Another awesome day of bike touring. 30 miles of bike trail along Discovery Bay and more. Super hospitality by the Women on Wheles in Sequim, and the mayor and more of Port Angeles.
This would be a long day. I started out solo but ran into Lyle right away on the path heading out of town, just as he had stopped to take this picture of a family of otters heading back out into the water. The rain was long gone now and it was shaping up to be a gorgeous day.
We then had a highway or two to navigate before getting back out on some quiet back roads. That's where we saw the awesome Jefferson County fire station where we took a break. They had a beautiful antique fire truck inside, which I neglected to photograph. As usual at a fire house the firemen were friendly and happy to let us use the facilities and fill our water bottles. Lyle was wanting a longer break than I was so I jumped on with the next group of riders that came by. This proved to be a nice challenge as they were setting a good pace, but by day 4 of the tour my legs were feeling up for it.
After a few more back roads got to Blyn, we hit the crown jewel of this tour, the Olympic Discovery Trail, which would take us the rest of the way to Port Angeles. I can't rave enough about this trail. To be able to ride a long distance, away from the cars, and trough some beautiful woods was an amazing experience.
And while I'm talking about amazing experiences we had one waiting for us when we got to Sequim where the Women on Wheels club had setup a rest stop for us. How nice! They knew how many riders where coming and had a little packet of goodies for each one of us. Plus brownies, cookies, and watermelon! A perfect break as it was pretty warm now. They even provided us an escort out of town to get us back on route. Many thanks Women on Wheels, you made us feel right at home. I hope they decide to come ride through Corvallis one day and let us host them.
Pretty soon we were back on the Olympic Discovery Trail. This section of the trail crossed many streets and the trail heads were not always obvious. Many thanks to Tim for his excellent navigation skills on this section. On my own I would have missed the trail for sure. Tim also set a great pace. It was a spirited ride, augmented by some steep swoops down and up where they took out the railroad bridge and built the bike path along the contour of the land.
Eventually we found ourselves back on the waterfront as we approached PA (local vernacular for these two towns is PT and PA). When we ran into Lon along the waterfront we though it was beer time, but now we had a steep long climb to get up to the fairgrounds. Not satisfied with 70 miles I managed to ride right past the fairgrounds and had to back track. Oh well. once again we had great place to camp with an incredible view of the Olympics. After showers we all piled into the sag wagons and head to town for pizza and beer, hosted by the mayor, ex-mayor, and other very friendly people. Another awesome day of bike touring.