by Liz
Day’s mileage : 67
Running total : 328
It was another beautiful, sunny day today. Instead of riding 68 miles to Lake Quinault along the 101, which would have taken us out to the west coast at Ruby Beach, we decided to go up in the mountains and down the other side, a similar distance. It was an excellent route, forested, with spectacular views of the snow-covered Olympic range and virtually no traffic.
At one point we stopped and realised how silent it was. All we could hear was an insect buzzing and a low, resonant hooop-hooop sound, maybe a nearby bullfrog, or a distant elk (just guessing though, we had no idea). Exotic bird calls echoed around us so at times it sounded like we were in a jungle. We saw several golden eagles.
We were treated to our first elk sighting of the trip, a top highlight of the day. We didn’t see them among the trees at first, and our riding by disturbed them. We stopped and about ten of them trotted timidly out of the forest and across the road and disappeared again. Did I have my phone at the ready to capture the moment? Sadly not. Next time.
It was a long day’s ride but we made it to our cabin on Lake Quinault shortly after 5. Last night in Forks we were guests of the Quileute nation and tonight we’re guests of the Quinault nation, in the Olympic National Park. We’ve never been in a hot tub before and this was one to crown all hot tubs, with a lake view under the pure blue evening sky. It’s quite remote here and Philip bought us dinner at the local general store – possibly not gourmet but we’re so hungry it may well taste like the best thing we’ve ever eaten.
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