Deer on the Highway

Getting ready 


I think that post has had one too many tandems leant against it!

The Port Townsend ferry 

Deer in the boatyard 

View from our balcony 

We were up early this morning to get the 07:15 boat to Port Townsend. The 7km ride down to the ferry dock was cool but it was nice when the sun came up. Steve got a discount for being 65 – i had to pay full whack cos I’m only 64 – not that anyone checked. It was as cheap as chips anyway!

Riding out of Port Townsend, while we were still on the edge of town, I noticed some deer looking a bit lost over on the far side of the highway. All the traffic pulled up, including us, to let them cross – a doe and two very lovely fawns.  A very short way further on we saw three more in a boatyard.

Our daily gravel came in the form of the Olympic Discovery Trail – apparently this runs for 135 miles – thankfully we only did a few miles of it and i won't be sorry if we don't come across it again.

After that it’s been a mix of fairly quiet back roads plus a busier section to get us across the long bridge near Port Gamble.

Our motel for tonight is about a dozen notches up on last night’s. We have a lovely spacious room, a shower rather than a dribble, a coffee maker and a balcony with a view. We just have to be careful not to get oil on the curtains or upholstery because we paid another $100 deposit.

Today we covered 101km with 965m of ascent but 9km was the ferry ride so we only cycled 92km (i don't think there was any ascent on the ferry!). We are staying at Bremerton. 

In the morning we will be heading.... let me check...oh yes - South!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Settling into it....

Image
Three pictures above taken while waiting for the Freemont lifting bridge to let a yacht out! I like to be able to keep an eye on the bike from my pit - it also gives me somewhere to hang my knickers to dry! The bike went together without problem this morning. Just two teething problems: rubbing in the front wheel turned out to be a loose brake block and gears playing up turned out to be because I had inadvertently squidged the gear cable when I put Steve’s pannier on – both easily solved. It always takes a day or two to adjust to riding in a new place and today was no exception. Still, we are getting there – we successfully negotiated the busy Seattle dockside area and then worked our way right through downtown Seattle.  There have been a lot of dedicated traffic free cycleways, often the width of a Dorset lane. Although, many of them give the impression of riding through the backwoods, the sound of traffic has not often been far ...
Read more

At last - Tailwind!

Image
We soon lost the sun from the immediate surroundings of our lodge last night, so I trekked up to the viewpoint to put our washing in the sun - what better place to sit, chill and listen to American rock bands on my  phone 🙂. Looks like someone has banged in an abseil anchor - maybe their washing disappeared over the edge 😉 I had imagined I would see lots of sunsets over the ocean on this trip but we always seem to be in a restaurant or back from the coast in the evening .....finally!! I had to climb over the fence to get the shot, but it's OK, no-one was looking! We had a 'grab and go" breakfast included with our extremely expensive room. I'm bemused by their thought process - "these muffins are a bit expensive, let's cut them in half". Luckily I blagged double breakfast for Steve and I from the cleaning lady. The hilly stuff of yesterday continued for about 40km and then the coast flattened ou...
Read more

Interesting Folk

Image
I want one, only trouble is I doubt it manages 10mpg on a good day. In a similar vein, there was an old Airstream caravan in good condition but with ivy growing all over it in a garden near our motel.  A view upstream on a river we crossed - the view downstream was much the same but without the mountains as a backdrop! We passed the Naval Air Station at Ventura. They had obviously struggled to find a use for some old planes and missiles so they mounted them on the roadside for people to ogle at. A Phantom, I believe - takes me back to my airfix model building days. A F-14 Tomcat a la the original Top Gun movie. The whole display gave the birds somewhere to perch - as we pedalled away a crow landed on the sharp end of a Polaris missile 😉. Cycling on the bike path along the beach at Manhattan Beach. The dark spot just below centre frame is Steve and Karen on their fully loaded Co-Motion tandem. We chatted to them when we ca...
Read more