Beginning of Bike Tour 2012, aboard the Soundrunner ferry from Seattle to Kingston

Back in 2009, I went on my first bike tour, a five day scenic route to the San Juan Islands via Port Townsend.  A friend of mine came up with the itinerary, and I added three breweries that fit the logistics (Port Townsend, Water Street, and San Juan).  Since then I’d been thinking about another tour, and when a number of factors all fell into place — a contract job ended, the weather was great, there was a convenient ferry running from Seattle to Kingston, and I found a friend who would join me for two days in the middle — I quickly got my gear together and hopped on the bike for a six day trip:

• Day One: Soundrunner passenger-only ferry from Seattle to Kingston (to be discontinued end of September, unfortunately), bike from Kingston to Dungeness Spit Recreation Area next to Sequim, camp.  This would be the longest day.
• Day Two: Continue along the Olympic Discovery Trail from Sequim to Port Angeles, find a cheap room for the night.
• Day Three: Black Ball Ferry to Victoria, bike the Galloping Goose trail to the Sooke Potholes, camp.
• Day Four: Bike the Galloping Goose back to Victoria, stay in the Ocean Island Hostel.
• Day Five: Bike the Lochside trail to Sidney, camp at McDonald Park (part of the Gulf Islands National Park).
• Day Six: Ferry to Anacortes, bike to Mt Vernon, Amtrak back to Seattle.

For the brewery-visiting portion of the bike tour, there were, in theory, 16 places I could have explored.  The following are the ones I missed.  The others will all eventually appear as individual blog posts.

• Fathom & League Hop Yard – Sequim, WA – Found a growler of their Krabben Kölsch at the Red Rooster grocery but didn’t buy it because of the bike-unfriendly size.  It was also on tap at the Alder Wood Bistro, but by the time I’d set up my tent at the Dungeness Spit campground I didn’t want to bike back into town.
• Dungeness Brewing – Port Angeles, WA – Tiny brewery who have a tap at Barhop, but I didn’t get to visit their operation.  Their Jalapeño IPA at Barhop was really good, but I’d prefer to try a few more of their beers and have some semblance of a brewery visit before writing up a post.  Their web site leaves a lot to be desired.
• Lighthouse Brewing – Victoria, BC – Production-only brewery, but they’re hoping to have a taproom open before the end of the year.
• Driftwood Brewing – Victoria, BC – Production-only according to their web site, but word on the street was they had just opened a taproom for growler fills.  Didn’t really have time to find out, though.
• Moon Under Water Brewpub – Victoria, BC – Showed up before 10pm Saturday night, but they’d closed early because of lack of customers.  Uh oh.  I hope they’re still around next time I visit Victoria.
• La Conner Brewing – La Conner, WA – Just didn’t have enough time between Anacortes Brewing and North Sound Brewing.

So, the final tally for Bike Tour 2012 came out to:  6 days, 3 ferries, 2 countries, 10 breweries.  Not bad.