Riding Lopez

Ahh spring. So wonderful and yet so fickle. Thankfully for us, spring was fully sprung Saturday when we took the wife up to Lopez Island to celebrate her birthday by riding in the annual Tour de Lopez.

We’d never been to Lopez, but we’ve spent some time on Orcas and San Juan, so we were a bit leery of riding our bike around any of the San Juans. They are, after all, islands and they tend to be hilly.

Lopez Island turns out to be as flat an island as a bike rider could reasonably hope for. It’s also got very light traffic, so the ride was just about perfect. We took the longest of the three route options (31 miles), and took our sweet time doing it. Each road we turned down (many with winsome names such as "Less-Traveled Rd." and "Rocky 'R' Dr.") seemed to take us past an even prettier field populated with even cuter young cows and lambs and more budding tulips and daffodils than the last. Many of them had vistas of the Olympic Mountains as an added benefit.

After the ride, we lounged around on the back deck of the surprisingly affordable (for four people) condo we rented. It looked out across wetlands complete with pheasants, rabbits, grouse, and a deer or two. It was also about 100 yards from the center of town and couldn’t have felt more isolated or been more convenient. It was nice to be able to get drunk and rowdy without concern for neighbors, and be able to run to the grocery store when we were hit with a craving for fresh local oysters.

A note about the oysters: The Northwest truly is home to some of the best oysters in the world. Thanks to the oyster fields on Lopez, we may have eaten the single best oyster of our life on Saturday. The best part? None of the rest of our party likes oysters.

Tour de Lopez is put on by the Lopez Island Chamber of Commerce and is not a race, a fact our wife shared with us many times on the way up Friday afternoon. It is simply a relaxing ride on one of three routes (10, 17 or 31 miles) around the island. But one doesn’t need an organized ride to enjoy the island. Other than the long hill up from the ferry, it really is a bike-friendly place—perfect for a day trip any time the weather beckons.