6/6 Bogachiel-Port Angeles

We woke and used parks facilities and headed north to the town of Forks under gray rainy skies. Forks, once a sleepy logging town obscure to the rest of the world has been catapulted into notiriety thanks to the Twilight trilogy written by Stephanie Meyer. We entered the town with a ravenous hunger that was directed to the Fork Coffee Shop. At the friendly diner we gorged ourselves on breakfast scrambles, pie, ice cream, coffee, and Twilight propaganda. We then headed out to explore the town of Forks, determined to find Twilight post cards. We entered three places of business, two of which were dedicated to all things Twilight but no luck. Despite all of the merchandise that had been branded with Twilight there was no post cards! Despite this failure, we were determined to mark ourselves as witnesses to the Twilight phenomenon and each got stickers for our bikes. Mine was marked as Eclipse, the second book on the saga, Will-Team Bella, Pete-Team Edward and Goody was simply marked Twilight. Satisfied with our purchases, we headed out again into the rain. As we approached Lake Crescent we had an unfortunate accident. I was riding second to last with Goody behind me. Goody said something to the tune of "We should be be safe and put some lights on." On that note I decided to pull over and turn my light on. I told Goody I was going to stop but my voice was not heard and after I pulled over to the side of the road Goody took a spill right onto the 101. Luckily he was not duly injured and we got back on the road.  After this sketchy experience we decided to seek shelter at the Lake Crescent Lodge.  I was a bit hesitant that this fine establishment would accept a bunch of wet dirty rag tag bikers. We pulled up to the front porch laid our stuff out to dry and went inside. We ordered some alcoholic coffee drinks to warm us up and soon found our way to the large hearth, where we warmed ourselves. I think we were all a bit hesitant about our stay but the staff and guests only seemed curious in our endeavor and showed no signs of dismay.  This was a recurring theme of our trip.  Our novelty outweighed our strange appearances and in general everyone was helpful and interested in what we were doing and not put off.  After some much needed warming we headed back on the road. We rode through the rain on a rolling and busy section of the 101. It was a tough ride and as we entered Port Angeles we decided to stay instead of riding to Sequim Bay National Park, our planned destination still 30 miles away. We found our way to a laundromat where we ordered some cheeseburgers, made some phone calls, and did some muscle work with the stick. Afterwords we looked for a place to camp and eventually made our way down to the the Olympic Discovery Trail right along Juan De Fuca Strait. We decided to camp right on the side of the trail next to the water. It was perfect.

This was on the back of the menu

Breakfast scramble is the warm up.  

Cake and Ice Cream to finish things off

Pete poses with Edward

Dan and Will chill along Lake Crescent

Goody gives my legs some much needed rolling.

6/5 The Pacific

We woke up well rested but sufficiently sore from the day before. We had breakfast at the campsite with whatever had survived last nights feast and bid farewell to Jordon, Jaycee, Sasha and the friendly retired couple that maintained the campsite. We headed back out on the beautiful rolling South Shore road and made out way back onto the 101 where after crossing the Quinault River we stopped at the Quinault Internet Cafe in Amanda Park where I happily jammed a bit on their complimentary piano as we made our first on the road blog update. We then picked up some groceries, snacks and drinks and the Amanda Park Mercantile Co and got ready to what was shaping up to be a warm sunny day. We rode along the 101 towards the coast through logged areas which featured lots of scotch broom, an invasive species, on the sides of the room. Although marked by man's (including ourselves) voracious appetite to consume, the ride was still all together pleasant and featured a nice shoulder. Right as we approached the ocean I picked up a cherry pie on the side of the road and we stopped for lunch as we got our first good view of the Pacific Ocean. After lunch we entered the Olympic National Park and rode on a gorgeous stretch of the 101 with relatively undisturbed flora including Western Red Cedar, Douglas Fir, and Sitka Spruce. We rode on this gorgeous section for 10 plus miles until we made out way to Ruby Beach. Our clockwise loop around the Olympics was inspired by our descision to truly go from Pacific to Atlantic and Ruby Beach was our westernmost point. We rode our bikes along the beach and dipped them into the water. Afterwords we grabbed the Frisbee, and played catch while doing sprints on the beach and eventually starting playing catch in the ocean, where we would jump sideways to catch the disc as we went into the water. After this awesome session we climbed out onto some sea rocks and chilled for a while. We next found a private place north of the main beach where we dried our wet clothing and bodies in the sun. We rested on the driftwood. I felt at peace. At some point I grabbed four rocks, polished by the waves.  My goal was to take two of them to the Atlantic. After drying off we climbed back up to the 101 and started riding north. It was the late afternoon and the sun was shining bright. We rode at a steady but conservative pace until we had to stop for a mechanical on the side of the road. After the mechanical we rode along one of the most memorable sections of the road of the whole trip, where the 100 follows the Hoh River up for ~20 miles until it crosses it.   It featured the beautiful forest smooth rolling hills and a perfectly paved shoulder. My mind was opened to the simple joys of gracious motion on my metal stallion travelling over the quiet rolling hills. We crossed the Hoh river on a tall narrow bridge and made our way north to Bogachiel State Park. Bogachiel, or "Boga-Chill,"as it became to be known, was a perfect resting place after our fantastic day along the water. We combined whatever food items we had into a novel mash, used the showers at the park, and got some rest.

Lake Quinault

Will graciously fixes my rack, while Pete holds two bikes

Queets River

 

The ocean is 100 ft to our left.  This was one of most stunning stretches of road.  

Sitka Spruce with a growth

We bought some pie on the side of the road and feasted on lunch

Using the facilities at South Beach Campground

Pete gazes upon the ocean

 

Goody and the Ocean are both doing work in this photo

 Four Human Beings, their machines, and the Pacific Ocean

Art

Hoh River

Hoh River

6/4 Capitol Forest Prison/Elma/Wynooche/Wiskah/Lake Quinault

We ate our breakfast at camp Will looked up the maps on his Iphone and we decided to take the Bordeaux Rd through the Capitol Forest.  We rode undisturbed though the trees on a gorgeous morning.  We ended up at Cedar Creek Correctional Facility, nestled in the forest, where the prison employees let us fill up our water and informed us that the road we were planning on taking was washed out and instead to take the D-line.   As we left the facility, and the inmates watched us through the chain link fence, I thought to myself, if I had to spend time in prison, this would be the place.   We made our way to the D-line, which featured a nice short steep climb that softened us all up.  We then descended through the forest and made our way back to Rt 12 towards Elma.  I felt strong through the forest but when we reached Route 12 I began to tire.  The miles the previous day had begun to take their toll.  We rode in a line at a pretty steady pace all the way to the Rusty Tractor Restaurant in Elma, where we gorged on Yak Burgers, fries and copious amounts of sugary caffeinated beverages.  We avoided the highway and rode on the Monte-Elma Rd to Montesano, where we fed ourselves some more and got some groceries for later in the day.  As we left Montesano we rode along the Wynoochee River Valley.  Will and the gang rode fast through the bucolic setting while hung on at the back.   These directions were inspired by the Google Maps bike directions and they took us through Aberdeen Gardens and Wiskah, where we climbed up a section of dirt road to a beautiful view of the Olympic Mountains.   By the time we got to the very coarsley paved  Hoquiam Rd, we were all really tired.  We finally got to the 101 we stopped for some bagged wine.  The next 30 miles on the 101 through Humptulips were very memorable, we were all feeling tired and had to count down every mile on the side.  We got our sweet satisfaction as we made it to our destination, the angelic Lake Quinault, where after 90 long miles we met my good friends Jordon, Jaycee and her dog Sasha at the Gatton Creek Campground.  There we feasted on the spoils from our earlier grocery store purchases, watched the sunset and slept well on the side of the lake.

Pete having some fun in the Capitol Forest

Dan and Pete begin a descent on the D-Line

More D Line fun

The locals know where the good roads are

Yak Burger au Jus at the Rusty Tractor

 

A much needed break near Wiskah

Bagged Vino

When I first started riding I was not that flexible and by the end of the day I would look like this

Goody flaps his wings for the final few miles on the 101

Goody's Campsite

Sasha

Goody hangs out in the Hammock

Dan and Pete enjoy the sunset and Lake Quinault

Background/About the riders

        Hello, my name is Dan and this blog is a recap of the bicycle tour that my friends Will, Goody, Pete, Aidan, David and I went on in the summer of 2010.   My friend Will began to vocalize the idea to ride across the continent in late 2009.  Will and I grew up in Potsdam, New York, and had biked and ran together from time to time in our youth.  It was just after new year eve dinner in 2009, that we first starting looking at google maps that I became excited by the prospect this journey over land.  It took me a while to commit to the idea, but I made up my mind in late spring and was on board along with Goody, an all american middle distane runner in high school and environmental studies major at Binghamton, Pete, a history and russian major at Binghamton and high school rower, Aidan, Pete's cousin, musician and biology student at  University of California, Santa Cruz.  Additionally Will's father David, an author and librarian in Potsdam, would ride for us for a section in Canada and New York.  I knew Will and David well, had spent a little bit of time with Goody and have never met Pete and Aidan.  The tour was setting up to be a good mix of old friends and new companions.
         I graduated from University of Portland in May after another lackluster year of collegiate running and was ready to do something new.  My Dad owns a bike store in Potsdam, NY, the Treadmill, and I grew up around bikes, but I had never done any touring before.  Although I did some duathalon and mountain bike racing in middle school I became a runner in high school and didn't do much bike riding  In the summer of 2009, before my senior year at UP, I began to use my 1993 Bridgestone MB-4 to commute to an internship in Beaverton over Germantown Road from North Portland.   This got me excited about riding again and lead me to my decision to ride across the country.  For my graduation present my Dad gave me a 59 cm Salsa Casseroll outfitted for touring.  On my first ride on the Salsa in early May, I redlined up McNamee Road on a ride with my friends and was real spaint after a 25 mile ride.  I was a long way away from being able to do any serious touring.   I trained for 3 weeks, riding 20-50 miles a day on the hilly slopes up to skyline rd, running when I could, and replenishing my body with oatmeal heavy with maple syrup and hemp powder, and the tacos and burritos of the many fine taquerias of North Portland.  I looked online at biking forums and found a group of two young women who were looking to travel from Seattle to New York at around the same time as our tour.  We contacted Carrie and Ashley and planned to ride with them for a while.  They were leaving a little after we had planned to start so this gave us time to do a counterclockwise loop around the Olympic Peninsula and get to the "real" Pacific Ocean.   My plan was to meet Will, Goody and Pete around Olympia on the night of the June 3rd, before we would loop around the Olympics.  To view June 2 and 3rd to see Will, Goody, and Pete's journey from Seatac Airport to Mima Mounds, and my trip from Portland click older posts. To view June 4th and beyond click newer posts. 

6/3 Mima Mounds

The above map is the route that I took from Portland to meet Goody, Pete ,and Will at Mima Mounds Natural Area.  I waited to get ready until the last minute and didn't leave Portland until just after the stroke of noon that day.  It was my first day riding with a fully loaded bike and as I left the house I remember getting up out of the saddle and wondering how I was going to make this work. The longest ride of my life had been 50 miles, and I was lucky to have a tailwind push me along for a good portion off the way.  It is amazing what you can do when you leave yourself no other option.  The last ten miles were an eternity but I found the guys before dark.  It was my first meeting with Pete, and the four of us socialized, checked out each others bikes and gear and then retired for the evening.   

Goody

Mount Rainier

Goody and Will

The Capitol Building in Olympia

Campsite

Pete's Tent

Goody enjoys some meal

Will and I's home-The Six Moon Designs Lunar Duo Tent