PC_Day3

Day 3

Tuesday, 1 June 2004
Anacortes, WA to Bremerton, WA
92.8 miles, 6h57m, 13.3 mph
Elapsed Time: 9h40m, Max speed: 38.1mph
Total Climbing: 5042ft, Max elevation: 447ft
Total mileage: 207.9

This was supposed to be a 100-mile day, but it turned out to be only 93 miles--we were very disappointed. Still it was another hard and exciting day of danger and thrills.

It was breezy and cold when we left Anacortes at about 7:45am. The wind was blowing out of the south, so it was a headwind. The forecast was for improving conditions as the day went on, ending with sunshine and warmer temperatures. After about 8 miles we reached Deception Pass, the inlet that separates Fidalgo Island from Whidbey Island. It is called Deception Pass because some guy thought that the island was a peninsula. You see he was "deceived." Hmm.

There's the bridge at Deception Pass.

We crossed the bridge on the sidewalk, which was kind of tricky since it was very narrow and there was traffic roaring by a couple of feet away. Then we walked back onto the bridge and took some pictures.

The view from the bridge.

The constricted sidewalk.

Linda pulled up in the Suburban before we left the parking area. She had been to the store and brought us Cliff Bars, Power Bars, and laundry detergent. We took the food and declined the soap. Then Linda took off for Olympic National Park and we continued south across Whidbey Island.

We rode by the Naval Air Station and into the Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve. There was no sign to indicate that we had entered a national reserve, and it was not immediately apparent what this park was about. We passed through Coupeville, the "Heart of the Reserve," but I didn't see anything worth photographing. Later I found out that the park has something to do with preserving the "Puget Sound way of life."

Apparently convenience stores are an important part of Puget Sound life, because we bought some sandwiches in Coupeville and carried them to the Keystone Ferry landing. As we rode up to the toll booth we could see that we had just missed a boat by about 3 minutes. Fortunately, there was only a half-hour wait until the noon boat, so we retired to a nearby park and ate part of our lunch.

JT eating lunch. He also photographed a seagull.

Our last ride on a Washington State Ferry was to Port Townsend. I read somewhere that Port Townsend was supposed to be a big port, and boosters built lots of buildings to support the anticipated prosperity. But then Seattle happened and P.T. dried up. Now it features a quaint 19th century downtown. Too bad we ate lunch on the boat, it looks like a good place to have lunch. By the way, when we landed at Port Townsend we returned to the mainland for the first time since Saturday, when we took the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo.

Port Townsend: A Great Place to Eat Lunch (if you didn't already eat on the boat)

We were very cold when we got off the ferry, but we warmed up quickly with the climbs outside of town. Then the clouds closed in and it started to rain, not hard, but steadily for about a half hour. Eventually the rain stopped and the skies cleared. The route was annoying because it ran along the shore and was constantly going up and down. I couldn't help thinking that things would have been easier if we had stayed on the main highway. The major roads in Washington all seem to have wide and smooth shoulders, although there is lots of high-speed traffic. The roads we were riding had rough surfaces, little or no shoulder, and high-speed traffic (but not as much).

It was on this stretch of road that JT was stung by a bee that hit him and got hung up in his jacket collar. Got him on the neck. It was convenient in a way because that turned out to be a good time to stop and take off our jackets. JT probably feels differently. A few miles later we passed within 10 feet of a deer that was just standing at the side of the road. It never moved. I would have taken a picture but I was on the phone talking to Linda. She had given up on Olympic National Park after driving 50 miles to the closest visitor center and discovering that she would have to drive further to reach anyplace worth hiking to. So, now she was driving back to Bremerton to check us in to the Best Western.

Our next death defying stunt was the crossing of the Hood Canal Bridge. This is a floating bridge that is in a constant state of construction while shoulders are added to the roadway. This project will be complete in 2007. In the meantime, it is even narrower than usual because of the construction. JT and I had to get across.

The Hood Canal Bridge

As we pondered our predicament, we were approached by a construction guy who asked, "You're not thinking of crossing the bridge are you?" He offered to drive us over but I wanted to ride. It was only 1 1/4 miles and I figured we could sprint that far. After a while the guy offered to drive the first half behind us and hold back the traffic. We took him up on that.

By this time the sun was out and the wind had come around and was now at our backs. We sprinted onto the bridge and hammered across. I looked down and noticed that I was going 27mph. Woo-hoo! In the middle of the bridge there is a section of metal grating and then there's a nasty diagonal seam of raised metal a little after that. We survived both of them and the guy honked and pulled off into the construction area. There was a small shoulder for the rest of our crossing, and several cars and large trucks were able to get by. We stopped at the construction trailer on the far side to take a picture and some other guys came up to us and asked, "You're not thinking of going across are you?" It turns out that they will start running a bus across the bridge for cyclists next week.

The rest of the ride was surprisingly easy. There was one major climb and several smaller ones, but the tailwind was really pushing us along. I'm sure the "smell the barn" syndrome was also in effect.

We ate dinner at the Chinese restaurant across the street from the motel. The motel had a guest laundry capability so we figured we'd take care of some business. Here's photographic proof.

JT launches the washer.

Tomorrow will be the last day that Linda will be carrying our gear. We decided to make it a short day to give us time to get all our stuff together and still give Linda enough time to get to Seattle for her Thursday morning flight.

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