Getting Started - Whatcom, Island, Snohomish, & Skagit,

Apart from my Alaska Ride, the big ride for us so far this summer is planned to be a 39 county seat ride to all of the county seats in Washington State. We're planning to do it in no more than 5 days with a total distance of some 1800 miles.

Given that we were going to be at a Gold Wing Motorcycle rally in Lynden, WA (up north near the Canadian border), we decided that we'd start there. But the start was a bit unconventional. While at the rally, our initial plan was to do a ride on Friday, 7/17 up to Shannon Falls, BC. However, Angela did a last minute change of bags and her passport got left behind. So, we went to plan B: Knock off 4 counties in the NW Washington state. So, Jeff Harvey, Andy Haugen, Angela and I took off to do so. Jeff would just be with us today, while Andy, Angela and I are committed to doing the full 39 counties in one ride.

BTW, you can track us on SPOT http://jasonjonas.org/spot/tripViewer.do?id=2195.

County # 1 (Wbatcom)

We found the county courthouse by spiraling in on it in downtown Bellingham. It has a very colorful totem pole in front of it. Below is a picture of it.



County # 2 (Island)

Leaving Bellingham, we headed down Chukanut Drive to WA20 and then west to Coupeville. Along the way we enjoyed a nice lunch at the Rhododendron Cafe (well at least 3 of us did as Andy had 2 clams that appeared to have some slimy substance in them. His meal was comped (free). I'll spare you the picture.


We crossed the Deception Pass Bridge where there was a "heavy rescue operation" going on and later on two significant traffic accidents. We bagged our Island county courthouse (the most undiscript building so far).


County # 3 (Snohomish)

Leaving Coupville, we headed down Whidbey Island for the Clinton/Mukilteo ferry. We paid our fare and almost literally rode right on the ferry and were given a primo spot about 5 cars from the front. SCORE! Leaving the ferry, we wound our way via back city streets to the courthouse in downtown Everett.



County # 4 (Skagit)

Our next county seat would be found in Mt. Vernon. Given it was a Friday night, we took a series of back roads up to just south of Mt. Vernon where we rejoined the freeway for a short distance. We got our photos in front of a really cool canon.




It was then a direct ride back to camp and we stopped for a little dinner of BBQ ribs. Very nice ribs.



What would our next steps be? Stay tuned.