Ski to Sea is a logistically fraught from a transportation standpoint. This year, a caravan of 500 (or more) will drive State Route 542 to Mt. Baker Ski Area while 1,000 more will roam around the lowlands of Whatcom County to race handoffs and overpasses.
Some teams, however, will ditch their cars to compete in the Car Free division. The rule is simple: All team members and equipment must be transported to and from each race leg without any “motorized form of transportation.”
For most racers, this means biking dozens of miles in addition to their legs — relying on strong calves and their team members to accomplish the race.
The division was officially added in 2013, though a handful of teams had already been completing the race in standard divisions without cars for a few years, said race director Anna Rankin.
Mt. Baker Ski Area lies about 60 miles from the finish line at Marine Park, according to Google Maps. The cross-country skier, downhill skier or snowboarder, the runner and, oftentimes, the road biker all spend the Saturday before the race making the uphill climb, pedal by pedal. With them, they carry skis, snowboards, tents, clothes, food and all other necessary camping gear.
Ashleigh Fischer, the team captain and road biker for Starfish and Coffee, will be embarking on the journey for the first time, and said she’s looking at it like a bike-packing trip.
“It sounds like fun, and it’s not that hard. Building the trailer was the biggest barrier,” Fischer said, but the team’s cyclocross biker David Urbina, “did it in like a day and a half.”
While half a car-free team traverses State Route 542, the canoeists and kayakers pedal through the county delivering their vessels to Riverside Park in Everson and Zuanich Park in Bellingham, respectively. Canoeists often bring gear to camp at the park the night before the race.
Teams spend hours — sometimes years — workshopping, constructing and modifying trailers to attach to their bikes to lug the 100-pound canoes and kayaks to their destinations. The trick, however, is the trailers must also be able to transport the bikes left behind by teammates.
For Starfish and Coffee, Urbina constructed a canoe cart by modifying an old bike trailer and securing the canoe with pool noodles and ratchet straps. A metal bar secures the tip of the canoe to a bike’s seat post. He said he spent about $30 and a few days pulling it together.
On race day, the skiers are lucky — their legs end where they begin. The runner, however, must hike the eight miles back up to the ski area to retrieve their bike and leftover gear. Then, the three cycle back to Bellingham, clocking an additional 60-or-so miles.
The road biker, after passing their time chip to the canoeists, will collect the leftover trailer and those paddlers’ bikes. They’ll journey to Hovander Homestead Park (approximately 18 miles) to meet with the canoeists after they coast down the Nooksack River. The cyclocross biker will snag the kayaker’s trailer and bike, left at Zuanich Park, and deliver it to the race’s end at Marine Park.
With the logistical headache comes an increased sense of satisfaction, said Eleanor Hines, a longtime racer and captain for car-free teams. This year, she’ll race for the Surfrider Sea Sirens, sponsored by the Northwest Straits Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. Surfrider’s work is dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans, waterways and beaches, Hines said.
“I never want to do Ski to Sea any other way ever again,” Hines said. “It’s so much more fun in so many ways. It feels good to get all that biking in. It turns it into more of a full-weekend camping adventure.”
“And, most years, we’re going to finish in the top 10 in our division!” she added. This year, 10 car-free teams are competing.
A car-free journey, besides being arduous, offers more opportunities for things to go wrong: A trailer can fail, a tire can go flat or a racer could get injured. Hines said one year, the mountain group didn’t finish the travel up to Mount Baker until after 11 p.m. Saturday. Another year, the tires on the canoe trailer went flat, and they couldn’t change out the inner tubes.
“Some bike mechanics decided the solution was to stuff the tires full of grass, and the person who was hauling the trailer was not thrilled about the whole thing,” Hines said.
Satisfaction, she said, also comes from knowing that they put one less car on the road for the race.
“Everybody has their different reasons for doing it. For me, the environmental impact is definitely one of them. I love, love, love playing outside in the environment, but I dislike when I have to drive a long distance to get there,” she said. “I feel like I’m kind of harming the environment to enjoy the environment. It feels better to bike up than drive up.”
Hailey Hoffman is a CDN visual journalist; reach her at haileyhoffman@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 103.
