Need ideas for a 3 day trip help, puget sound area

[Sky King]

Okay ideas needed from the Seattle Area TE crew.
We have 3 1/2 days first week of August.
We are now thinking we will head west instead of heading to the Mountains.
Like the idea of riding from and returning to Bellevue (so we can leave the car at a friends).
Like the idea of traveling by ferry but not a long ferry.
Would love to head north on the peninsula, perhaps a few islands.
Like the idea of not having extensive plans
Like the idea of having enough flexibility in the ride that if we want to take a detour we can - so no 100 mile days please!
We will be carrying our gear - would taking a Tent be better than the Hennessy Hammocks
Have been looking at adventure cycling routes

HELP
I don't want to end up on high traffic roads
This will be during the week not a weekend
I will also update my thread on Touring.

Thanks,

Sky King

[lauraelmore1033]

Don't have any specific ideas, but can point you to a great map library from the seattle bicycle club: http://www.seattlebiketours.org/memb...ps/outing.html

[smittykitty]

Well we are going to head to the San Juan Islands for a couple of days the first week of Aug. ourselves. Its a fairly short ferry ride and the islands are absolutely beautiful. I hear they will be busy this time of year, but at least you are limited to island traffic and crazy tourists such as ourselves.

We are actually taking our tent! Haven't slept on the ground since we bought a RV several years ago. This was my idea. What was I thinking? The available houses/hotels/motels for rent this time of year were quite spendy. I found a site at Moran St. Park on Orcas Isl. Since we are going for the biking, I didn't really care about a fancy hotel.

We will drive over and bike Lopez, San Juan and Orcas over 3 days. We haven't figured out the details yet.

As far as a tent or hammock: go with the tent. We have dew on the ground at night on the west side. It's quite damp by morning.

I know there a some great rides near Bellevue. I'm sure the ladies who live nearby will chime in. The Burke-Gilman Trail may be an option.

Have fun.

[Biciclista]

sometimes high traffic works to your advantage. Cars are moving slower!!
have a great trip.

[Sky King]

Thanks so much, knew I could count on the sweet northwest bike riders!! I will do some research. If you ever want to ride southern Idaho let me know! We also just decided we are going to try to ride over to Portland in September for the Oregon Manifest so I guess I better get off the computer and go get on my bike before it tops 90 degrees

[KnottedYet]

Get on the trail system on the east-side of Lake Washington (Bellevue area, if that is your home base.)

Ride on the trails (rail to trail MUPs) and the signed bike routes through Bothell and Lake Forest Park and to the seashore around Edmonds. (this will let you avoid the part of the Burke-Gilman that is under construction right now)

At Edmonds you can take a quick ferry over to the Olympic peninsula, or hang a right and ride north up the shore for a couple hours to Mukilteo and take a quick ferry over to Whidbey Island. Whidbey has an extensive MUP also. Langley and Coupeville on the south end of the island are cool towns, you could spend a good bit of time hanging around there. Especially the Knead and Feed in Coupeville... fabulous bread and soup!

Continuing north up Whidbey you can check out Deception Pass, which is wildly beautiful.

There are campgrounds and state parks all over the place, you'd have no problem finding places to camp. No problem finding a bed and breakfast if it rains too hard, either.