On the long drive up to her cousin's house (Nadine seems to have cousins everywhere) it occurred to me that it was Skagit Tulip festival time and we were nearby. I suggested a change of plans and she eagerly agreed. So after her errands, instead of Arlington we drove to Mount Vernon and stopped to visit, yet another cousin!
You've got to start a big ride with a big meal. We had a really good lunch at Kelly's BBQ in Mount Vernon and then we were off.
Soon we saw our first field of Skagit County flowers, but i don't think it was the type of flower that the County leaders were advertising!
We were riding in farm country here. The roads were narrow but almost empty. However we did share the road with tractors several times. The Skagit river delta is a lovely place to ride. The Tulip festival is the month of April every year, but it's a friendly area with quiet roads. And it's flat. Very flat. Of course you often have to deal with "Dutch Hills" (headwinds) but we were spared that today.
We decided to ride north first. The roads are very straight, and we rode directly north to Bow Hill, the only elevation change on our route, a bit of a short climb up, and a steep screaming descent in to Bow. I've passed through Bow on several bike rides, but mostly i know it from speeding past many times on the train to Vancouver. From there we continued to Edison. I'd never been to Edison and i was expecting a 3 horse town like Bow, but that was not the case. Edison was really cute, a nice little downtown with cafes and shops and galleries. Next ride i will make it a lunch spot. I'm looking forward to that.
We discovered an interesting trail along the levee called the Padilla Bay Trail, unfortunately we discovered the south end of it, after riding paralell to it for half an hour or so. When i do the ride to Edison i will ride this trail!
Once we were south of highway 20 again we started to see more tulip tourists, the roads became a bit more crowded. We stopped for ice cream at a farm -- i was skeptical, i'm a bit of an ice cream snob, but i was thrilled, this was great ice cream and much needed fuel.
About this point it became obvious that we were going to run over schedule; we had had a very nice ride, but we not made it to LaConner or seen any Tulips. We could cut off the southern loop, turn left now and ride back to Mount Vernon, and probably see Tulips on the way. But Nadine decided to skip her afternoon appointment and we pushed on south, now experiencing a little bit of the Dutch Hills.
In the town of LaConner, which was very, very busy with tourists, we got fantastic frybread salmon tacos at the little tribal stand in the middle of town and then headed back into farm fields.
In a number of fields we saw this strange fresh trenching. I had no idea what it was for, perhaps drainage.
Finally, after looping down almost to Conway, and then swinging back up towards Mount Vernon we started to see the bigger fields of flowers.
And yes, after only 40 miles in the Skagit flats, we DID see tulips!
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