Cyclists around here all know that all Puget Souund ferry rides end with a hill climb. Almost every ferry dock in the state is next to a big hill and Vashon Island is not an exception. I haven’t rode on Vashon since I was in college but during the 2020 pandemic summer, we decided to spend a week there in an AirBnB. I ended up getting there in our little Bayliner so I didn’t get to experience the ferry dock hill on this trip. 6 of us rented the old Marjesira Inn on Quartermaster harbor. It was a fantastic historic building with an incredible long balcony that we spent most of our time on.
Those arriving by car did bring my bike over, so I did get a few rides in. Unfortunately it happened to be the same week as our now annual forest fire season and it was way too smoky for me to ride every day. In addition we also had a rare August wind storm that knocked out a powerline near the inn for 36 hours. We survived just fine cooking dinner on a camp stove and accepted it as another story adding on to the adventure.
My strava map shows a few bike rides as well a couple of kayak rides that I squeezed in between the wind storm and the heavy smoke. Riding on the main Vashon highway does have a few sections with some views, and one section along Quartermaster harbor but most of it is just riding on the shoulder of country roads on a very quiet island. There are a few restaurants in Vashon the town but not many places to stay besides a few AirBnB’s. Here is my Vashon Heat map for the limited riding and kayaking on the 2020 trip.
This is a perfect route for someone living in Seattle or Tacoma to use as a trial Bike Tour. I don’t really enjoy packing my tent, sleeping bag, food, clothes and cooking stuff on my bike or my bike trailer. When I think about bike touring, I would consider myself to be more of a “credit card” bike tour. I rent a hotel room, eat a restaurants and just carry a change of clothing, a toothbrush and a wind breaker. Vashon would be a great weekend trip and I just haven’t been able to make it happen yet. I would ride from Seattle down the Interurban through Puyallup and then take the River Road into Tacoma. From there, you could spend Saturday night in Tacoma or ride up Ruston Way to the Vashon Ferry to sleep on the island. On Vashon, you can rent just 1 room at Marjesira Inn or find another AirBnb. Sunday morning would be eating breakfast in Vashon town and then taking the Ferry back home to Seattle. I think the riding for this trip is not super challenging and would be the perfect trip for someone who has never done bike touring before. Unfortunately the pandemic cancelled this plan for 2020 but we made it into a great all family bike/boat/kayak/airbnb adventure. We will try the Vashon route some day and I will be sure to blog about it.