S24O from Seattle: Manchester State Park by Bike

I’ve seen Fay Bainbridge park listed as the closest place to Seattle to camp overnight, but going by riding distance Manchester Bay state park actually takes the crown as the closest. This made it the perfect match for Anna and I to embark on our first steps into the world of bike camping:

Double ferry crossing

Leaving from downtown Seattle, an hour’s ride on the Bremerton ferry takes us across Puget Sound. Along the way we’re treated to a close-up of the Naval Shipyard, where if you’re lucky you might see an aircraft carrier in the dock. During our crossing I spotted a few smaller military vessels, looking drab and serious at the port, a stark contrast against the deep blue ocean and bright leafy trees. In any case, this wasn’t our destination, and after disembarking from the big ferry we immediately headed across the pier to the entrance to the foot ferry.

This little boat (bikes allowed!) gave us a shortcut across what would have been a risky ride on a busy highway around the peninsula. And thanks to the virus, the trip was free of charge (aside: do we know if COVID’s being spread by cash?). Arriving in Port Orchard we had our lunch picnic at a tiny park in the middle of a massive parking lot. We had three trees over our heads, so at least that’s better than being baked by the sun.

Biking Beach Drive

Finally after three paragraphs we can head into the bike portion of this bike camp trip. From Port Orchard, the directions are simple: follow the coast on Beach Drive. And that’s it, the road takes us all the way to the park’s entrance.

As with most coastal roads, this ride didn’t lack for scenery. As a bonus, traffic was low and while it wasn’t flat as a pancake, the topography definitely didn’t approach Seattle levels of hilly. We arrived around 4pm and had our pick of biker-hiker sites. At this park, the biker sites are down a short ramp from the main camping zone, making them feel very quiet and secluded. They also don’t have a fire pit or water outlets, and it’s a short walk back up the ramp to the restroom facilities.

Making camp

A total of 3 hiker-biker sites line the right side of this path

Showers with hot water are coin-operated; buy coins from the info station at the park’s entrance. We splurged for $5 worth of shower tokens and were each able to enjoy the hot water for more than 10 minutes.

Tip: I had been concerned that the sites might be full (it being a summer weekend, after all), but since this trip I’ve found out that hikers and cyclists cannot be turned away, even if they don’t have reservations and the campsites are full.

Setting up tents gets easier each time, but this was our first time. Luckily two minds work better than one and we didn’t have too much trouble. After unloading everything and taking a short break, we rode down the short dirt path behind the site to the park’s beach. The park wraps around the head of a peninsula which pokes out into the sea towards Bainbridge island.

The ferry crossing from Seattle is handled by just one ship, and we saw it cross the passageway several times against the backdrop of Mt. Rainier looming in the distance.

Ferry spotting from the park's beach

Lucky at Sunset

Later on, just before sunset, I did a bit of light mountain biking exploring the trails in the park. A short climb from the beach, I came upon a clearing with a small shed at its edge. I spotted a narrow trail between the trees on the other side of the field and made my way over, all alone at this point. The single track gravel path led me to a short hill made dark beneath thick foliage, and I could spot a brightly lit exit at the bottom. But right as I began to make a descent, a large dark four-legged shape crossed the path near the bottom, perhaps 100 meters away. I stopped in my tracks immediately, but it took a few moments for the visual information to translate into a coherent thought: I’d just seen a bear!

Of course I was not going down the hill that way anymore, even though I’m pretty sure it wasn’t aware of my presence. So I turned around, crossed back over the clearing, and returned to the beach. From there I followed the main road through the day-use parking area back to our campsite. On the way, I told the camp host about my encounter, and she said she’d never seen one before. I suppose the bears have better things to do than socialize with the stinky humans.

coordinates: https://goo.gl/maps/MQ3ccHSdskrBqfAv9

Making sure to keep our foodstuffs a good distance from our sleeping selves, Anna and I had a restful sleep that night. Two things that make me want to sleep are MSG and dairy, and the cheesy instant ramen we cooked for dinner didn’t take long to have an effect.

Returning a different way

Everything packed up again on the bike

I prefer not to retread the same ground when possible, and Manchester State Park’s location thankfully made it easy to pick a new route for the return leg. This time we stuck to the coastline and made our way south, catching our first views of Seattle again and inhaling the briny shellfish smell that emanated from the rocky beaches along the road. Sunday morning is my favorite time to ride, and we encountered little traffic on the journey to the ferry landing at Southworth.

The return trip is free if you’re not driving, so we just walked on to the ship and set off back to the city. Landing at Fauntleroy, we rode north through Lincoln park towards Alki beach, seeing plenty of cyclists on this section. While the ferry trip is only a few miles, the huge gap in population density between the two ends makes it seem like we’d crossed a much greater distance.