Trip Date: 6-28-2009

Features:

• Narrows Bridges (new and old)
• Gig Harbor
• 2 Ferry Rides
• Vashon Island
• Quatermaster Harbor
• Vashon Hwy Paralleling the Water
• Point Robinson Light house

Hazards:

• Ferry Docking
• Ferry Boarding
• Vashon Deer!
• Durham Rd. is covered in wet leaves during the fall.
  
  WA State Ferry Schedules

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Vashon Loop
Gig Harbor - Vashon Island
20.3 MB 768 Kbits/Sec. Worth the wait!

Trip Details:

It's not often I combine group rides with Website content rides do to the amount of stops I usually make to get the content to post. This was one of those rides that has allot of slower speeds and stops that are required. I found this the perfect opportunity to mix the two purposes and accomplish both tasks. We met at Vassault Park in Tacoma on a warm Sunday morning. After brief chit chat we were all in attendance for this meet. We had the following forum participants. Lloyd, moshee, garageracer, skylan5sp and pinkribbon. We departed riding across the Narrows west bound bridge followed by a short ride into Gig Harbor where we made a stop at the Tides Tavern to meet rebelrider07 who was joining us on this ride.

After a bit more jaw jacking we were on the road and made our way out of Gig Harbor on to Crescent Valley Highway. This is a nice relaxing area to ride. 6.2 miles of laid back straights with some turns that soon dropped down to the water with a spectacular view of the Puget Sound. From here we rode through some nice sweeping turns followed by 6 miles of fairly straight road with a few bends in the right places. The next 4.6 miles was a left turn onto Banner Rd followed by a right on Sedgewick Rd.. In no time we were approaching the Ferry terminal booths and parting with $6+ dollars to board the ferry bound for Vashon. Our stop wasn't long at all. Soon we  boarded the boat. At this terminal the motorcycles go to the front but are held and loaded last as the ferry backs into the Vashon docks. Motorcycles get off second to foot traffic.

One on the road we were in for a treat. Few riders know about or have ridden Burham Rd. It's 1.1 miles from the ferry terminal to the right. It's not a long road but its a nice 2.5 miles of single lane that twists under the canopy of the trees. This is a low speed road with some steep grades and tight turns. Watch out for sand on the roadway in some areas. It's basically like riding through a park. I have ridden thsi road a few times and never encountered a car. Watch out for deer riding this island. From there it was a pleasant 3.5 miles up Cedarhurst Rd onto Westside hwy for another 4.1 miles. We were heading to our next stop at the Johnston Point Light house on the south east side of the island. Since the Island is small we took the longer route.  We rode on 2.7 miles on Cemetry Rd. past... You guest it.. The Cemetery. :-) The next 1.7 miles took us down 87th Ave and on to Dockton Rd. which was a very nice ride with the Puget Sound on our left. We turned left onto SW 240th and rode it fro another mile or so where we turned onto the SW Point Robinson Rd that took us down to the light house and beach. This is another fun Vashon attraction. Really nice beach area and and old restored light house. This is a great place to bring a lunch and eat on the beach by the water. The beach has never been crowded and only had a few folks there each time I have visited. This was another great opportunity to snap some group photos. Garageracer and Moshe sure love to ham it up for the camera. I can appreciate this. All in fun and we had a fun time. After allot of photos and many poses struck by garageracer, we headed back the way we came to the fork in the road near the Komo station towers. Here we turned onto Quartermaster Dr. which is a really nice 3.9 miles that wraps around Quartermaster harbor. This a great summer ride. one I ride several times a summer just because its short with allot of scenery and can be ridden after work. We road another 3.2 miles on the Vashon hwy and we soon encountered the Tahleqhua Ferry terminal. This is the crossing to Point Defiance in Tacoma. This was a short but great ride for the group. Some new roads for some, a couple wrong turns and missing the ferry causing a 1.5 hour wait was all par for the day. We had a bit of a wait but that was just time to tell riding stories and talk about mythical giant hamburgers! To recap the first leg of the ride through Gig Harbor, Olalla and Point Robinson on Vashon was 45.2 miles and from the Lighthouse to the Tahleqhua ferry terminal was another 11 miles. All great riding tied together by two ferry rides on the Puget Sound. To end the trip we rode on to Fife WA for old school burgers at Pick Quick. One of Washington's great burger stops!

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