Suiattle Kidspedition 2011

Last year's bike camping trip up the closed-to-motor-vehicles Suiattle River Road was such a spectacular time that we did it again this year. We invited a few new friends to come along but in the end only one new family was able to come and even they had to leave one of theirs at home. We were 5 adults and 6 children strong. Everyone had some sort of bike to ride.

We had initially planned to head out first thing Friday morning but we delayed until the afternoon to wait for some rain squalls to blow through. We got nailed by a couple intense rain cells on the 2-hour drive to the trail head but somehow we lucked out and the precipitation stopped in time for us to ride the 3-ish miles to the campground and get things set up.

When more than half your crew is under age 5 there are many reasons and opportunities to stop and take a break.

The kids went back and forth between riding their own bikes and getting rides on one of the cargo bikes or the trailer. Everyone rode at least part of the way under their own power.

We planned this as a 3-day/2-night trip because a trip always seems so much longer if you have a full day to explore and enjoy the surroundings. We took that middle-day to ride further up the road to the sand bar at the Downey Creek/Suiattle River confluence. I think everyone liked the freedom of not hauling 3-families worth of camping gear and food.

We took a side trip to a meadow and were cautiously greeted by 2 deer grazing in a field of daisies.

Once the deer had retreated, The little kids got down to some serious balance biking.

In the middle of the meadow is a structure. It looks like some sort of barn. Ma 'n Pa Egg posed in front of it for this picture. There's another building on the edge of the meadow; it's small and looks like a one-room cabin but I didn't get a picture of it.

After a brief while exploring the meadow and enjoying it's beauty, we mobilized our pedal convoy and got back on the road. We were happy to get to the bridge over Downey Creek because that meant we were within a couple hundred feet of our destination... the sandbar at the Downey/Suiattle confluence.

This bridge is the choke point of the road. Everything leading up to the Downey Creek Bridge is wide enough for a car to pass. The bridge is easily wide enough for a cargo bike or bike trailer but there's no way even a super small car like a mini (the old ones that were freaky small) or a Smart Car could drive across. I'm not sure how this will play into the plans/movement to re-open the road to motors. Maybe there are plans to replace it with an auto friendly bridge or maybe this will be the new end of the road. Time will tell.

Before we made the 50-or-so foot decent down the embankment to the sand bar we had lunch and used the outhouse at the Downey Creek Campground. We found a plank to use as a ground-level picnic table.

Some kids rode their bikes around the campground while waiting for others to finish eating. Young T is well on his way to giving Evil Knievel a run for his money.

When everyone was ready, we headed down to the beach for some diggin' and splashin'.

Someone caught a frog...

...and our casual weekend-in-the-woods was suddenly a scientific expedition.

An hour or 2 on the beach had everyone sufficiently wet and sandy, so we gathered for the only group picture of the trip.

The kids didn't ride as much the 6-miles back to camp so it went relatively quick.

Unfortunately the HawkFam had other obligations the rest of the weekend and had to leave early. The following morning we woke to blue skies. Once the sun got above the ridge we even had warmth and sunshine. On the previous day's ride we had noticed this road closed sign on an overgrown spur road and wondered what was down that green tunnel of a road.

It was only a mile from our camp so we decided to ride up and check it out. Turns out it's the road to the Suiattle Guard Station. This cabin (the guard station) used to be available as a weekend rental but with the road closure it's boarded up and no longer available to rent.

Not sure I'd want to camp here because it was more buggy than the campground, road, or beach, but it was a pleasant place for the kids to explore and to have a picnic lunch in the tall grass.

After we'd had enough of the bugs at the guard station, we returned to our campsite to begin breaking down our camp. We didn't leave without playing in the river a bit though. The ride out was relatively uneventful until we met a guy who's living up there for the summer in a lean-to type structure he built down by the river. His story was that he's escaping the Louisiana heat for the summer. Our encounter with him was pleasant and entertaining enough. He saw us ride by and chased us down because he hadn't had any human contact for a while and just wanted to talk. But it was a reminder that you never know who's hanging around near roads in the woods.

For other versions of what really happened click here or here.