June 19, 2023
Day 3: Hostel not Hostile
Bike Trails and New Lodging Accommodations
Today is actually Tuesday, June 20; there was too much going on yesterday to blog, and we have changed our plans a bit, so sitting in the hostel writing is appropriate at the moment. The American Hotel in Seattle, which is part of Hostelling International, rocks by the way.
Let’s backtrack to yesterday. First, we left the Tacoma Holiday Inn Express at about 8:30 am. We had a pretty good sleep after arriving at the Tacoma Amtrak station at around 8:30 pm; yes, we lost two hours in Washington waiting for freight trains. Amtrak does not own its tracks, so freight has priority which means we had to back up a few times to allow freight to pass. Anyway, after assembling our gear pretty quickly, we had a short, easy ride to the hotel. I am glad Mike pick a closer hotel, which was more expensive, but the Motel Six would have been three miles away and riding on shoulder-less roads in the dark.
After a typical hotel breakfast, we departed and navigated our way on surface streets for a few miles through industrial areas to the Interurban Trail. This was really pleasant as it kept us off two-way streets without shoulders. The trail seemed somewhat remote at first with its shaded tree canopies, but soon turned into an urban trail in a railway corridor; still, pleasant compared to cars, traffic light stops, and complicated navigation. There was the, sadly, typical signs of urban decay: graffiti and signs of homelessness. I have been noticing more and more of societies’ homeless problem over the past few years; it has been really obvious and sad to see. I can expound on this for a while, but Mike really wants to get on the road by 9:00 am, so we can discuss this another time.
The Interurban Trail was mostly easy to follow. There were a few places where we crossed surface streets and it got complicated, but we figured it out. We were using Google Maps as the Garmin Route Finder was frozen for some reason. This trail then tuned into the Green River Trail which lead us to surface streets in Seattle; once in South Seattle, we rode with the cars as there were no bike lanes, but the streets had four lanes and Sharrows (bike sharing arrow signs which tell cars that bikes have the same right away as cars). We could tell Seattle drivers are comfortable with bikes on the roads and are not idiots like some areas we ride…This made me feel at ease. No hostile drivers on the way to the hostel.
The hostel! My goodness, what an amazing amenity; I wish there were more throughout the US. This was the cheapest accommodation we could find, and was it a find! It is really pretty comfortable; we have a private room, shared bath, lounge, communal kitchen, free towels, and a great location. This hostel is in the International District and is located close to other interesting areas. After storing our bikes in the basement, we showered and then headed out for an adventure:
- Seattle’s Best Boba ( Chewie will be jealous.)
- A walk to the Sound
- Dinner at Noi Thai ( amazing food we finished for breakfast)
- A walk through an Asian market food court (Uwajumaya; I would eat here if I wanted great inexpensive food; next time)
- Back to the hostel to research a new itinerary for a few days
The new itinerary became a thing because we decided that a 69 mile day with 5,821 fete of elevation in the rain carry our drinking and cooking water to a primitive campground was not a way we wanted to start the cross country journey, so now we have shortened it by 18 miles with 1,900 feet less climbing. We are still staying at another primitive campground where we need to carry our water and may be eating dinner in the rain, but se la vie when you are bike touring.
We have a couple primitive campgrounds and a remoteish state park over the next few days, so I may not be updating for a while.
Here begins the adventure!
Team Bean
Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 92 miles (148 km)
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