Day 7 - Toledo, WA to Cathlamet, WA

42 miles gingerly ridden today and 40ish more to go to Astoria. The beautiful state of Washington has almost been conquered! I have a ridiculous view of the Columbia River from my campsite tonight. Above is a massive logging ship that passed by earlier, and I’m told by my neighbor here in camp that if it were loaded the red part of the boat would be fully submerged. Aside from barges you can also spot seals and other wildlife out on the river. It’s a real nice spot to spend my final night in Washington. From what I’ve been hearing this state was my warmup ride and shit’s about to get real on the Oregon Coast. I’m really hoping that the knee will cooperate and be ready for the challenge after the Wednesday rest day.

Day 6 - Elma, WA to Toledo, WA

Today I made my first 70 mile ride, and while I feel accomplished it’s going to be the last of that distance until I can get this knee healthy. I waited until I hit Centralia this morning at about 35 miles in to have breakfast. Nothing majorly wrong until that point, but since I felt it beginning to flare-up I popped into a store and bought a knee brace hoping it would help. It seemed to make walking less painful, but riding worse. An hour later I ended up removing it and taking a long roadside rest before even attempting to ride again. It took me a total of 7 hours in saddle to make the miles after starting the day with a much faster pace and then limping along the rest of the way. I finally made a point to fill up a zip-lock with ice on my way into camp tonight and I should have been doing this for the past few days. It’s 80 miles from here to Astoria, OR and I’m just going to chop that up into two days and see if that helps. At this point it’s also probably looking like a rest day in Astoria would be a solid idea. This knee issue stems from a running injury last October, but they have a great bike shop in town and a fitting adjustment is on my agenda just in case. On a positive note I came across another one of my favorite road signs and discovered what 40mph feels like on a bicycle!

Day 5 - Belfair, WA to Elma, WA

The weekend is here and the parks are starting to get busier.  I met a nice group of RV’ers from Tacoma that I sat around the fire with before crashing last night.  This morning was the coldest of the trip thus far, and to get out of the tent I had to take a caffeine pill then scamper to the heated bathroom to put on every layer I had.  After that of course the morning ritual of breaking down camp and then I was off and pedaling by 7am.  Steady hills greeted me for the 30 miles from Belfair to Shelton. With Shelton being the biggest town of the day I’d hoped for something better, but with Dairy Queen the only spot open in town I settled for it.  After lunch I had 26 more miles to get to Elma and thankfully they were almost Florida flat because my knee was barking.  It actually hurts more to walk than to pedal which is good...I guess?  I’m staying in Elma RV Park tonight and was greeted with homemade chocolate chip cookies that they give to all their cycling guests.  Awesome spot with clean facilities and laundry machines which comes at a convenient time with zero clean clothes left in the panniers.  56 miles down today and it’s looking like tomorrow will be another 60 or so to make it into Toledo.

Day 4 - Poulsbo, WA to Belfair, WA

The abbreviated day I needed yesterday culminated into a 40 mile ride for me today.  Aches and pains are present in both legs as I work to whip them into touring shape.  I was hoping for an easy recovery day today and ended up actually getting it!  The weather was cold and the threat of rain hung in the sky all day, but I stayed dry.  No headwinds to speak of with plenty of flat riding and way more downhill coasts with easy-graded climbs.  Knowing I’d be taking a breather today I ate a big breakfast at a cafe and sat around for an hour drinking coffee.  I opened my banking app and found a branch nearby and rode over to withdrawal some cash.  I had lost my debit card right before beginning the trip, and while explaining this to the teller was delighted to find out they could print me a new one in house while I waited.  Pretty cool!  

Ten miles out from where I’m staying tonight in Belfair State Park I finally found someone else riding a bike with a bunch of stuff strapped to it.  I’ve been wondering where my touring brethren are as at this point on my last trip I’d already met quite a few.  This, however, was no ordinary encounter as this was “SuperDave”.  This old fella has been riding up and down the Pacific Coast for the last 15 years!  I’d seen mention of him in multiple touring blogs I’d read in planning for this tour.  He’s undoubtably met thousands of cycle tourists over the years.  We chatted for about 20 minutes before heading on down the road.  He told me to tell his friends in Monterey when I get there that he is doing okay.  I’m not sure who exactly I’m supposed to tell this to, but maybe I’ll find out?  Anyway, early to bed tonight in hopes of healing the ailments.  Happy Friday to all, and of course “May the 4th be with you”.

Day 3 - Anacortes, WA to Poulsbo, WA

Have you ever thought about what your favorite road sign is?  After today I sure as shit know mine.  I was up early again and back in the saddle by around 7:30.  I’m starting to recall certain elements from my previous tour, and the biggest one that came to me today is that the first 5 miles in the morning are always the worst.  Joints are clicking and muscles are burning.  Every part of your body except (maybe) your brain are just asking what was so bad about that warm cozy sleeping bag you so readily abandoned?  As such, yea, I had difficulty getting going and had rapidly resolved to stopping at a county park 40 miles away.  27 miles in I arrived at the ferry that goes from Whidbey Island to Port Townsend at around 10:30. The next boat didn’t leave for a bit and I ended up losing over 2 hours before reaching Port Townsend. 

Getting back to pedaling I spent the next hour on a reinvigorating bike path that ended just shy of the originally planned campsite.  Aside from the obvious physical stressors of riding I also find it draining to constantly be looking up at the helmet mirror making sure death isn’t headed for you.  Feeling strong I pressed on across 22 more miles of rolling “gentle” hills as the lady at the grocery store phrased it.  Not so much.  I did finally make it into Kitsap State Park for the evening where I treated myself to a double shower.  I’ll explain my comedy of errors I’ve had with Washington State Park’s shower token system another time.  62 miles today!

Day 2 - Birch Bay, WA to Anacortes, Wa

Today ended up being a pretty early test of will after starting off smoothly.  In making every effort to avoid getting stuck with the rest of the bill for last night’s campsite I was packed up and back on the road by 7am this morning.  By 9:30 I had made it 25 miles into Bellingham. I hadn’t had anything for breakfast and was starving by then.  I ended up raiding a grocery store for a chicken samosa, two donuts, and a cup of coffee.  One of the perks to bike touring is throwing calories straight out the window because the furnace is hot, and anything will burn.  Following breakfast/lunch I pushed on into 15 miles of rolling hills, spending much of this time alternating between 5mph and 25mph.  Pretty views helped ease the burden as I traveled along the Puget Sound.  I unfortunately had my right knee start chirping a bit later in the day so I’ll need to make sure to monitor that. All in all it was a 64 mile day that brought me into Deception Pass State Park for the evening.

Day 1 - Vancouver, BC to Birch Bay, WA

The trip officially got underway today with a 59 mile ride from Vancouver to Birch Bay State Park.  I left the hotel around 8am, grabbed my final Tim Hortons meal of the trip, and biked the 3 miles to the official starting point shown on my map. After that today was all about wrong turns and correcting them. Cycling through big cities is exciting, but following directions with frequent turns is difficult to do without stopping too often.  There was also a detour with very poor signage for the bridge pictured below that I wasted a nice chunk of time chasing down.  Arriving at the border around 2pm I attempted to ride through the vehicle checkpoint, but was ushered to the pedestrian pass through which meant having to park the bike, go inside, and wait 20 minutes for them to have an available agent to check my passport. All good - they were friendly and let me grab a selfie before riding back into the USA.  Here in Birch Bay I was expecting hiker/biker campsites, but the self-checkin signs stated the cheapest site was $25. I tried calling the number that was posted to ask about the $12 dollar sites I saw online but the number was disconnected. As a result, I grabbed a $35 site and slipped $15 into the envelop. The park is virtually empty so hopefully nothing will backfire there.