by Philip
Day’s mileage : 49
Running total : 377
Today was a shorter ride, as we headed south to Aberdeen for the first rest day of our trip. With a planned route of 49 miles, we left our cottage shortly after 10 – but not before a visit to the bench looking out over the lake. It was a beautiful sunny morning, with wispy cloud in the valley, and snow-capped mountains in the distance. The cottage’s location was amazing, and it had an interesting history, having been built on the other side of the lake and then transported across the water on a raft of logs and oil drums – it was a whole-community effort in 1966.
Riding up the north shore road, we passed a spruce with a diameter of roughly 8 feet, then a sign to the Olympic National Park, and after 3 miles joined US101 again – this time we had 26 miles on that road, which was reasonably quiet on the whole. We passed a sweet lilac-painted house which had two human-size minions outside it, and then a little later came across a house with a 5’ cockerel. We passed a man pulling a cart along the road containing what looked like his worldly goods – he gave a smile and a wave and we wondered what his story is.
At 12 noon, the promised rain arrived and was constant for the rest of the ride – not too heavy, but wet enough! We were glad of our carefully chosen wet weather gear and learned some valuable lessons about when to stop and put overshoes on (early!). As the logging trucks passed with their cargo of spruce and cedar the smell of newly cut wood wafted over us.
For much of this stretch, the road was straight, with miles of it visible in front of us – not particularly spectacular, with forest and areas of deforestation lining the route. Sometimes we had a shoulder to ride on, and at others we were just in the road. After the 26 miles we turned off onto a much quieter road, and a couple of miles on we found a spot under trees for lunch, sitting on mossy rocks and sheltering out of the rain. A few hundred yards after lunch I had to stop to record the minor milestone of 400 miles on the clock on my bike … not bad for 8 days!
From there we went through areas of homesteads and areas of forest and scrub. One thing I’ve noticed over the last few days is that where people have a reasonable amount of land, they simply dump their old cars and trucks … sometimes on the front lawn, just rusting away. Eyesores, but presumably cheaper than disposing of them away from the house.
Aberdeen welcomed us damply, living up to its Scottish roots, and after a warming bath we headed into town to buy food for the next 2 days … we are looking forward to a gentle, perhaps lazy, start tomorrow!
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