Mount Baker in the rain

I'm sitting in a motel near Bellingham, Washington drying out after the wettest ride I can remember.

Yesterday I decided to head south for the US border. The rain had stopped and it was a warm day, not too bad at all for riding. Heading out of Vancouver was a slow process as I stopped for some water and provisions (ok, ok, chocolate) and then again for lunch. Every time I stopped people would wander over and ask me about the bike. Mostly bikers but also people that wanted to know where the licence plate was from (and I thought the cross of St George sticker would be a dead giveaway!).

I stopped a few miles short of the border at an RV park for the night. The park had Internet, library, pool and laundry. Plus they were piping a real mix of music - western gospel, southern gospel, halleluja brother.

Pitching the tent was easier than expected and I sat and watched the squirrels for a bit, then transferred some fuel from the bike to my stove so I could cook some dinner. It was at this point I realised that I had not packed matches. In the end though I managed to borrow a lighter and dinner was salvaged.

I was surprised how warm and comfy sleeping in a tent was, but still didn't get much sleep.

After watching the sun rise, I packed up and headed for the 'States. It took a couple of hours to get through, and once across I had an enormous breakfast which would have made a small family very happy. I decided to check my ferry booking at Bellingham although the trip wasn't for another day, I figured it would help to know where I was going on Friday.

Ferry booking confirmed I needed to kill some time so I headed for Mount Baker, which looked pretty close on the map. I'd seen the mountain just after I crossed the border and at 10,000 plus feet it looked amazing. A small misjudgement of map scale meant that I rode sixty miles or so of really excellent, twisty road to get a great view of the mountain.

The weather had closed in so I took a quick picture and then had to hurry to pack my camera away in a torrential downpour. I turned back for Bellingham and it didn't let up. The gear held up to the rain ok, but I only had a thin t-shirt under my jacket so I started to chill quickly. All thoughts of camping again went away quicker than you can say hypothermia.

So here I am. Tomorrow I head for the ferry dock in the afternoon and get the ferry north to Alaska. I'm stopping off at Wrangell on the way up to Skagway so may not have any internet access for a while. I just hope someone will turn the rain off soon.

Fraser.