We’re on the home stretch of this journey. Leaving Quinault and the Olympics behind us this morning, it feels like its best days of the tour are behind us. Our thoughts are starting to look ahead to our return home - wondering what our new Airbnb will be like, wondering what is showing at the movie houses, looking forward to reuniting with friends, and even thinking ahead to planning for the start of our next tour: we leave for Santiago de Campostela in just over a month, so we’ll have a typically full agenda when we hit town.
First though, we have a longish final leg of the trip to blast through - 220 miles in four days, including two sixty mile days - the longest ones of the tour. Today’s is the easiest - a simple 44 mile ride straight south to Aberdeen on Grays Harbor. It’s also perhaps the least interesting day of the tour, with few noteworthy sights along the way. Just miles of highway riding through second growth forests and scruffy farmlands, really. With the threat (and a few times the reality) of rain, there’s no real reason to slow down. The big event of the ride is the stop in Humptulips to sit on their sheltered bench and wait out a brief burst of rain.
And not that much reason to spend more time writing about the day either, really. See you tomorrow.
Waiting for breakfast, Rachael enjoys her first caffeine infusion of the day. She usually speed-drinks her first cup to get it percolating through her system quickly.
Bruce LellmanI love the front yard of this lodge. I stayed here with my sister years ago and it remains a fond memory for both of us. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
Leaving the lake, the roadside woods are brightened by wild hydrangeas. Are these native here? I recall seeing them grow prolifically on the eastern side of the peninsula also.
On Highway 101 again, heading south toward Grays Harbor. We’re outside the national park now, but still within the national forest. The next ten miles all look like this, with the roads lined by uniform replanted forest. Easy riding, but just a bit monotonous.
We’ve passed the summit of Quinault Ridge now and are on the long, imperceptible descent to Grays Harbor. Still not much traffic, and we’ve picked up an excellent shoulder.
As we approach Humptulips, a brief spell of rain encourages us to stop at the only store we’ll see all day for a nutritious snack. I’m glad, because it lets me bring the curious name of this village into the journal.
From Wikipedia: "The name comes from a local Native American language, meaning 'hard to pole', referring to the difficulty local Native Americans had poling their canoes along the Humptulips River.[5] According to other sources the word means 'chilly region'."
The Wishkah River, just north of Aberdeen. Seventeen miles from Aberdeen, we face a choice - just continue on 101 all the way to town, with its traffic and good shoulder, or take a chance on the backroads? We chose the backroads, and regretted it - too narrow, too busy, a gravel shoulder, and chip seal. Next time we’d just stick with the highway.
Otters again! The highlight of our day, we followed them upstream for about fifteen minutes as they repeatedly dived under and resurfaced with a fish in their mouth.
It’s so great to have seen these twice now on this trip. The first time, in Port Townsend, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing at first; but this time they were instantly recognizable by their distinctive behavior.
A nice bar with a bit of character, including some vintage nudes and glamour portraits mixed in with the beer posters. Reminds me just a bit of the Baldwin Saloon in The Dalles.
Ride stats today: 44 miles, 1,400’; for the tour: 988 miles, 48,100’
Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km) Total: 988 miles (1,590 km)
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Suzanne GibsonNice to hear that you will soon be back in the Old Country! Your travels in North America are impressive, but somehow I am biased to European cycling. Reply to this comment 5 years ago
