Riding the Olympic Peninsula

We left Seattle and decided to take the ferry across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island. The ferry ride was cold, but fun. Seeing the Seattle skyline fading away from the ferry really made the reality of the trip feel more immediate. We wandered around above decks a little bit, but spent the majority of the ride with the bikes. We arrived shortly thereafter on Bainbridge and began riding North on the Olympic Peninsula.

The day was partly cloudy, so bright sunshine was interspersed with rain, fog, and sleet. It was mostly nice though, and we rode through some beautiful forests and twisties up in the the Coastal Range. Eventually we decided it was time to find a place to camp after about 280 miles. The first place we tried didn't feel very welcoming so we went to a campground across the road and found a site where we could hear the ocean. There were a couple of very buff young guys there who came over and talked with us as we set up our campsite. They were trying to do the Washington trifecta, downhill skiing, surfing, and mountain biking all in one day. They were a lot of fun to talk to. Nice kids.

While I set up the tent, my husband put his bike on firewood duty and went and bought us a couple bundles of firewood. We put tarps over our bikes, and put the helmets under the tarp. We thought we were being overly cautious. It won't rain, just look at all the stars... We had zipped our sleeping bags together, but soon realized that the bags zipped together created an open tunnel that allowed the cold air to get in all the way to our feet. It didn't take too long for us to zip apart and zip back up individually. The next morning we woke to rain and 38 degrees. Fortunately it soon cleared off and started warming up. By the time we had broken camp and gotten packed it was a wonderful sunny spring morning. We rode along the Washington and Oregon Coast down to Florence about 300 miles for the day. Next up: Oregon Coast and the Redwoods