Catrike Tour Videos
San Juan Islands
There’s no place better for triking than the San Juan Islands! Leave your car at the Anacortes ferry terminal, throw a change of clothes on your trike and ride right onto the ferry. Friday Harbor is the perfect place to stay -just five minutes from the inter-island ferries for day trips to Orcas (for a climb up Mt. Constitution) and Lopez. From Friday Harbor, it’s an easy day ride to Roche Harbor and the English Camp as well as Cattle Point Lighthouse and the American Camp
San Juan Island Videos
San Juan Islands
Our 2021 San Juan Islands tour was a blast. Every trip, the highlight is the 2500 foot descent from Mt. Constitution’s summit (for those of us riding without motors, the 2500 foot slog up is definitely NOT a highlight).
Here’s a bit of a math problem: We had about 12 hours of video spread out over 20 cameras. Compute how much of Mel’s last remaining hair fell out editing that down to a 5 minute 30 second video.
The music is Duke Pearson’s classic Jeannine played by the amazing Argentinian Pianist Paula Shocron
If the video looks like a blast, imagine how much fun the actual ride was! The absolute highlight of our year is touring with friends on the San Juan Islands. The tour’s big ride is Orcas. The early birds -Mel, Charlie, Pat Franz (TerraCyle) and Matt Galat (Jayoe) took the idiot boat (6am!) from Friday Harbor. Everyone else (AKA “The Smart Money” -read: motor kit equipped) took the 8:30am ferry. We all traversed the Island and met on the 2500 foot climb to the Mt. Constitution summit.
The music is from the album It’s All Right! with Wynton Kelly’s Trio of Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb. Add in legendary Guitar Kenny Burrell and Candido Camero on Congas and you’ve got Mel’s go-to for a roaring 2500 foot descent!
Trike riding on San Juan Island is a fabulous treat. Summer is fabulous -but crowded. September’s late season beauty is absolutely unstoppable (as is the occasional rain shower). RPDX and friends rode from Friday Harbor to Roche Harbor for lunch -total roundtrip is about 30 miles with +/- 1500 vertical feet.
Young-Holt Unlimited’s Soulful Strut was played by Osaka Monaurail
Not all high-speed descents are created equally! For one thing, the normally-spendid summit view of both Canada and the Washington mainland was non-existent. Also, by ride’s end, we were all chilled to the bone.
But, OH! the exhilaration of that drop. Not a car on the route all day!
Hank Mobley’s Funk in a Deep Freeze by France’s Giraudo – Chassagnite 4TET seemed like the perfect musical accompaniment
Also, in 2018, we rode San Juan Island from Friday Harbor through the American Camp to Cattle Point Lighthouse! The weather was indescribably stunning!
Our ride down country roads was accompanied by Harvest Folk and Country
In 2016, just Janet and Mel made the 2500 foot slog up Constitution (smart money stayed in Eastsound enjoying pastries at the Brown Bear!). On the way up, we’re SO slow, we swear we were passed by nonagenarians walking small dogs! But, there’s ice cream and espresso waiting for us at the top, so we persevere!
Our day on Mt Constitution was accompanied by Chet Baker’s Night on Bop Mountain
WHOA!!! What a fabulous ride down Janet and Mel earned!
Oscar Peterson Trio’s Long Ago and Far Away plays us down. Album notes don’t say, but our best guess is that’s the incomparable Lester Young’s tenor
RPDX and friends take a leisurely ride from Friday Harbor to Westcott Bay Oysters (a scientific poll of eight riders determined them to be the best oysters in existence).
+/- 25 miles with about 2500 vertical feet, there nearly were fistfights over the pedal-assist trikes (if you were wondering why we offered motors to anyone asking on more recent trips).
Music was Portland’s preeminent Jazz man Mel Brown’s B-3 Organ Group with Renato Caranto on sax and King Louie Pain on B-3!
She ain’t called “Slopez” for nothing! Riding Lopez -even at the height 0f summer- you might see 6 cars the WHOLE day! It’s sparsely-populated and just beautiful. What more could a triker ask for?
What could be more fun than Udo Lindenberg‘s cover of Otis Redding’s classic Ich Sitz den Ganzen Tag bei den Docks!!
Vancouver Island, B.C. & Big of Hawaii
Catrike Tours
Vancouver Island, BC
Big Island Hawaii
In 2019, RPDX and Friends traveled to Vancouver Island! Our favorite ride took us on the Mill Bay to Brentwood ferry for lunch at Cherry Point Winery.
Jordan & Josh‘s cover of Bobby Hebb’s Sunny got us there!
On this bike-only trail, we ran through 1900 vertical much too soon. The Dumont handled like a dream -no more proof to be had than we’re taking curves at 25 mph steering with just one hand (needed a hand free to operate the camera, right?).
Sure we could’ve shown everything we needed in just 30 seconds, but Montreal’s Grand Kahuna‘s Theme from Hawaii 5-0 (yes, Montreal. You read that right) was just too much fun to stop!
This was a 20 mile 4000 foot descent to the Big Island’s Black Sand Beach! 4000 FEET! What a rush! Full-out on the Dumont at 45 miles an hour! Best of all, we didn’t have to ride 4000 back up!
Wee Hairy Beasties is the BEST second act of all time! Punk band legend Mekon’s Jon Langford and Sally Timms teamed with songwriter Kelly Hogan and Rick Sherry and Tom Ray’s Devil in the Woodpile to produce the most fantastic children’s album -and on a personal note, nothing like seeing Jon Langford at an Evanston street fair, thinking “HOLY MOLY! That’s JON LANGFORD!”, turning to some little kid and saying, “do you know who that is?!” and have kid respond, “sure I do. That’s my dad!”
We felt like the real-deal riding Kona’s Ironman Triathlon route. We jar the teeth right out of our skull showing how straight and true the Dumont rides across brutal rumble strips.
We couldn’t leave Hawaii without a rendition of Tiny Bubbles -thank you Virgil Briggs Jr