Day 2, Port to Port

 Yesterday we biked from Seattle to Port Townsend and today we head west on the Olympic Peninsula to Port Angeles. Which is almost directly west of Port Townsend. Whereas yesterday's route was mostly north south, today's route will travel from East to West. If you look at the map closely, you will see at today's route follows bike routes more often than not. A nice change from yesterday where we often shared the roads with cars. 

Before we joined the route, Brooke took several of us on a tour of Port Townsend. A quaint town with brick multi-story building lining the main thoroughfare. We stopped at the marina at the far end of the street to enjoy some espresso and bakery goods. We had just left the hotel's breakfast, but to have some really good coffee and bakery goods was truly worth the stop.

Next to the coffee shop (Velocity) are boat works that specialize in wood boat construction. We were there before they were open, so we peered through the windows and saw many gorgeous wooden boats undergoing repairs, reimbursement and  construction. We'll be returning to Port Townsend latter in our tour. I'll make it a point to investigate Port Townsend at that time. Hopefully when the business is open.

If you look at the map below, you will see that the first 5 miles were on unpaved trails. The surface was hard packed earth and our bikes, even with skinny tires, was easy to ride on. The morning air was cool in the upper 50's, just perfect for biking. 

We reached the lunch stop at John Wayne Marina (34 miles) in pretty short order. Rick was there with the Penske truck and had lunch all laid out. There was plenty of shade and the view of the water was wonderful to look at and we probably stayed longer than necessary. There really wasn't a need to hurry, it was only 1 PM and we only had 22 miles to Port Angeles so there wasn't a reason to lollygag a bit more.

After lunch, the afternoon winds had picked up a bit and became, slowing our progress. Speed was not essential as we had plenty of time to spare. The winding bike trail became a rail-to-trails bike path. As I have mentioned previously, rail-to-trails are former right-of-ways of former train lines. They are often straight and occasionally gentle curves and ascents and descents. The trails today were lined with trees that blunted the headwinds. The remaining breezes were cool, almost to the point of requiring jackets.

As we got close to Port Angeles, we mistakenly deviated from route, some less informed people may have said that we got lost, however, we found our way on to a gorgeous bike path that hugged the shore all the way into town. 

 

We're looking forward to tomorrow where we will be climbing to Hurricane Ridge to a ski area before turning around to return to the ferry landing to catch the late afternoon ferry to Victory BC.

There will be more fun to come

Today's Photos

Brian