Mt. Vernon - La Conner - Swinomish Moderate Ride

Mt. Vernon - La Conner - Swinomish - Mt Vernon Moderate Ride

Meet at South Mount Vernon Park and Ride at 9:45 AM for a 10:00 AM roll out.  Turns out it is tulip festival, so plan for traffic.

We'll ride a loop around the Skagit Valley that looks a bit like a 3rd grader drawing an outline of the US.  We'll skip the Alaska and Hawaii inset parts though.  What it adds up to is ~43 miles and 850 feet of elevation gain.  Terrain is mostly A with a couple of longer, but not too steep B hills.  Most of the elevation gain comes from 2 1/2 decent hills on the Swinomish Tribal Land.  The ride is planned for the top of the moderate (14 - 16) mph pace with regroups at the tops of the hills.

The route looks like this: 3rd Grade Outline of the US.

There is no bathroom stop at the start.  Bathroom stops in La Conner (mile 15), and the boat launch under the highway 20 bridge (mile 26), and the Skagit Riverwalk (mile 40).

Note 1:  This is the important one.  I'm going to stop for a Scone Lady scone in La Conner.

Note 2: There is road construction on I-5 near Stanwood.  It's not usually an issue on Saturday mornings, but planning an additional 5 minutes for the trip might be a good idea.  There will also be Tulip traffic.  I'd recommend a mapping program to look at time because the frontage road to the P&R might be faster than the freeway.

Ride Leader: Paul Heydron, + 1 425 344 1543, paulh.wa@comcast.net

Disclaimers: Bad weather cancels - check ride updates.  E-bikes welcome, please read and comply with the club e-bike policy.  Bring snacks, enough to drink, and the usual fix-it stuff - especially flat repair type fix-it stuff.