Completing an individual leg or finishing Ski to Sea as a team is often touted as an accomplishment, but as an avid cyclist who enjoys riding and relying on pedal-powered contraptions, I was always attracted to the car-free division more than just competing in the event.
As my first Ski to Sea, and our entire team’s first car-free participation, we had our work cut out for us.
With the car-free mentality, all the gear, people, water and food must be transported via bike (no e-bikes or motorcycles, either) to the start of their respective legs and back again, ensuring the race’s finish line doesn’t mean a team is finished with the event.
This year, a handful of friends and I put together the car-free team “I Don’t Car(e)” and biked ourselves and our gear to a 25th-place overall finish and third-place Car-Free division finish. Three more teams registered for the division than last year, signaling a growing enthusiasm for the logistical and physical challenge.
A car-free team’s event doesn’t start the weekend of Ski to Sea; it often starts months before, goading and persuading bike-minded friends into taking part in a zany idea. Once an appreciable number of competitors and car-free enthusiasts are found, the real work begins.
It can take weeks of planning and prep to ensure the logistics and equipment make their way around Whatcom County, and that’s with a vehicle-based “normal” team.
A car-free purist perspective implies that the only people handling the gear should be the team itself, yet no rules prevent finding other car-free “sherpas” to help with hauling gear or aiding in logistics.
Transporting bikes or gear with vehicles after the leg ends is against the rules. It’s a battle of endurance and wills.
Ski to Sea encompasses seven legs, and most teams have eight athletes.
The cross-country ski, downhill ski/snowboard, run, and road bike legs occur on “the mountain.” On a car-free team, athletes can camp overnight or bike up to Mount Baker the morning of the race. Most members camp overnight, treating themselves to some “hot rock chicken” on the way up.
[ Read more: Ski to Sea racers feast on roast chicken in neighborhood-style cookout tradition ]
Though I did not participate in any of the mountain legs (my fiancé and I did the canoe), I gathered a report on conditions and atmosphere. On Saturday night, car-free teams were instructed to camp on the far side of the parking lot, close to the RVs that regular teams use to camp. The lot, filled with puddles and snow, was loud, with parties throughout the night and vehicles pulling in as early as 4 a.m. On Sunday, freshly fallen snow was a welcome sight to the cross-country and downhill skiers who wouldn’t have to contend with the sticky, wet snow that the Mt. Baker Ski Area is known for.
The “non-mountain” legs present a different challenge. Competitors in these legs must transport a canoe and kayak to their respective starts and back home from the finish. The trailer cannot be motor-powered and often utilizes several heavily modified transportation devices.
The weekend before the event, we had our solution after hacking together a recycled Burley trailer, a BOB one-wheel bike trailer and a past team’s trailer apparatus. Some teams weld pipe together to create a fixed structure, while others, like ours, rely on nuts and bolts to hold together their set-up, often weighing north of 60 pounds. For most teams, the trailer must carry a kayak, canoe and bikes more than 50 miles over the three-day Memorial Day weekend.
Our trailer consisted of an axle-mounted one-wheel bike trailer bolted to a 10-foot piece of u-shaped unistrut at the front, which was then attached to a modified two-seat Burley trailer at the rear.
The contraption, from the front of the bike to the tip of the canoe (when mounted), was more than 22 feet long. For logistical purposes, my teammate Brent Hartwig ported the kayak from Bellingham to Zuanich Point Park on Saturday morning, and I took the Wenonah Canoe to Riverside Park in Everson later that afternoon.
Boats in the competitive categories must stay under 18-feet-6 inches, which our Wenonah Jenson V-1 Pro barely conformed to. Towing around a canoe worth more than many used cars on a trailer haphazardly thrown together the weekend prior can be a stressful experience. After the 30-mile round trip from Everson and confirmation that everyone was in place and ready for Sunday’s race, we could only wait until morning.
The “afternoon” legs of Ski to Sea, consisting of canoeing, cyclocross and kayaking, often start much earlier for car-free participants than those on vehicle-driven teams. After getting updates that our cross-country skier, Sam Biskup, had finished his leg, my fiance and I biked to Everson and got ready for the 18.5-mile canoe journey. Soon after, our team’s road biker, Andy Leveto, pedaled in and handed over the timing chip.
We’re novice canoers but held a top 50 pace until mile 10, when an eddy pulled us perpendicular to the current and swamped our boat. After getting help from a nearby rescue crew, we were back paddling 15 minutes later but lost 15 places in the process.
When the river is as “low and slow” as it was this year due to the cold mountain weather, picking up speed anywhere but the main current can be difficult. The main current is the most dangerous part of the river, spinning boats and pulling them under.
With our spirits and bodies dampened, we finished the paddle to Hovander Park and threw the timing chip to Cascadia Daily News co-worker Julia Tellman. Julia quickly completed the muddy and difficult cyclocross course and was the second overall female finisher for her leg, gaining us back a couple of spots. With six legs down and one to go, our downhill skier/kayaker Brent completed the event, bringing the I Don’t Car(e) team home and ringing the bell at the finish line.
“I’ve been doing the Ski to Sea for 14 years,” Brent said after the event, “and up until this year, I’ve been doing it wrong the whole time!”
Participating in Ski to Sea car-free can be challenging, exhausting and stressful, but the rewarding feeling of conquering logistical and mechanical hurdles is almost better than ringing the finish-line bell. The car-free experience isn’t about making the Ski to Sea weekend easy and relaxing; it’s about making it as fun and memorable as it can be.
A previous version of this story misstated the description of the metal pipe attached to the trailer. The story was updated to reflect this change on Friday, May 31 at 9:05 a.m. Cascadia Daily News regrets the error.
Read more about Grisemer’s Ski to Sea experience on his SubStack blog, Greased Lightning.
Casey Griesemer writes monthly. Email: caseyg2014@gmail.com.
