I went out for a long motorcycle ride today: a three-ferry loop around the Sound. I rode up to Edmonds, through thick I-5 traffic, and took the ferry across to Kingston. I missed the turn for Port Gamble and rode down to Poulsbo, then back up to the Hood Canal bridge; then it was a nice long foresty shot up the peninsula to Port Townsend.

On the point across from Port Townsend sits Fort Worden State Park, a WWI-era military station with lots of abandoned concrete buildings and old gun batteries. I stretched my legs on a graffiti-covered bunker, then wandered down to the beach and threw rocks at the waves for a while.

The second ferry was a tiny, single-decker affair, the Steilacoom II, running between Port Townsend on the peninsula and Keystone on Whidbey Island. It’s a slow crossing, and it was starting to get a little less sunny out, so I took off riding and did not stop to enjoy Fort Casey, the counterpart to Fort Worden on the east side of the channel.

Motorcyclists get first priority on and off the ferry, so I became part of an impromptu group ride down the length of Whidbey Island as a half dozen of us all seemed to be going in the same direction. It’s a nice country highway ride; there’s only one main road down the island, but it’s relatively open and rural, except for a couple of bottlenecks at Greenbank and Freeland. I can only imagine how jealous the people in the long line of cars at Clinton must have felt, waiting far behind the “90 minutes til ferry” sign, as a stream of motorcycles roared in and cut right to the front of the line. At least they have cushy seats and stereos and a heater and a roof to keep them comfortable while they wait.

Last ferry ride, over to Mukilteo; from here it was a simple ride back to I-5 and then a straight shot home. The new bike, for all its extra displacement, can’t compete with the FJ600 for top speed; I teased it up to 90 mph at one point, but it doesn’t really want to go faster than 80. It starts sounding froggy and acting lurchy, like it isn’t getting enough fuel; I wonder if its carburetor needs some cleaning.