In my ride from Kitsap Memorial State Park, I had three hurdles: cross the Hood Canal bridge, get across to Whidbey Island on the ferry from Port Townsend, and cross the Deception Pass bridge.
The Hood Canal bridge turned out to be not so bad. It has as much shoulder as any of the roads I’ve been on recently. About two feet, which is not generous, but like I said, typical of some of the less busy roads I’ve been around here.
Parts of the bridge had a grated road surface. I’ve run into a couple of these before and they’re not too bad either — as long as you don’t look down. For some reason, seeing water directly below you as you’re riding is disorienting. I didn’t have to worry about the grated surface though because they had placed metal sheets on the shoulder. Presumably, they’re there for cyclists to ride on. They’ve got some kind of gritty covering on them so they’re not completely slick when they’re wet. Unfortunately, about half the grippy surface had flaked away. I’m really glad it was dry.
I stopped at the Visitor’s Information Center in Port Townsend. I asked them for directions to the ferry terminal. (I was really there to use their restroom.) They said they had been told the ferry was completely booked until about 6:45 PM tonight. Yikes! That would change my plans. I then asked where the nearest campground was, just in case I had to wait for a ferry.
When I got to the ferry terminal, they told me bicyclists are considered pedestrians and therefore you can just walk on to the next ferry. The next ferry was an hour wait (12:30 PM), but that was much better than what I feared.
At 12:30, I walked on with my bicycle, lashed my bike to the side of the ferry like the ferry worker suggested, and went up to the passenger area. There, I promptly fell asleep until about 5 minutes before we arrived at Keystone on Whidbey Island.
Whidbey Island was very nice for cycling. The terrain was gentle, the traffic was light, and the wind was at my back. The Oak Harbor area was kind of a mess, traffic-wise. Just north of Oak Harbor, there was a sign for an alternate route for bicyclists which I followed for about a mile (downhill) before I came to a dead end. I had to retrace my path back uphill and found the sign indicating where the alternate route went. The “alternate” was only about 200 yards long in total, so I’m not sure why they bothered.
The final highlight of the day was Deception Pass bridge. I crossed it 22 years ago going south and now I can tell you it’s just as scary going north. There’s very little shoulder and it’s a very busy road. I came across fairly easily though. Going south, the traffic is steady. Going north, however, there’s a stoplight about a mile before the bridge. This causes gaps in traffic of about 20 seconds. That was plenty of time for me to cross without feeling threatened by impatient traffic.
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