Lopez Island, San Juans

This portion of the Grand Adventure is just beginning and has its own unique flavor. This is the part in which I retrace travels of long ago. Today’s miles, and most of the miles likely to come in the next month or so, are following the paths of previous tours. Forty years ago I rode a bicycle down the Pacific coast, from up on Vancouver Island to Santa Cruz, California, where I lived at that time. Then too I pulled a trailer, although then the primary cargo was a mongrel German Shepherd mix. Forty-three years ago I rode south from there through Big Sur, on my first bicycle tour. And thirty-four years ago Don, with whom I rode across Oregon three weeks ago, met his future life partner, right on this very island.
So there’s a poignancy to retracing these miles. Forty years ago I was twenty-three and my life was ahead of me. Now most of it is behind me, and I’m traveling with a very different perspective on that which I’m seeing around me.

Lopez was my favorite island in 1980, as it was the most pastoral of the three largest ferry-served islands. There’s a palpable sense of community here. For instance, this photo is of the Lopez Community Land Trust, just north of the small commercial village on the island, with affordable super-efficient housing, clean energy, community farming and local businesses.

Each home has it’s own roughly four kW PV array. A contractor installed the first two, training local electricians who installed the rest.

Hippies use side door. This is the entrance.

Parrot mailbox

Gray and rainy today, “a soaker”. Looking south from the south end of Lopez Island.

Kelly of Whidbey Sun and Wind had encouraged me to look up Rick, one of his “showpiece systems” , and what a system it was.  He lives on the road to Spencer Spit State Park, where I camped in the rain on my second night on the island. Rick has a 20 kW PV system with battery backup and an ARE 442 wind generator on a 127′ tower (which Rick told me is only marginally high enough to avoid turbulence, given the height of the surrounding forest).

Rick was happy to show me the mechanicals. His systems (including solar thermal for space heating with both wood and propane backup boilers) are very complex, which is a bit worrisome, being dependent on professionals to resolve any problems. The PV installation work is very clean and professional, and is more complex than anything I had done at Positive Energy.

I respectfully suggested to Rick that he might be described as a “sophisticated high-tech prepper” and he agreed with the term. The Gulf Islands are in an area likely to fare better than most with the effects of climate change that are already in motion, and this played into his planning from the start. Rick told me that he’s a retired forester, and he pays attention to natural evidence in his field. He said that he has been observing “bud break”, the date with the Douglas fir buds open in the spring, and has observed that they are breaking 70 days earlier over the last ten years. Yet another keystone species.

Entrance to the biker camp at Odlin County Park, my first night’s stay.