I never thought I’d date a non-cyclist. My life revolves around bikes - it just doesn’t make sense. But the heart does funny things and here I am, engaged to a man who hadn’t ridden a bike since childhood when we started dating three years ago!
We’re pretty cute, if I do say so myself
Needless to say, he definitely hadn’t been bike camping and all of our shared camping trips so far had involved the car and way too much stuff. Every time we loaded up the car and a cooler for a weekend, a little piece of my soul died, as I would so much rather be on a bike, even if that limits how far we could go or how much stuff we could take.
Turns out, I had been making a lot of assumptions…and a certain somebody would’ve loved to have been invited all along.
We fixed that last weekend with a quick overnighter to Fay Bainbridge Park. If you’ve been a long time reader, or found me through Google, you might remember my review of this park as “close to Seattle, but kind of like sleeping in a parking lot.” While I still hold true to all of that, my opinion of it has changed.
In my happy place, on the road with my bike.
For a beginner bike camper, or someone just looking to get away for the night, this spot is actually perfect. When I wrote the review previously, I never really took advantage of the beach that’s literally steps away from the hiker-biker sites and doing that changes everything about this campground. I’ve also found a much less hilly route (more on that later) which makes it a bit more enjoyable of a ride!
I helped JR pack for his first bike camping trip, emphasizing that each extra thing he brought meant more weight on the bike. He didn’t quite listen to everything I said and still insisted on bringing a hatchet to split wood, a full roll of duct tape, and work gloves, but he also didn’t complain once about the load he was carrying :)
After catching the 11:25 ferry on Saturday, we took a leisurely route to camp, stopping at both Blackbird Bakery and Bainbridge Brewing. I was glad we took the early ferry, as we got one of the last hiker-biker spots left at camp! Definitely a popular choice this weekend (and we were able to squeeze a few more groups into the area, while still being COVID-safe.)
Going to Fay Bainbridge also meant my sister and nephew got to hang out for a few hours! Liam brought his bike too so we did lots of loops of the parking lot, some beach exploring and of course roasted s’mores on the fire!
A bit crowded bike camping, but still plenty of space to be had
This is a great time to plug the Ride Spot website and app, which I’ve shared our route on. It’s a new venture from People for Bikes to help people discover safe, fun places to ride bikes. You can follow bike shops, ambassadors (hi!), and other industry folks who will share with you our favorite places to ride in cities all across the US. You can also share your own favorite rides as well!
We had absolutely picture perfect weather for our entire trip - 70s during the day and high 50s at night with no rain in sight. We woke up to clear skies on Sunday morning, drank our coffee on the beach and packed up for home.
JR checking out Frog Rock!
On our ferry ride back, JR was gracious enough to let me interview him. I thought it’d be a fun way to share his thoughts directly on how our trip went. Click through for a quick interview with him - I’m just learning about audio and while editing lost most of it, but enjoy a few seconds!!
So what’s his advice for a new bike camper? Well, I had great audio clip of it, but turns out I need to take his advice and learn from somebody who knows what they’re doing. His best advice is to go with somebody who has done it before and can show you the ropes.
A few things he mentioned included that he had no idea you could cook a pad thai so easily over a backpacking stove (or that a backpacking stove was so small), how small and lightweight gear can be and the importance of looking at elevation when deciding a route!
Chopping Veggies for Pad Thai
If you’re curious about the pad thai, it’s my go-to camp recipe. I got it from Bikepacking.com and have modified it slightly. If you make it, let me know how it goes!
Ingredients
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons crunchy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon dried red chili peppers
1 package of rice noodles
1 shallot
2 cloves of garlic (or however much you want)
Green onions
A Lime
A can of protein (Tuna, Chicken, Tofu, whatever)
At home, mix the sugar, soy sauce, peanut butter and red pepper into a water proof container. I really like these squeeze tubes that can be refilled. Pack all the rest of the ingredients.
When you get to camp, boil your noodles until they’re soft (a couple of minutes.) While they’re going, chop up the rest of the veggies. Drain the noodles when they’re soft, mix in the sauce and veggies and squeeze some lime juice. Voila!