We learned about two fascinating new trails.

Our favorite campsite, the San Juan County Campsite, was part of the Cascadia Marine Trail, a wonderful set of campsites that would allow you to kayak all the way from lower Puget Sound up through Vancouver Island. What a great idea!

And we kept hearing more and more about the Trans-Canada Trail, a collection of routes that allow hikers and others to cross Canada on a hodgepodge of old rails-to-trails routes, roads, etc.

Lots of potential in both of those! Imagine the possibilities.

Our last camping night out was at one of the strangest outposts of the United States, Point Roberts, Washington. It's so unique that it's the featured zip code in National Geographic this month. Check it out at National Geographic's website.

It's a little artifact of uninformed diplomacy. When the US and Britain finally got their stuff straight about where the line between the US and Canada is, they missed the fact that Point Roberts would be in the US, but have no access to the mainland. It's one little 5-square-mile section of the US. But you have to cross the border into Canada, drive several miles, and then cross back into the US if you want to get there by land. Take a look at the National Geographic article. It has a great satellite image showing exactly what happens with Point Roberts. In fact, if you look at the picture, you'll see just above Point Roberts on the left the jetty that is the ferry landing where we came in from Galiano Island.

We've always wanted to try out sea kayaking, and finally got our chance on Galiano Island, one of the Canadian Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland. It was a delight, but we wouldn't have been ready for a 7-day adventure!

Our Colorado experiences have been entirely with whitewater kayaking, which is a completely different thing. It is (for us) usually a gravity sport, and can be quite dangerous. You're basically guaranteed to flip if you go in water that's interesting at all, so you *have* to know a few things about kayaking, like how to roll back up. And you *have* to have a bunch of gear, including a non-negotiable helmet and spray skirt (so your boat doesn't fill with water when the smallest wave hits).

Imagine our surprise when we rented a double kayak and basically needed no experience at all to use it. It didn't want to tip over. And the water in the islands is so incredibly calm that they wouldn't have even given us spray skirts if we hadn't asked (we never did use them... they were just along for the ride).

We paddled out, along little islands between Galiano and Salt Spring Island and enjoyed ourselves, stopping to watch and be watched by the seals and sea otters. It was all low key - anybody could do it, with no training at all. What a pleasure. And the pace we took it at was as calm as the waters we were paddling. Highly recommended.  read more here... lee mas aquí... »

Patrick decided to do something more ambitious than all his English mates who just went to Australia for their "gap year" out of university. He bought an entire bike touring and camping rig, got a (paid, fancy) berth on a freighter for America, and started riding.

Becuase his freighter landed in Montreal in March he had an inconvenient (naive?) weather start working his way all the way down through New England while it was still basically winter there. But he charmed everybody he met and rode to Virginia, then headed west on the Trans-Am route and crossed the entire country.

But his real secret: He's riding a revolutionary and incredibly comfortable-looking recumbent tricycle (take a look in the pictures section for a picture of his rig). Everybody he met on the whole trip had to stop and talk to him about it. When the three of us were riding together the tourists just ignored Chris and me and went straight to Patrick to quiz him about his beautiful recumbent. I've got to get one of those!

Now he's ridden all the way across the US (and more) and hopes that prospective employers will look favorably on a young man who can take on a project like that... and complete it successfully.

Of course, with a personality like his, he'll have no trouble finding good work or with enjoying it.

I had the great pleasure of riding with 20-something Chris through much of Waashington and out to the San Juan islands. What a delight to see an idealistic young person seeing the world, discovering himself, and actively pursuing a helping role in the world.

Chris has already finished university and done a 2-year stint in East Africa for the Peace Corps. And he's probably in Haiti right now with an open mind about staying there and working more in international development.

And he just rode all the way across the United States this summer, mostly on Adventure Cycling's Trans-America route, starting in Virginia and crossing to Colorado, then riding up to Montana and finally crossing the far northern parts of Idaho and Washington.

When you meet Chris he might give you his business card, with "Freethinking Journalist" emblazoned as his title. There's a cellphone, too, but no address because he doesn't have one right now. He's been riding across the country. But he's perhaps preparing a career as a writer. And he is in fact writing a column called "Across America" for the Fairfield (Connecticut) Citizen-News. I encourage you to check it out. The published version is still in Breckenridge, Colorado, so you can follow him through the rest of the country, just a little bit out of time. Go to www.fairfield-citizen-news.com, click on the "Living" section, and then you'll find "Across America" right on top.

Enjoying the San Juan Islands on a bike is so easy it's almost like going to a bike touring theme park or something. We enjoyed it so much we spent most of two weeks on the San Juans and the Gulf Islands (the Canadian edition).

Basically, you can just roll your bike onto one of the many ferries going to many different islands. You don't have to box them up or in any way justify the fact that you're a cyclist. You just pay a small fare ($15 or so in the San Juans takes you round trip to all the islands) and roll onto the ferry. And you usually get to get off before all the cars.

Then, when you arrive on the island of your choice, you do a moderate ride to a campsite that works, where you'll often find hiker-biker campsites, which require no reservation. So you set up camp, watch the sun set, and maybe the next day go for a ride without your load, and then maybe move on to the next island... or maybe stay for another sunset.

The ferry system in both the San Juan Islands (in the US - Washington State Ferries) and in the Gulf Islands (Canada - BC Ferries) is so easy I just wanted to write a note about it.

They're both all set up for bicycles. You just show up 10 minutes or more before the scheduled departure and roll your bike on and put it where they tell you.

Schedules are published on the web and in brochures that are widely available. Once you understand where the islands are it's really easy to figure out what gives.

Schedules for the Washington Ferries are at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/schedules/current/index.cfm?route=ana-sj&direction=west. It's pretty easy to figure out what's going on using the map. We spent about $15/person with our bikes for all the travel in the islands we wanted. Then we spent about another $15 to get over to Vancouver Island (Sidney) to get to Canada.

The Canadian ferry terminal is less than 5 miles from the Sidney terminal (on Vancouver Island) of the ferry from the San Juans, so it would be easy to just continue from the San Juans over to the Gulf Islands in one day. However, you might not want to miss Victoria and all its beautiful attractions just an easy and beautiful 20 miles south of both terminals. The BC Ferries schedule is at http://www.bcferries.com/schedules/southern/. We spent about $6/person for each ride on the BC Ferries. What a deal!

Well, we got on the ferry and went to Orcas Island. The ferry was a huge double decker car carring type. As we left the dock we entered into the San Juan Islands, which are many small islands which jet out of the calm waters of the straits of Juan De Fuca.

We arrive at Orcas Islands, named after whales which frolic in the protected bays. As we leave the ferry we start climbing. Who said this island is flat? We climb some more. Actually we will climb all the way to Moran State Park which is about 13 miles. But it is my first day touring and I am strong. We ride up the hills, past the blackberry briar bushes (which I keep on having to stop and eat)and down the scenic road. Incredible beautiful wooded forest with a few open pastures growing the organic fruits and vegtables. So many variations of green vegiatation and trees bath my artistic eyes with pleasure.

We stop and in town and buy groceries and a six pack of beer. And since this my first day and I am stong, I load it on my bike which adds 10 pounds or so to my already loaded bike. I sure like a cold beer after a good solid ride. We continue our upward journey to Washington Moran State Park.  read more here... lee mas aquí... »