La Conner’s ‘Tulip Pedal’ launched Tulip Festival

Decades ago, each March as the northwest mystic sky started to show the sun through cracks in the clouds, we were tempted to get on our bikes and pedal around the farm roads to see how the daffodils, tulips and irises were progressing. The colors were spectacular. Rows of intense yellow daffodils striped the fields. And later in April the valley’s tulips displayed patchwork quilts of peachy orange sewed to fiery red sewed to deep purple. Our spring bike trips never disappointed.

One year, 1981, Community Homewell, a visiting nurse agency, wanted to start a hospice service. Needing financing, they hired Paul Murray, a resident of La Conner, to fundraise. Paul had to come up with serious money because his own salary would be dependent on his success. Paul was one of the spring bikers enjoying the flowers each March and April. He thought it would be a good idea to share this beauty with others – that became his fundraising project. He came up with the idea of hosting a casual bike ride through the back roads of Skagit farmlands to view the Magic of the Skagit in distilled color.

He explained his vision to the flower farmers, then asked if they would share with him a map showing the fields that would be planted in daffodils and which color of tulips would be planted where and expected dates for the high point of the bloom. Then he pushed them a little further and asked if they would describe the bulb planting and growing process to the bikers during their tulip ride. Some farmers were interested and more grew interested and more enthusiastic in later years. Paul thought the ‘Tulip Pedal’ would be a fitting name for marketing the event. This event was one more chapter in the long history of appreciating the farming lifestyle in the valley.

Next, Paul recruited his spring biking friends dubbed the “team,” Ron Shrigley, Joan Cross, Mary Anderson, Rusty Kuntze, Libby Mills and Dan O’Donnell. We were assigned the tasks of publicizing, selling T-shirts and marking the route according to the farmers’ planting maps. We ordered the shirts and posted announcements on community bulletin boards, advertised in local newspapers and community calendars in preparation for the Saturday event.

On the Saturday morning of peak bloom 1982, the “team” woke at 5 a.m. and drove the prescribed route, taking a 10-pound bag of flour to mark arrows at significant turns in the route. Upon returning to La Conner, we set up the T-shirt tables and started the fundraising. We made enough money the first year from 500 participants to kick off Community Homewell’s Hospice program. We had so much fun, we did it again a second year and drew over 700 visitors. Paul now had a secure job.

During the third year, for added attraction, Dan O’Donnell and Ron Shrigley organized a Bike Criterium race.

It started south on First Street, went up the Commercial Street hill to Second Street past the Gaches mansion, the Methodist Church and down the hill turning left on Washington Street returning to First Street and around and around and around.

For safety, we recruited Bud Moore to place hay bales at crucial corners.

It was a popular race in the biking community because of the hills, a straight away and the tight corners.

Bikers from Seattle, Vancouver and beyond swarmed La Conner.

Excitement, competition and storytelling chattered in the air.

Bikers showed off their latest neon garb, carbon framed bikes and gears.

Shoes locked into pedals for up-swing leverage as well as down strokes.

The clicking of bike shoes on the sidewalks was background music to the competition.

The Calico Cupboard served up coffee and pastries.

And boooom! The race was on. The speed was dizzying. People watching on Second Street then ran down the Benton Street stairs to see them pass again and again the bank (now Fork on Skagit Bay) and the Fire Engine Museum. It was an event to look forward to all year.

By the fourth year the Tulip Pedal was too big to manage with thousands of visitors for our small “team.” We passed it on to the La Conner Kiwanis Club and it became their fundraiser. The following year they moved it on to the Mt. Vernon Chamber of Commerce.

Now each spring thousands of visitors come to the Skagit Valley for Daffodil and Tulip Festivals, Art and Craft shows, delicious food, crafted beer and epic ice cream cones.

Paul’s vision of sharing Skagit’s blooming spectacle grows every year. The lesson he learned was “be careful of what you wish for.”