Down The Left Coast

My goal to take all the ferry routes in Puget Sound is nearing completion.  Last week the Port Townsend Ferry and the Bainbridge Island Ferry were untraveled routes for me.  But as of last Tuesday I am happy to report that both lines are crossed off my list in one trip.  So if some unlikely desire strikes you to travel from Anacortes to Seattle via Port Townsend, rest assured that such an itinerary is easily undertaken.

In the broad outline: Take Rt. 410 to March’s Point at 6:55 to transfer to the 411W. Take care that its heading to Oak Harbor, not Mount Vernon.
From Oak Harbor Rt. 6 will take you to the Keystone Ferry, whence you will sail into Port Townsend.
Catch Rt. 11 on Water Street to the Park and Ride and Rt. 7 will take you to Poulsbo.
Rt. 90 then heads straight to the Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal. Pedestrian passengers to Seattle pay no fare.

While this seems like a straightforward list of bus lines and destinations; this itinerary encompasses all the confusions, boredoms and discomforts of public transit with a healthy dose of forced patience. On the other hand, it could be a crash course for all those aspiring Zen masters out there. Anyone who claims a Zen-like attitude toward life must prove it by spending forty minutes killing time in Oak Harbor before anything is open. That’s right, spending more than half an hour there is difficult enough when the bars are open; so imagine the only place open being a drive through espresso stand. Forty minutes of just you, Oak Harbor and your suddenly precarious sanity. Google maps shows a park just across the street, which is accurate in the loosest definition; but this park is too windy and cold to even take a cigarette break and the view is as lackluster as a waterfront view can possibly be.

So if you take that all in stride, you will be rewarded with… another layover! Yes, Rt. 6 drops you at the Keystone Ferry Terminal an hour and 15 minutes before the next one leaves. But take heart, for the terminal is a five minute walk from Fort Casey. In this way are you rewarded for your previous patience with an interesting layover. And if you go on a weekday in the colder season, you’ll have these crumble-down abandoned battlements all to yourself. If you’re lucky, the sky will be clear enough to see the Olympic Mountains across the sound. I wouldn’t plan on it, though.

So in good spirits will you board the ferry to Port Townsend. With a little luck you can catch Rt. 11 in time to take Rt. 7 at 11:20, but I would recommend stopping for lunch and catch the 7 when it next runs at 3:24. The Pharmacy near the terminal has a Soda Fountain and a fake 50’s diner down the street has a passable fast-food burger if that’s your thing. A little poking around reveals a nice antique store on Washington Street. Imprint on Water St. is a fine bookstore. There’s a great record store at Washington and Taylor. I spent the rest of my time at The Undertown, a nice, spacious coffeeshop that has decent bottled beer.

The rest of the trip is somewhat underwhelming, to be honest. Rt. 11 is a little confusing in that you catch it at Water and Adams when it is going East, away from the Park and Ride. Quite soon, though, it turns around and gets there in about five minutes. Catch it at 3:04 and then transfer to Rt. 7 at 3:24. If you need, there is a publicly available bathroom at the information center.

Rt. 7 arrives in Poulsbo at 4:27 and ten minutes later the 90 takes you to Bainbridge Island. The next ferry is at 5:30. If you find something to do near the terminal, let me know because I sure missed it. I looked around just long enough to feel I didn’t want to wait around an hour for the next ferry and ended up running back to the terminal and down the walkway. I was nearly late and the ferry crew had to unchain the gate to let me through. They answered my Sorries and Thank Yous with professionally disinterested nods.

Thusly will you arrive in Seattle via the Left Coast. Of course, at this point you are essentially stranded in Seattle. The closest to Anacortes you can get by public transit at this hour is Everett. Amtrak and Greyhound can get you to Mount Vernon or Bellingham, but you’ll be stranded there, too. Thus this trip will have to be a proper overnight one. So how you spend that night; whether at the mercy of friends nearby, finding a hotel or hoping to find a nice girl to put you up; is up to you.