The first part of today's ride was less than ideal. We rode along WA-104 at the start. This is a busy highway with a lot of noisy traffic, but fortunately it has wide shoulders so we were several feet away from cars and trucks, on the other side of rumble strips. It started to mist soon after we started. The mist turned to a light drizzle, which increased to showers. The weather radar had shown no rain that morning, but it was raining upon us anyway. I foolishly didn't bother to put on my raingear, I figured I was soaking wet already. I was lucky I didn't get hypothermia. But we were generating a lot of heat riding on WA-104 and then 101 - there were two big hills we had to climb, about 900' of gain in all.

Once we got to Discovery Bay, we found the entrance to the Olympic Discovery Trail, and then we were riding a paved bike trail, well separated from the traffic. Even better, the rain stopped after that point, and I dried out as we rode along. We met a 79-year old cyclist who rode along with us for a good ways. He told me that he used to be a bicycle courier, delivering pizzas. Now he was riding to Sequim for a dentist appointment.

We crossed our first trestle bridge. It was a well preserved, massive wooden structure. The ODT follows the route of an old railroad line, and some of the old bridges still stand.

At Sequim we stopped at Hurricane Coffee. Keith remarked that he was celebrating his 65th birthday. 24 years earlier, we had also celebrated his birthday on our cross-country bike ride. What better way to enjoy a birthday than on a bike tour?

Leaving Sequim and riding west, we soon came to Railroad Bridge Park. This park has preserved one of the nicest railroad trestle bridges. It crosses over the Dungeness River.

The rest of the ride into Port Angeles was on ODT dedicated bike trails. There was some steep but short up and down hills, which made me wonder if we were exactly following an old railroad route. Maybe there used to be bridges which no longer exist. We saw other cyclists on the trail, but most were not carrying any gear, so it seemed unlikely that they were doing the whole ODT.

At the Port Angeles Safeway market we picked up some filet mignon for the evening meal. But at the AirBnB, we discovered that the BBQ was out of propane. I contacted the host of the AirBnB and within 15 minutes she had arrived and provided us with a full gas canister. Crisis averted!

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June 24 maps

This map shows the first 15 miles of this day's ride. The stretch along 104 was noisy with traffic and it rained on us.

The next map shows the ODT route that we took into Sequim. This section is mostly on dedicated bike trail, which was nice. (The map also shows the warning that Rte 20, on the east side of Discovery Bay, is narrow and dangerous and should be avoided, which is why we took route 104 to Discovery Bay.)

This map shows the ride from Sequim into Port Angeles. The stretches in green, which is almost the entire path, are dedicated bike trail.

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June 24 photographs

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June 24 video

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June 25: Forks

65 miles, 144 miles trip total

Today was a longer ride - 65 miles with 2500' of elevation gain. But the weather was superb, so the cycling was enjoyable. We left Port Angeles at 8:30 AM, an early-ish start for a long day. Stopped in at the Blackberry Cafe for coffee, and then - properly fueled - took a low-traffic road up and over a hill that put us at the entrance to the Lake Crescent trail (this section of the ODT is called the Spruce Trail).

The north shore of spectacular Lake Crescent is a paved bicycle trail. With the sunshine we enjoyed, the scenery was terrific as we rode along. This was my favorite portion of the entire trip. The lake water was a gorgeous turquoise color, and there was no wind, so no ripples disturbed the surface. There are two short railroad tunnels along the bike trail before it begins a long steady climb up a shallow grade. There was a picnic table at the top of climb where we ate lunch.

After lunch, we crossed the 101 and rode a dedicated bike path through a forest. The ODT must be brand new, because the despite the many trees lining the trail, there were no roots thrusting up through the pavement, which was completely smooth. It was also mostly downhill, so it was easy miles.

The last 12 miles into Forks are on the 101. The wind was in our face, and there were some hills, but we rolled into town and found our AirBnB, where we would stay for the next two nights. That evening we watched The Life of Brian.

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June 25 maps

As the color coding on this map reveals, we had to ride on the shoulder of some roads leaving Port Angeles. But once we reached the shore of Lake Crescent, we were again on dedicated bicycle trails. This first shows the ride to the halfway point to Forks; the ODT crosses the 101 on the far left of the map.

Here is the second half of the route, showing the ride to Forks and then all the way down to the Pacific shore. We stopped in Forks.

This profile plot shows that the ODT climbs leaving Port Angeles until the 101 crossing, and then descends down to Forks and Rhialto Beach.

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June 25 photographs

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June 25 video

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June 26: Forks

33 miles, 177 miles trip total

Today was our rest day. We hung around the AirBnB all morning because the forecast said that the morning rain might lessen by the afternoon. Breakfast was French toast, scones and bacon. We packed up some sandwiches for lunch and headed out at about 11 for the ride down to Rialto Beach. We didn't get far before the light rain picked up. For the rest of the day this light drizzle continued to fall.

We took a group photo at the Olympic National park entrance sign, then pedaled down to the shore. A thick grey mist hung over the Pacific Ocean, so we did get to enjoy much scenery. We ate our lunch sitting on some giant driftwood logs. On the ride back to Forks, Ramone got a flat tire.

In Forks, we stopped at the Thriftway for dinner supplies. As we locked up our bikes, out of the store came Keith Kelly and his wife Cheryl. It was quite a surprise to see him in this remote corner of the US. Funny coincidence that we would happen to be at the same grocery store at the same time.

We took advantage of the washer and dryer in the AirBnB to clean and dry all of our bike clothes. Tomorrow we start the ride back to Seattle.

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June 26 maps

It was a short trip from the AirBnB down to the National Park and back.

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June 26 photographs

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June 26 video

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June 27: Port Angeles

65 miles, 242 miles trip total

It was raining lightly when we left Forks at about 8:15. Our route was the reverse of the ride we did coming into Forks. The first 12 miles were along the 101 until we got to the tiny town of Beaver. The others stopped for coffee, but I kept going - this was the uphill stretch of today's ride. I didn't see another car or cyclist the rest of the way as I rode along Mary road, and then on the paved ODT trail through the forest. I crossed the 101 and reached the picnic table. Lance, Ramone and Keith caught up just five minutes later.

After lunch, we rolled down the Spruce Trail to Lake Crescent. I was surprised at how long a downhill the slope was; it didn't seem like so much of a climb coming up from the lake shore. We quickly found ourselves back down at the lake shore, but today the wind was blowing, making big waves across the lake, and the overcast skies made the lake water look dark.

We were almost back to the Port Angeles AirBnB when my front tire got trapped in a rut in the road. The handlebars spun violently and pitched me over the top. I got some bruises, but the real damage was to my front wheel, which was badly warped. Only by releasing the front brakes could I slowly pedal it into Port Angeles. Miraculously, there was a bike shop in Port Angeles with a bike mechanic who thought he could pound the wheel straight enough that it could be ridden. After a lot of hammering and spoke adjusting, he managed to make the wheel rideable again! The wheel held up for the rest of the tour.

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June 27 photographs

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June 27 video

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June 28: Port Gamble

65 miles, 307 miles trip total

We were out the door today by 8 AM because we had a lot of miles and elevation to ride - 65 miles and 3100' of elevation gain. My repaired front wheel held up, and soon I forgot to worry about whether it would collapse. The route was the same ODT path we had come in on. For some reason, it seemed like there was more uphill heading east. It took us forever to reach Blyn, the 25 mile mark of the ride. We picked up some food in Sequim (and also stopped for coffee there). Ramone got a flat as we left town.

The two big hills on 104 seemed even higher in this direction. After we rode over the floating Hood Canal Bridge, we stopped for a while in Port Gamble to get some beer. The AirBnB was just a few miles south of there, we rolled in at 5 PM, so it was a long day for us.

After cooking up some tortellini for dinner, we sat out on the deck and looked at the Puget Sound. A bald eagle flew past, so that was neat to see.

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June 28 photographs

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June 29: Seattle

45 miles, 352 miles trip total

Another early start for us - we were on the road by 8 AM. We headed south away from Port Gamble. We could have taken a much shorter route back to Shoreline via the Kingston / Edmonds ferry, but it looked like the weather would be nice all day, and my damaged front wheel was holding up just fine. So we decided to ride south. We were looking for Lincoln Road, which would have taken us into Poulsbo for a breakfast spot. Somehow we missed Lincoln. However, at the Suquamish Casino, we found a nice place called the Beach Glass Cafe and ate a hearty breakfast there.

After breakfast we pedaled across Bainbridge Island. The Seattle Ferry took us across to downtown, and soon I was on familiar turf, riding the same route that I take on my bike commutes to work. We got back my house in Shoreline around 2 PM. Another successful bike tour. Lance went to Mass, Keith's son Matt came and picked him up, and Ramone and I went out for an early dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. Already I was plotting a trip for next year.

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June 29 maps

Our roundabout way back to Shoreline had us meandering south, crossing most of Bainbridge Island, and then taking the ferry to downtown Seattle. After riding through downtown, we got onto the famous Burke-Gilman bike trail and rode home.

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June 29 photographs

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June 29 video

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Expenses

Here is the final tally for all the money spent on this trip. Less than $900 each, plus plane fare. It turned out that we only had to pay for the ferry crossing of the Puget Sound in the westbound direction, it was free for the crossing back to Seattle.