. First, my U-lock made a great mallet for pounding in tent stakes. And second, bungee cords as tablecloth holders! Love to have things perform double duty. I wouldn’t necessarily call this toddler-safe, but no eyes were poked out nor fingers squished.

The array of tents (and, heh, box of wine in foreground):

And three of the four camping stoves (with Mount Rainier in the background–terrific view of her!):

Supermoon!

Every Saturday in August (8:30-9:15pm) features an owl show with facts about local wildlife and a visit with Orion, a great horned owl. Interesting take aways:

• Crows are extremely intelligent. They even know the truck of the park ranger and follow him to peck at the trash bags in his trunk when he’s not looking.
• Coyotes are usually blamed for missing pet cats and small dogs, but it’s usually owls. Owls can carry three times their weight and Orion weights 3-something.

We were the only family planning on riding Bike for Pie so we broke camp earlyish and set off alone at 9:15. We saw a bunch of Bike for Pie riders as we headed for registration and cheered each other on–they may have assumed we were already on the ride with camping gear along. Tons of kids were on the 8-mile family course, some on trailer bikes, but many on their own bikes.

We went to the registration table at Waterfront Park, but ended up skipping the ride because the kids weren’t keen on sitting for an extra 8 miles and I didn’t mind cutting out the extra hills. But since pre-registered we still got pie! I guess I could say I did the two-day course.

And we hung out for a while to talk to Demi about soon-to-be Pronto Cycle Share and meet Naomi of Biking with Child whose bigger kid needed a lift home after riding Bike for Pie, which they made work by his little sister taking his bike and a push start.

Then we caught the 12:25 ferry home. Bikes board first!

Love the view of Downtown Seattle from the ferry.

And 9 miles later we were home. The kid helmets are on the bike because I suggested they walk the last/steepest block. Thank goodness they obliged! I also had them walk the hill out of the campground–that hill is OK with just cargo, but too much with cargo and kids.

Ideas for next year:

• Camping more than one night! I’ve never camped more than one night since kids. It would have been nice to take a day off from biking and hang at the Fay Bainbridge beach and playground all day.
• Plan for camping in the proper bike camping area next year–which will also be nice if there’s an extra day to play at the beach.
• Day trip for Bike for Pie. We rode the ferry with a dad and three kids who headed over early in the morning. I’d have the kids on their own bike, but use the Big Dummy in case a sag wagon is needed…and so I can carry us to the ferry more quickly (I like to think I’m still faster than the children, but I’m probably not).
• Learn how to make better pillows. My five-year old woke up and said, “My neck hurts!” Camping pillow tips and tricks, anyone?
• Keep a stash of twigs in the tent overnight because the BioLite Stove wasn’t happy about the damp twigs in the morning.
• Have the camping trip announced on the Totcycle mailing list to reach more families.

And finally, a few more pictures!

It’s that time of year again! Join us for bike camping at Fay Bainbridge Park, Bike for Pie, or both!

Saturday, August 9th and Sunday, August 10th, 2014
Bainbridge Island, Washington

Coming from Seattle:
Meet by the Fremont Bridge, on the corner outside KeyBank (601 N 34th St, Seattle, WA 98103) at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. It’s a block from PCC Natural Market if you need any last-minute supplies (we’re aiming to head up a tad early to grab marshmallows for s’mores…oh, who am I kidding, for creating sugary fireballs).
Be prepared to pedal at 9:15!! We want to catch the 10:35 ferry so we can beat a bit of the day’s heat–it’s gonna be a hot one.

Here’s our low-traffic route from Fremont to Pier 52 in case you run late. I’m sure you can catch up to us:

Once on Bainbridge Island we usually break for lunch before the long trek to Fay Bainbridge. Some people will hit Pegasus Coffee House, some will stock up on forgotten items at the Town & Country Market, some will picnic outside, and some will push on ahead.

Here is our route from Pegasus to Fay Bainbridge:

Lemme know if you have a flatter suggestion! I think the highway might be slightly less hilly, but definitely busier.

Bike-in camping at Fay Bainbridge Park is $7/person–bring cash! Kids have counted in the past. I think the beach area is technically the hike-in camper area, but that’s where we stay–it’s close to the restrooms and playground.

We’ll time our trip to the campsite to decide when we head out Sunday morning, retracing our steps for the fun Bike for Pie event. I’m doing the 8-mile family-friendly course. I’m planning to have somewhere to stash our camping gear so we can ride unencumbered.

Some helpful links:

• Totcycle details for 2013 bike camping
• 2013 bike camping recap
• 2012 bike camping and Bike for Pie recap
• Bike for Pie website
• ferry schedule

12 families, consisting of 19 adults and 19 kids on 19 bikes conquered the hills of Bainbridge Island for our second annual Seattle Kidical Mass bike camping trip!

The group ride to the ferry met at Ballard Commons Park and headed 7.4 miles (map) through the locks. The kids and I skipped the fun group ride so we could check out the Amtrak traveling Exhibit Train, here Saturday only. En route, we were mistaken for a Seafair Torchlight Parade float as we biked down 4th Avenue…which is the parade route, but this was ten hours before parade time. Obviously, a sign I had overpacked.

I was sad to miss riding in with our friends, but the Exhibit Train was awesome, even if we only spent five minutes rushing through it.

It was fun wheeling my cargo bike through the Amtrak station. Long bikes aren’t allowed on Amtrak (unless they’re boxed and weigh less than 50 pounds). Many of us hope that rule will change someday, but in the meantime I use the old mamabike for train trips and this is the closest the Big Dummy has been to a train:

…but back to the camping trip!

I love the bike lane for entering the ferry terminal. Cars came from the left to share this toll booth, but it was easy to navigate our way through. We were directed to lane 37 for bikes only. Cars lined up to our left and motorcycles to our right. Several families arrived early and were able to board before cars and the group ride arrived later, with just a few minutes to spare and were stuck on behind the cars. We don’t take the ferry often so I don’t know if it always works this way, but it was amazing how accommodating to bikes they were.

This year’s 7.4-mile hilly route from Pegasus Coffee House to Fay Bainbridge Park was slightly different than last year’s…and slightly better!

Rather than follow the BIKE ROUTE sign and turn left on Falk, we continued straight through DO NOT ENTER (for cars) sign for a noticeably less steep hill. Yahoo!

At Fay Bainbridge, the kids immediately hit the beach to create a sea life museum

while some of the big people set up camp.

And camp was right next to the beach:

There’s a different hike/bike-in camp area up the hill, but the camp host said we could camp in either area. Someone said our beach area might officially be the kayak-in camp area. We didn’t share space with any kayakers, but there was a quiet couple (who I worried may feel their quiet weekend away disrupted by so many children, but they dinged their bells merrily at us the following day as we crossed paths in Winslow) and a mellow bachelorette party. Camping down here also put us right by the playground.

New at the campground this year was an automated pay station so campers need not have cash on hand. The camp host instructed us to pay $5 per bike rather than $5 per person, resulting in free kids.

We played, dined, and hung out at the campfire. One of my favorite parts of the evening was charging Julian of Totcycle’s iPhone with our snazzy new BioLite CampStove.

I learned a neat trick from Julian in the morning. I asked if our route back to Winslow was less hilly than last year’s and he said, “It’s not bad after that first hill” and then conveniently put some distance between us while riding out so he couldn’t hear me cursing him. Heh. Or maybe it was just my imagination. But he does look a little shadowy and sneaky on the ferry home. In his defense, the hill out of Fay Bainbridge Park is definitely the worst. I had to stop halfway off to eject a passenger and walk the remainder.

Several of us arrived to the ferry home after the initial bike boarding. This time, they stopped the cars after having just filled the bottom level and let us ride up the sides to join our friends at the front of the boat. Again, very accommodating! If only the ferries went everywhere. Mr. Family Ride really would have liked it to deliver it directly to our front door at this point–he took some of my overpacking into the trailer and later discovered the extra stuff had pushed one trailer tire against the body of the trailer. I should have been more sympathetic, but I’m used to extra drag. I also shouldn’t have reminded him I rode Chilly Hilly with my rear brake rubbing this year. Not motivating talk.

Everyone seemed to have a terrific time and I heard several “Let’s do this again!”s. Just like last year, I was impressed by the eagerness to return to the punishing hills. Now I’m curious if the cheerleaders of last year have made it back to Fay on their own. As for new challenges, several local family bikers have expressed interest in exploring the Iron Horse Trail, but I’m a little leery of carrying even a lighter camping load through gravel…not to mention how to get to the gravel. We biked through the Snoqualmie tunnel a couple years ago and it’s…gravelly. And not all hard-packed gravel.

But I do want a chance to try packing less. I’m not ready to give up my full-sized pillow just yet, but I think I could be convinced to leave the four camp chairs at home. I don’t think the Wheelha.us family was exaggerating when they said their kids wore swim suits for the ride and only brought along a pair of sweatpants each for when it cooled down at night. Now that is packing light! I think I brought six changes of clothing per kid. Plus swimwear. Plus jammies. And way too many stuffed animals. We’ve already discussed NO TOYS for next time.

More photos of the trip on Flickr.

Ten pedaling parents loaded their bikes with camping gear (some more elegantly than others) and made the trek from Seattle to Bainbridge Island for a superfun bike camping adventure! Julian of Totcycle masterminded the whole thing as part of the Summer in Seattle Schedule of Kidical Mass. We’ve never bike camped before and brought almost as much stuff as we bring car camping…except no dog, no balance bikes, and no queen-sized inflatable mattress. The full-sized camping stove and four full-sized pillows will probably stay home next time, but we opted to go for comfort this first time out. Mr. Family Ride hauled our single Burley trailer crammed full of the heavy stuff while I carried kids and lighter bulky stuff. I used my WideLoader on one side and had to resort to the aid of one bungee cord to hold my mass in place on the other.

I thought the four sleeping bags on the frame-mounted front rack of Kevin’s Madsen bucket bike looked particularly compact and awesome:

In the back he had a bunch of other gear, a kid bike, and the associated kid:

We had wonderful camping karma on our side–Andy, of The Path Less Pedaled’s family bike camping video:

was in town and accompanied us to the ferry. He’d left his Surly Big Dummy at home for his more Amtrak-friendly and GORGEOUS Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen, with homegrown kid platform on the back rack.

He took a lot of great photos of our ride. Here’s The Main Tank and me side-by-side on Alaskan Way while our littles seem to be communicating “What have we gotten ourselves into?” to one another.

Photo courtesy Andy Schmidt

And winding our way though South Lake Union to the ferry terminal. We were forced to avoid the easiest route along the Elliott Bay Trail because it was closed to through traffic to host Hempfest.

Photo courtesy Andy Schmidt

My previous bike-on-ferry experience was during Chilly Hilly where checkin was across the street with Cascade Bicycle Club so it was a new experience to pay at the toll booth and board as a regular bike passenger. But is equally exciting to ride onto the ferry in a huge Chilly Hilly pack or compact Kidical Mass.

Once on the island, we made a lunch stop at Pegasus Coffee House and I realized I’d packed way too much food. Of course, we could have sat outside and made sandwiches to lighten our load, but this was much more fun.

Then we began our hilly trek to the campsite in Fay Bainbridge Park. Here we are heading north away from Winslow on Ferncliff Ave. There were lots of streets with “cliff” in their names. I saw a “Garibaldi,” too, and I’m sure it wasn’t the only street named for a mountain.

Things flattened out when we reached the coast and we had a lovely spin along Manitou Beach Drive until Biking with Brad led us away from an appealing (and flat!) NO CARS/BIKES ONLY beach path for a shortcut up Falk Road. He was too far ahead to hear the grumbling, but there were some choice words said between pants and wheezes. I made it up the hill, but only because my rig is way too heavy and bulky to walk uphill. But we all made it up, some with a few short rests along the way–something I probably should have tried, but I was scared I’d have trouble getting started if I stopped. I was definitely the slowest of the pack…though in retrospect I was the only person carrying two kids so I’ll let myself off the hook.

Fay Bainbridge is a great park–though down a steep hill I opted not to think about until Sunday morning. The car camping spots were a bit cramped, giving their area a parking lot feel, but we bikes were directed to the grassy field by the beach. It was a bit cold for the water (more unused gear–swim suits and four beach towels), but the kids climbed over beached logs and played on the adjacent play structure.

Bike for Pie

We broke camp Sunday morning to ride back to Winslow for Bike for Pie. Mr. Family Ride was able to get his bulky messenger bag into the trailer and I moved one of the kid sleeping bags to the back for a much slimmer load day two.

Julian and Kevin did some derailleur work before heading out. Dig the campfire kindling bike repair stand.

We stashed our gear before starting Bike for Pie and I thought we’d have an easy time of it for the 12-mile family course. But family-friendly on Bainbridge Island doesn’t equate to flat. Silly me. Near the pie stop, I saw a kid with training wheels and an adult on a minibike, but I can’t imagine they did the whole course; it was hard! But the event was wonderful. The 32-mile challenge route had two pie stops while our 12-mile family route had just the one. The stop was well-stocked with pies of many varieties (though only sweet at this stop, while the other one had sweet and savory, we heard) as well as music and dancing.

And the event has the cutest Dan Henrys in the world:

Everyone had a lot of fun and a few people had already decided by this morning that they’d do it again! I’m going to need to rest a little bit before I’m to that point, but I know there will be more bike camping and more biking for pie, though possibly not in conjunction with one another, somewhere in my future.