Grayland to South Bend

Monday 13th May 2013

We left Grayland with wet roads and the constant threat of more rain. On the way out of the Walsh Motel we came across A six inch long banana slug. The coin next to it is a penny. Gross.

Graylands's most famous resident.

The plan was to ride to South Bend and stay at the Russell House but apparently the house was now privately owned so we took another gamble and reserved a room at the Seacrest Motel in South Bend. The ride was only 30 miles but we had the option of continuing south past South Bend as far as we wanted and then doubling back. Unfortunately the skies opened when we were still five miles from South Bend so we opted to keep the ride as short as possible.

The Seacrest Motel is as different from the Walsh Motel as you can imagine (except they were the same price). The owner is a retired commercial construction worker who rebuilt the rooms one at a time. The craftsmanship and care he took is obvious. This motel is a winner. They don't have laundry facilities for the guests but we were allowed to use their commercial washer and driers. They even gave me laundry detergent for free.

After a few hours the rain died down and we were able to take a stroll along the ocean front and grab some coffee.

There are many interesting things to look at in South Bend

We rode 35 miles today and got rained on but it was a good day none the less.

Shelton to Grayland

Sunday May 12th 2013

From Shelton to Grayland we started on the 101 again but turned off onto some quieter roads to head towards Aberdeen. Unlike last time I made a concerted effort not to pass through Aberdeen which is very bike unfriendly.

These back roads were even more scenic than the 101 with some truely amazing views.

Somewhere east of Aberdeen WA

The weather turned bad in Cosmopolis and we had light to moderate rain for the last 20 miles of the trip so we were both soaked when we got to Grayland. Although I like this area of WA there are no motel chains here so it's always a gamble when you book a motel room.

We stayed at the Walsh Motel in Grayland. Big mistake for several reasons. First, this is a grotty motel. There are rooms near the road and more rooms a quarter mile down a driveway. Our room was down the driveway. The rooms are poorly constructed with amateurish workmanship. The only redeeming feature of the room was a fireplace with a bundle of firewood.

There was a washing machine - heavily corroded - but the dryer was broken. I had to ride back up to the main office in heavy rain to get laundry detergent and quarters for the washer. While I was there I rode next door to a poorly stocked and expensive grocery store to get some food for the night.

We showered and changed into dry clothes then dumped all our wet gear into the washing machine. While it was running we cooked up the groceries (bacon and eggs, they were out of bread!). Then we set up chairs in front of the heater vents and draped our laundry in front of them. We put our soaked shoes inside the fireplace and lit a fire. If that hadn't worked I would have microwaved them.

Drying shoes inside the fireplace

By careful monitoring we managed to get everything dried by the morning.

Sequim to Shelton

Saturday May 11th 2013

Rode from Sequim to Shelton WA. Generally quiet roads with lots of scenery. The climb out of Sequim was pretty brutal as was the climb out of Quilcene. Stopped for coffee in Quilcene which has deteriorated even further from when I was last there. The Quilcene Inn is out of business.

Riding along the 101 South of Quilcene.

The scenery along this stretch is pretty impressive and the 101 is still a nice road to cycle along. Logging trucks were noticably absent for some reason.

Rode 84 miles with some pretty big hills. Stayed at the Super8 here in Shelton.

Dungeness Point

Friday May 10th 2013

Today we rode from Sequim to Dungeness Point, hiked along the point, and back to Sequim.

Google cycling layer tried to take us through private property. I was able to use my Garmin to find the correct route to the spit.

Since we were last there the WA parks have built a nice little trail head staffed by volunteers. It now costs a few dollars to use the park but it was worth it to me to have somewhere to lock the bikes up where someone would be keeping an eye on them.

The weather was overcast and cold but still dry.

 

Eating lunch on Dungeness Spit

We carried a water bottle and some lunch, walked out in our cycling shoes for two hours and ate. The spit is 11 miles out and back and we walked 6.7 miles in total. We stayed at the same Econolodge in Sequim.

Total riding and walking was about 30 miles.

Victoria to Sequim

Thursday 9th May 2013

We rode the Galloping Goose trail from Victoria to Sooke and back.It's mainly hard packed dirt with some lightly gravelled sections. Lots of road crossings some of which are quiet dangerous. I remembered from last time that the trail ends at a campsite with no water and we came close to running out. This time I planned on shopping at a store but when we got there it had gone and had to backtracked to a Shell station to get food and water. They had a picnic table outside we could eat at. They had real English smarties which were a real treat for me.

On the way out we ran into some workers doing preventative maintenance on the trail. One of them offered us donuts. I was starving and snagged one. It was delicious. That was pretty cool.

Bridge over the Galloping Goose trail on Vancouver Island

We got to the ferry two hours early so we locked our bikes up outside (in case of bombs) and went into Victoria to buy some gelato and socks.

We got to Port Angeles around 5:30 and then through immigration. There is a bike path from Port Angeles to Sequim that is awesome although there are some very steep hills on it that are particularly tough with baggage on the bike. Most of it is flat, well paved, and has a tailwind. All of it has spectacular views of either the ocean or the mountains.

Bike path from Port Angeles to Sequim

Arrived in Sequim (pronounced SQUIM) around 7pm at Econolodge, did laundry, showered, and ordered Domino's.

Rode 74 miles, another border crossing, another ferry ride.

Bellingham to Victoria

Wednesday 8th May 2013

Rode from Bellingham to Victoria today. Birch Bay was as lovely as usual. We snagged some coffee at one of the many coffee huts dotted around WA and OR.

Drinking coffee at the small coffee huts was always fun.

We ate pizza in Birch Bay and then went over the border at the Peace Arch. Weather was cool but dry.

Mud Bay and Boundary Bay bike paths are pretty but quite gravelly for narrow tires.

We didn't have time for gelato at the Twassen ferry terminal because it took 10 minutes to pay for the tickets :-( Several other cyclists were on the ferry too including a self-supporting, ragged teenager who kept joking he was going to steal our stuff. Kept a close eye on him.

Rode to Victoria on the Lochside trail. It's mainly paved with some easy unpaved sections. It's hard to follow though - each intersecton we had to stop and locate the next section of the trail.

Amber on the Lochside trail

Nice Super8 motel. This was originally a fairly high-end hotel that ended up as part of the Super8 chain. It's close to the bike path so there's only about a mile of downtown riding required to get there.

Rode about 88 miles today. One border crossing, one ferry ride.

cycling in Portland

Monday 6th May 2013

I still don't know if Portland is bicycle friendly or not. Some streets have nice bike lanes while others have killer tram tracks just where the cyclists need to ride. Then there's the crazy one way system that my Garmin has no clue about. The number of times I could see where I wanted to go but couldn't find a street to take me there.

For a city with so much heavy industry, Portland is quite bike friendly. But I think its claim to be Bike City USA is lame. Eugene, just a few miles to the south is much more bike friendly.

Ate at same Subway we did two years ago.

Forest park is really cool. It's about 15 miles end to end and generally very rideable even on skinny tires. Rode about 30 miles out and back.

Forest Park, Portland, OR

Took the train up to Bellingham. Racks in the baggage car are so much more civilized than those damnable boxes. Got to Bellingham about 9pm and rode a few miles to the Motel6 on Byron.