Chuckanut Ride

A couple of weeks ago Jenny and I rode over to get a hot chocolate and while we were hanging out we talked to a fellow cyclist who told us that he mainly rode his bike north of where we live and really talked it up. Right then we decided that the next place that we needed to explore on our bikes was Chuckanut Dr. I did a little research and couldn’t figure out where the name Chuckanut came from but I’m thinking it either came from someone who has a heck of a sense of humor or a local indian tribe.

Last year through an incentive program at the company where I work I got a Garmin Edge 305 so when we decided to try out a new route I did my planning on www.mapitpronto.com. This is a free site where you can plan out a bike route just by clicking along a map. Once you’re finished you can download the route as a course into your Garmin. My Garmin doesn’t show you street maps but it does show you a line of your route and where you are on that line. This works well enough to follow along while trying out a new route and you never have to pull out a street map. I really love that feature. I’ve never been much of a fan of pulling out maps on a ride but we’ve been know to do that far too often in the past.

The route was actually very nice with plenty of hills and very few cars. Once we passed the half way point we rode onto Chuckanut Drive which follows the Puget Sound shoreline and looks out at the San Juan Islands for 10 miles or so. For the record you can also see Canada from here as well.  I hate to be outdone by the Alaskans who can see Russia from their back window so as far as you know all Washingtonians can see Canada from their front window.  The sights were so nice on the route it was hard to concentrate on the road. Here are a couple of the pictures that we snapped.

Before we got back to the car we road passed a house with a white fence which isn’t all that uncommon but take a look at what the fence was made out of. This is my kind of fence.

Next time we ride up north we are definitely going to take this route again. It was a good one.

Weight Loss Throw Down Update
We have some additional contestants for the weigh loss throw down and they promise to put up some stiff competition. They are Linda and Larry. Both of them have assured me that they will be winning come Friday so they are very determined. Welcome to the throw down!!!