by Philip

Day’s mileage : 48

Running total : 425

We woke this morning to another beautiful sunny day to start our second week of cycling. It feels as if we’ve got our morning routine sorted now, but it still takes us a little over three hours to have breakfast, make lunch, pack our bags, get everything onto the bikes, cable-tie the wayward panniers onto the racks, check we haven’t left anything and depart. After the obligatory photo in front of the apartment, we listened to a very loud argument between two dog owners and headed through Aberdeen. One motorist blared his horn coming up behind and passing us – we have no idea if it was his idea of being friendly, or whether he just doesn’t like cyclists. Having crossed the river and railroad tracks we turned off onto a delightful little trail which meandered through an area of junior league baseball grounds, and we were greeted by several other cyclists. 

From the trail we were back on the US101 which was much quieter today as it’s Sunday. Much of the route continued through forests, with frogs ribbeting, unseen animals rustling through the undergrowth and the ubiquitous American robins flying to and fro. We passed a restaurant offering home made ham soup and ice cream. At a sign declaring we were entering Pacific County we felt we were getting closer to the ocean. We made our first stop by the roadside after 18 miles, a standing snack stop – not least because there were a lot of very large ants milling around our feet. 

As we entered the town of Raymond, we saw several rusted steel sculptures, and found our way to a small grocery store – similar to the one in Forks where there were no prices. Liz did the shopping, but didn’t get everything we needed … then as we got a bit further through the town we found a much larger supermarket. From there we found another trail, and had a lovely lunch on a bench overlooking the tidal Willapa river, with small and large oystercatcher-like birds, herons and a couple of eagles circling above. It was sunny but chilly.

After lunch we rejoined the highway and went into South Bend, with multiple fishing businesses along the road. Here we had to choose between a route inland (quieter road) or to stay on the 101 along the coast. We chose the latter, and were immediately rewarded by a dead straight 2 miles of road with a ferocious headwind. The scenery was very different to the last few days, much more open, with muddy wetlands and mudflats, and the promising smell of the sea. After the straight piece of road we turned south, which was much easier riding. It was hilly here, but we got our first glimpses of the Pacific Ocean.

Finally turning off the 101 we rode across a “dike”, into an even stronger headwind, and passed some oyster fisheries (a major industry here), with huge piles of old oyster shells piled up. We learned later that these will be put into sacks along with oyster larvae and returned in cages to the sea to grow before being harvested. Oysters really aren’t our thing … and we have not been tempted to try any, although this would probably be a good place to do so!

Tonight we have a wooden cabin on a Kampsites of America (sic) camp ground. It was expensive – there was little choice when we booked it – and we were rather surprised at the $50 additional fee for linen! As I write this Liz is cooking a frittata for dinner, after which we walked a few hundred yards to the sea to see the sunset – a fitting end to a lovely day.