San Juan Confidential
(the real story)
“Good evening and welcome to Bicycle Jeopardy! I’m your host, Alex “Trek” Trebek. Our first contestant tonight is Mr. Waldo Hills. OK, Waldo, take it away!”
“Alex, I’ll take the San Juan Islands for $500. “
“OK! The answer is; Orcas Island was named after this biological entity.”
“Alex, what is the Killer Whale, also known as the Orca?”
“Oh…no…I’m sorry. That is incorrect!’ The correct answer is Orcas Island was named after Viceroy Juan Vicente Guemes de Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, the 2nd Count of Revillagigedo, in 1791.”
Who knew?”
Well, I didn’t know! And I doubt that you, dear reader, knew either. I also didn’t know that he islands, and there are over 400 of them by the way, have no native squirrel population, but they do have the highest concentration of Bald Eagles in the contiguous United States. If these fun facts are not enough to lure you into joining me and a couple dozen of my closest friends on our Second Annual San Juan Islands Tour, then maybe the complete lack of traffic lights on any of the islands will do the trick. Maybe not.
Last year was so much fun that we have decided to do it again. So from August 10th through the 14th we will be returning to that magical land where the discovery of green, fluorescent protein, aka GFP, led to the awarding of a Nobel Prize. In 2008. For chemistry. On a dock in Friday Harbor (the algae, not the Nobel.)
Many of us are camping at Washington Park, in Anacortes, and there are still sites available to reserve as well as some sites that are first come, first served, and require no reservation. This link will take you to campsite reservations at Washington Park. This one has ferry info and schedules. Go here for an excellent collection of maps created by our master cartographer, Doug Parrow. BTW, if you compliment his ride, he might bless you with the best blended margarita in the PNW.
Our actual riding days will be Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, August 11, 12, and 13. Go here to see the actual event calendar (thank you Tim!), which shows the planned route for each riding day. We had an excellent kick off diner on Monday night last year and I would like to do that again, so come up Monday if you can. But don’t bring your jet ski, as San Juan County was the first in the US to ban them. If we’re lucky, though, we might we might catch a glimpse of the custom, oversized bathtub that John Wayne had installed at the Roche Harbor Resort! Maybe not.
If you still have questions about anything tour related, please reach out to me, Steve Budde, at: stevebudde@gmail.com. Hope to see you there!
Steve Budde
Vice President
Salem Bicycle Club
Day 1 Click Image Above
Day 2 Click Image Above
Day 3 Click Image Above