Biking on King Island

October 29, 2021

For one of our hunting/exploring daytrips, Jason and I loaded our folding bikes into Little Red and headed over to Rattenbury Point on King Island.  There was a landing spot there that had been left from when the area was logged.  Since the landing was only intended for use by barges, and it needed to be able to withstand high tides and crashing waves, it was made with very big rocks.  As a result, even though we had intentionally timed our arrival with one of the two high tides of the day, the smooth road-like top of the landing was still about eight feet above our heads. 

Luckily, the water was calm, and while I kept the boat close to shore, but away from the rocks, Jason hopped off of the bow and grabbed the first bike, which we had staged there in advance.  With bike in hand, he was able to scramble his way up the big boulders.  Then he came back down for the second bike, which I passed off to him. 

Once both of our bicycles were up on the road we motored the boat over to a little, protected cove around the point.  The tide was ebbing, and we had already planned our departure time based on being back at the boat for the same relative tide height.  We nosed the boat into soft muddy sand, grabbed our things, tied the boat off to a rock and walked our way along the shoreline to where our bikes were waiting for us. 

We spent the day biking the logging roads, using the binoculars to search out the old clear cuts for deer, and exploring the area. 

It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a lovely picnic at a perfect viewpoint. 

Before the predetermined time of the incoming tide we made our way back to the boat.  This time however, instead of leaving our bikes at the end of the road and walking back along the shoreline, which was a very roundabout route to the boat, we decided to take a “short cut” in a straight line down the bank from the road to the shore where we knew our boat was secured.  With our bikes in hand we bushwhacked our way through the forest.  Although not the easiest task with the pedals, handlebars, and wheels all catching on roots, shrubs, and branches, we made our way towards the shoreline and popped out of the bush onto a log-covered, rocky beach. 

We carried our bikes over slippery logs and then along the slippery rocks, but soon we came to our Little Red, secured just as we had left her with water lapping up around mid ship.  Perfect timing.  

It was a beautiful sunset boat ride home.

 

In November I also had some work working for the fish-vaccination crew.  It was funny, because I was back at work at Mowi, but I was there as an employee of the contracted vaccination crew.  I was on the complete other side of things.  It was nice to get a couple of weeks of pay.