Port Townsend to Belfair

We had a wonderful evening with Patti and Dave sitting by the water drinking port and eating s’mores.  Patty had a great variation to the traditional recipe by offering a choice of Herseys with almonds, Reese’s peanut butter cups, or a Heath bar.  Great way to end our rest day.

After a solid nights sleep 💤 in the chicken coop, we woke on Monday morning and it was back to work (not!).  After a hearty home cooked breakfast, we packed our stuff (so far we haven’t left anything important) and we were on the road again.🎶

It was a beautiful sunny morning although it feels more like fall than summer. We woke up to temperatures in the high forties, but most of our riding this week will be in the 50’s and 60’s.  That means taking off a layer on the climbs and then putting it back on for the descents.  It looks like rain is coming in this weekend just as we are crossing into Oregon.  We’ll deal with that when it comes.

About 18 miles in we had to cross the Hood Canal on the 4th longest floating bridge in the world.  I had read that the bridge had a open metal grating for driving on, and had no information about whether there was any shoulder for safety.  The metal grating can be especially treacherous on a bike with skinny tires so I had some concerns.  However, what we found was a wide shoulder with a mat laid down the entire mile and a half for bicycles to ride on.  Thank you Washington Highway Department.

As I mentioned earlier, one key to each day’s ride was finding a local place for a snack about 20 miles in.  However, on this morning we found ourselves at 20 miles in the middle of nowhere and 15 miles to the next town.  JD was complaining and started to look at her contract terms.  However, just around the curve at 22 miles we ran into this place.  I don’t know if it’s always there or just put there for us, but it was a welcome treat.  No only was the coffee great, they offered a variety of muffin tops (truly the filet of the muffin).  They probably got this business idea from Kramer on Seinfeld, but I always loved the idea and this saved me the trouble of beheading my muffin and throwing away the muffin butt.

It was our longest day with 57 miles and 3,600 feet of climbing.  We took a last break at 50 miles as we were getting a little tired and our feet were burning.  However, when we got back on the bikes we both took off and blasted into town in no time.  Those mystery power surges are great when they happen.

JD has decided to contribute to the blog.  Apparently as she is blasting down the road she is thinking in terms of Haiku.  So she will be providing her Haiku impressions of the days ride.  Here are her Haikus from the rides to date.  Note that for the first three days she thought the sounds were arranged in a 3, 5, 3 format.  However, over the weekend she found out that it needed to be 5, 7, 5, unless of course she writes them in Japanese and the translates them to English. The meter might then be variable.