Yesterday, I ventured north of Seattle to the town of Anacortes, where tales of miles single track goodness seemed to abound. My first order of business upon rolling into the sound-side town of Anacortes was to pickup a set of maps from a local bike shop. For $10 I got three great maps of the Anacortes Community Forest Lands. That was all I needed to get to the trailhead at Cranberry Lake.
The weather forecast gave a 50% chance of showers with the temps in the low 50s. It certainly looked like I was going to get wet today. A few days ago someone said something interesting that stuck in my head. "There is no bad weather, only bad gear." With that in my head, I packed up my gear and hit the trail. Right from the trailhead I was on some cool single tracks that were combinations of loamy buff with some rocks and roots here and there.
Riding in an evergreen forest is just awesome. Believe it or not these are multi-use trails. Yes these twisty and flowing singletracks are open to hikers, equestrians and bicycles. These are community trails and most of them are within the city limits of Anacortes. The land managers and agencies of of San Diego County could learn a lot from this place.
Did I mention these trails rule? The Anacortes Community Forest Lands has about 50 miles of interconnected trails with over 41 miles of those trails being single tracks.
Got Beaver?
Got Bald Eagle?
As the day went on the weather turned for the better and the sun even popped out. I found myself openly giggling while I cruised and twisted through the forest. On several occasions I could not help but to stop, grab a spot on a log and just take it all in. I am one lucky bastard to get to ride stuff like this on a business trip. One thing is for certain, I am going back here at least once more on this trip as I have only scratched the surface of this trail system.