San Juan Islands 

• Tour the gorgeous San Juan Islands

• Trip includes Ferry rides on bikes

San Juan Islands for Scouts

The San Juan Islands are a great place for a Biking Adventure for Scouts.

Terrain

The San Juan Islands may seem like an easy outing with minimal mileage on the islands, but that is not the full deal.  Roads are hilly and traffic can be very busy in the summer.  This is part of the island experience and Scouts and Adults should be aware of this prior to deciding on island adventuring. 

If Scouts would like to avoid hills, it is possible to select less hilly route or a less hilly island.  This will make riding a little easier, but will significantly limit where you can go and how you experience your journey.

Lopez Island is the flattest of the islands.  It is also considered the least interesting of all the islands.  Milage on just that one island is limited to around 30 miles if you loop the island.  Limiting your journey to Lopez Island is NOT advised.

If you choose the San Juan Islands for your adventure, plan to hit a LOT of hills.  Train for hills.  If you really don't like hills, select another adventure. 

Training

• Any High Adventure deserves months of train up

  • Bike High Adventure deserves 300-400 miles of training rides leading up to the adventure

• The San Juan Islands are very hilly

• To be successful, you need to include hill training 

• Most of our predesignated training route are flat

  • Great for logging in miles

  • Great for working on speed and efficiency

  • NOT great for prepping for hills

• Train Hills

  • 520 Bike Trail

    • Hills 

    • Protected trail

    • Easy to access from Sammamish River Trail

      • This connects to 3rd place commons

  • Grand Ridge

  • Squak

  • Talus

  • ZooMonZoo Complex 

  • Summit South Complex

  • Summit From the North

  • Highland/Somerset

  • Somerset & Traverse

• Interval Training

  • This will improve speed on flats and stamina for hills

Mileage

There are only so many miles of roads on the Islands and many of them are driveways.  If you are looking to conquer many miles of roads during High Adventure, you will need to hit each of the islands and navigate figure of 8s.  You will also need to hit all of the hilly roads, which can prove to be unpopular or challenging (which could be good).  

Ferry Schedule

You will need to plan your adventure around the ferry schedule.  That's just part of an island adventure, unless you are boating your crew there.  Review what each island offers to riders and visitors.  You will want to spend more time on San Juan Island than on Shaw for example.  After rating your adventure, determine the best schedule that will allow you to see what you want to see in the timeframe you have.  You may not be able to see everything or ride every road you like. 

Route Planning

There are different approaches

• Site/Activity Specific

  • Do a deep review of the Islands

  • List everything you want to see

  • Develop routes around these sites

  • Determine how to make it work with the ferry schedule

• Route Specific

  • If your journey is about the ride...

  • Look at the example routes below

  • Route your trip based on the best riding routes and for mileage

  • Review places you would like to see

  • Adjust route to allow for island activities AND the best riding experience

  • Now, make it work with the ferry schedule

Activities for Scouts

• Historical Sites

  • Visit the American and English Camps on San Juan Island

  • It is fun to visit these Historical Sites

• Camp Bogardus

  • Properly owned by local Scout unit

  • Fun place to camp

  • Sits near the trail to the English camp

    • Hiking to camp possible

    • Trail maintenance on trail is possible

    • Can earn Historical Trails Award

    • Could knock out your 10 hours of service

• Service Projects

  • At some point, Scouts will need to complete 10 service hour if trying to earn the 50-miler patch

  • Contact the Start Parks

  • Discuss with scout leader running Camp Bogardus

• Hikes

  • Hikes are ok on biking adventures

  • Its also nice to get off the bikes every once in awhile and use different muscles

• Whale Watching

  • You may get enough of this at camp, but a combo of lunch and whale watching can be fantastic

• Kayaking

  • Sea kayaking is different then lake kayaking and the Islands are an incredible place to explore

Resources

• visitsanjuans.com/top-biking-experiences-in-the-san-juan-islands 

• Seattle to the San Juan Islands – 2 to 8 days

  • bicycletouringnw.org/seattle-to-the-san-juan-islands-5-or-6-days

Maps

• • Lopez Bike Map

  • Orcas Bike Map

  • San Juan Bike Map

 Anacortes 

• Grocery 

  • 2 grocery stores in Anacortes 

  • Buy food for lunch and/or dinner

• Gere-a-Deli

  • Tasty sandwiches and cakes

• Tommy Thompson Trail 

  • When you ride over the water, keep an eye out for seals

Orcas Island

• Mileage:

  • 20 - 44

• Ride

  • Hills

    • Most difficulty hills can be avoided if you shorten your trip

• Mount Constitution

  • Optional adventure 

  • Starts out pretty challenging, but gets easier as you get closer to the top

  • Swimmable lake

  • Bike to the top of Mount Constitution once in your lifetime

• East Sound

  • Nice place to stop and eat

  • Nice restaurants

  • Brown Bear Baking

    • Great Bakery 

    • Hit it on ferry ride out

  • Buy groceries in East Sounds and make dinner at the campground

• Moran State Park

  • Used to be a really nice campground

  • There are more campsites and people now

San Juan Island

• Ride

  • Hills

  • You can select flatter hills if you need to, but you'll miss out

• Mileage:

  • 20-50

    • 20 from ferry to camp and back

    • 50 if you tour everything on the island

• Food

  • Friday Harbor has a grocery 

    • Buy food for a picnic lunch at American Camp and dinner

  • Spring Street Deli

    • Friday Harbor

    • Buy a sandwich to eat on the ferry

      • Gets REAL busy around ferry time - plan ahead

• Beautiful parks

  • Best camp ground in the region

• Orcas 

  • Sometimes see them swimming off the west side of the island

• Camping

  • San Juan County Park 

    • No showers

    • Sometimes see the Orcas swimming past

    • Wonderful sunsets

• Historical Sites

  • American Camp 

  • English Camp 

    • nice walking trails

• Roche Harbor

  • Yachting crowd

  • Coin operated showers

    • Bring LOTS of quarters or you'll leave soapy 

Shaw Island

• Riding 

  • Small Island

    • Can arrive on the island late in the day and still have plenty of time to set up camp and eat dinner

    • If coming from San Juan Island, spend day visiting there first

• Mileage:

  • 4-14

    • 4 if just going to camp 

    • 14 if you loop around the island a bit

• Campground 

  • Shaw County Park 

    • no showers

    • 2 miles from the ferry

    • Quiet and very scenic

    • Hiking trail through the woods

    • Hiker/Cycle Site

    • Reserve ahead for bigger sites or ask if they’ve had any cancellations (common)

• Food

  • General Store 

    • Just one

    • Near the ferry

  • Plan ahead for food

    • Buy groceries in Friday Harbor

Lopez Island 

• Riding 

  • Dullest of any of the islands

    • If you need to skip one, this would be it

    • Flatter than the other islands

      • So more popular for cyclists who don't like hills

• Mileage

  • 36 miles

• Food

  • Holly B’s Bakery

    • Fantastic

    • Not always open

    • If you arrive near closing - it will be sold out

  • Grocery Store

    • Great store

    • Get food for dinner at camp

  • Rest - disappointing 

• Camping

  • Spencer Spit State Park

    • No showers

    • Campsites on the spit are the best

      • These book out far in advance

      • Plan for a mid week visit to claim a spot

    • Rest of campsites are in the woods with mosquitos 

  • Odlin County Park 

    • No showers

    • Strong smell of porta-potties 

      • This really sucks 

    • Hiker/biker sites have views of the water

• Lopez Village

  • Public showers

Previous High Adventure San Juan Island Notes

• Limited vehicle support to limit cost of trip

  • One previous trip - needed truck and trailer due to number of Scouts

  • One previous trip - 1 minivan was able to haul all the gear

• Scouts ride their bikes on ferry, then bike to lake dale

• Island is fairly hilly, but flatter routes can be found

  • First trip, scouts wanted to attack the hills

  • Second trip, Scouts not interested in hils so adjusted routes as needed

• Generally, one adult drives routes to check traffic, etc., then made the call on the exact route

• For the fifty mile ride, we wound up doing a few loops of the same road

• The main road is Roche Harbor Rd

  • Shoulder driving the whole time

  • Vehicle speed limit 40 mph?

  • Fairly busy in the summer months

  • No issues on previous trips

• Points of Interest include:

  • Roche Harbor Resort

  • San Juan Is Sculpture Park

  • Lime Kiln Lighthouse

  • English Camp (highly recommend a nice long stop, cool visitor center)

  • Cattle Point Lighthouse

• Went off island one day, to Lopez Island

  • Just bikes and day packs

  • Ferry schedule was fairly tight, so not a ton of riding

  • Still fun

• Rode to 

  • Lopez Village Market

  • Spencer Spit State Park

  • Odlin County Park

  • Spent time exploring both parks.

• San Jaun Island has at least 1 good grocery store

  • We brought most of our food, but were able to supplement as needed

Ride Reports

• ridewithgps.com/regions/north_america/us/76-san-juan-islands-washington-usa

• bicycletouringnw.org/seattle-to-the-san-juan-islands-5-or-6-days 

• bikepacking.com/plog/bikepacking-the-san-juan-islands 

Camp Bogardus

Historic Trails Award

• https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/430-066.pdf 

• It is possible to hear the Historic Trails Award at Camp Bogardus

• You need to

  • Hike or Camp 2 days and one night in vicinity of the trail

  • Restore and mark all or part of the trail or site