Cassandra: This weekend mom and I enjoyed our first outdoor ride together on our new bikes! Since I was home for Easter we decided to do our ride up north, in Skagit County. It was a beautiful day to ride and we had a lot of fun. Our ride took us from the release site at Samish Island (near Edison), through the mostly straight roads and rolling hills near Padilla Bay, across Highway 20, and through the fields of blooming daffodils and tulip buds to La Conner. We stopped to eat lunch at the Waterfront Cafe, where our family friend Melissa works, and then we were off again, winding our way back through different fields and on different long, straight roads (Skagit County has an abundance of these) to mix up the scenery.

The weather was gorgeous. We couldn't have asked for anything better, except for maybe less wind. At times we were getting blown completely around ... I had to take my bar mitts off my bike because they were acting like sails. I also unclipped for some of the time, because I was worried I was going to tip over and not be able to put my feet down to catch myself. The wind was scary when it came as a cross-breeze but presented challenges even when it was head-on, making the flat roads feel like steep hills. I don't think we had a tail-wind the whole ride!

I really liked biking in such a rural location. It was very different from biking the Burke Gilman, where there are tons of people and you get some pretty scenery (Lake Washington), but not much tranquility. I don't think anyone out there is writing poetry about the Burke-Gilman, but they could about the Skagit flats. Our constant companions were farm animals, it seemed. We saw horses who perked up and watched us, goats who didn't even notice us, and lots of cows. The big ones just looked at us with lazy eyes but the little ones were completely terrified of our bikes and ran quickly away. We even saw an immature eagle in a tree where we left our cars.

Besides the nice weather and the great setting, it was fun to finally ride as a team with mom. We ride at generally the same pace and are going to do just fine on the STP, I think. We certainly had our share of laughs (mom wearing her sunglasses and her reading glasses at the same time) and complaints (the wind) on our ride. Here's to many more!

Here is our ride in stats:
Total Time: 2 hours 57 minutes
Miles: 35.73
Average Speed: 12.2 mph
Max Speed: 22.2 mph