8/15/14
INTRODUCTION
This blog was originally a website kept by Scott Campbell, one of my Red Dirt Pedaler bike club friends. Since then it has become defunct, the server that hosted it no longer available. Thus, I am converting the website copy and photos to a journal-type blog in 2014 while in a temporary cycling hiatus. Hard for me to believe that I rode the west coast so long ago. Where did those 14 years go?
THE PLAN
Susan Walker and her daughter, Jessica, are spending the month of September and the first week in October 2000 bicycle touring in the Pacific northwest—a change from Susan's original plan to tour with Scenic Cycling, Inc. The Scenic Cycling tour became seriously pricey, so it's now down to (or up to) mother/daughter! (With a lot of planning help from Tom Kirkendall and Vicky Spring’s book Bicycling the Pacific Coast: A Complete Route Guide, Canada to Mexico and route maps from the Adventure Cycling Association.)
The two plan on camping in the hiker/biker sections of state, provincial, or local parks. But, when they tire of the dark, drippy, mossy forests of the northwest, they will spend the night in a hostel. And, on occasion, they will treat themselves to a night in a motel. They plan on saving $$ by preparing their own breakfasts and suppers and by buying lunch and snacks along the way.
Susan will meet Jessica in Vancouver, B.C. on Sept. 5. The two will assemble their bikes at the airport and then spend the night in Vancouver, courtesy of cyclists from the Warm Showers Cyclists’ Hospitality List.
Their full itinerary is shown on the cover, but here is their general plan: They will take a ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, pedal to Victoria on the southern tip of the island, take another ferry to Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula, and then follow Rt. 101 around the west side of the peninsula and down the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and northern California.
At Fort Bragg in northern California, they will leave the coast, taking the Skunk Train inland to Willits, California, where Susan’s sister, Sarah, lives. After a day or so with Sarah, they plan to pedal south through the Napa Valley (Calistoga, Napa State Park, etc.) and then cut back across the coastal range to Point Reyes Station and Jessica's house in Inverness on Tomales Bay.
The two will each be fully loaded (ha, particularly in wine country!) for a self-supported tour. Jess will ride a Trek 8500 mountain bike with Rolf wheels and slick road tires and pull a BOB trailer. Susan will ride a Litespeed Blue Ridge touring bike outfitted with front and rear Arkel-Overdesign panniers.
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| Susan's assembled bike at the Vancouver Airport |
Susan will carry a little e-mail Pocket Mail computer so that armchair cyclists and friends can follow the daily progress of this mutha/dauta team online through the their web page. Susan will also send photos back to the webmaster, but must first get them developed at 1-hour developing places so there will be a lag between the copy and the illustrative photos.You may also e-mail Susan on the road to ask questions and say hello. Note: The original photos were taken with a cheap film camera, were scanned from the originals, were copied off the website, and then copied again from a paper journal, so all are a bit fuzzy. Apologies.
Day 1--ASSEMBLY PROBLEMS
OK to Vancouver, BC
September 5, 2000
September 5, 2000
The skinny: Bike arrived in Vancouver in great shape. I reassembled it with no problems until the handlebars wouldn't tighten. Found it was because the sleeve had come out with one bolt. When Jess arrived we took a taxi-van to Richmond south of the airport and the Steveston Bike Shop. They fixed my problem with a couple of bolts and nuts and reassembled Jess' bike for her.
We changed into cycling clothes in a pizza parlor across from the Richmond Bike Shop, so started our tour in Richmond. After changing, we biked back to the airport and then on farther north to our host lodgings on 29th street in the city. Some pretty hectic city riding, but the city is bicycle friendly with marked routes and bicycle lanes in many areas.
Our Warm Showers cycling hosts, Margaret Hunter, a retired teacher, and John Hickman, a retired diver, had cycled all over the world. Their interesting tales and their homemade wine kept us at the dinner table until bedtime.
Miles: 24.06
Weather: 58°F with light rain in early eve
Route: Vancouver airport to Richmond to Vancouver
General: Vancouver brimming with flowers. Very bicycle friendly. At one point we overshot a turn by a couple of miles and found ourselves in Asia—women in conical hats planting and harvesting, large oriental truck gardens, a huge red and gold Kaun Yin Buddhist temple.
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| The Kuan Yin Temple of the International Buddhist Society in Richmond, B.C. is the most magnificent and authentic temple of traditional Chinese architecture in North America. With its golden porcelain tiles glittering on the roof top, this Buddhist temple is similar to that of the palace in China. The picture above from the Internet is just a peek at its entrance and gardens. |
Day 2--FERRY TO NAINAMO
September 6, 2000
Vancouver to Nainamo, BC
Vancouver to Nainamo, BC
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Jess, Margaret Hunter, John Hickman. Getting ready to lead us from 29th St. to the north Vancouver ferry.
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Following John and Margaret across a bridge to North Vancouver. Notice the well marked cycle/ped lanes; Right:
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Jess on the North Vancouver Ferry and in a little vest pocket park at the top of our city hills and before the West Vancouver Lawn Bowling Club
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Twinkie shot to the one below: right: some of the veddy veddy properly attired West Vancouver Lawn Bowling Club members. We don’t need reminding that we are in BRITISH Columbia, eh Nigel?
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A smiling Susan on the level after an exceedingly long and steep climb up a series of San Francisco-like city hills after debarking from the North Vancouver Ferry.
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Horseshoe Bay and the big ferry we will
take to Vancouver Island |
Great supper of New Orleans red beans and rice and corn on the cob. A little hike along the shoreline where we encountered a frolicking otter and many birds, and then to bed.
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| Jess slicing a tomato at our Nanaimo Living Trees Campground; Susan eating an ear of roast corn at our Living Trees CG on Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, B.C |
Miles: 42.74
Weather: 65°F and gloriously sunny
Route: Vancouver to Nanaimo
General: A great day in a most beautiful spot. The jagged, clouded peaks of the mountains reflected in the water; glorious sunset, peaceful campsite
Day 3--CHAMPAGNE
Nanaimo to Mill Bay, BC
We packed up the campsite and headed out by 9 a.m. What started as a beautiful morning turned into off and on rain. I took my rain jacket on and off all day, not only because of the rain, but also because of the heat I'd generate climbing. Jess, meanwhile, was bundled into two long-sleeved jerseys and her raincoat asking me constantly that most foolish of questions: "Aren't you cold?" Ha! I rode the last bit of the day in pouring rain and just my RDP jersey with my raincoat wrapped around my waist.
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| Susan leaving Living Trees campground |
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Susan already minus arm warmers and with her jersey
unzipped on the road between Nanaimo and Mill Bay |
We opted for a motel this soggy, chill night. An awesome though inelegant room, kitchen, hot tub (aaahhhh) and a proprietor who dried our clothes in his private dryer. A red deer was munching on the lawn in the rain when we arrived. I thought it was a pet, but the motel owner said it was a pest instead.
Before getting to the motel, we stopped to get a six-pack and some celebratory champagne, and then had a short but tremendously steep climb to the motel. We both ended up walking the last fifty feet or so.
Weather: 62°F rain all day
Before getting to the motel, we stopped to get a six-pack and some celebratory champagne, and then had a short but tremendously steep climb to the motel. We both ended up walking the last fifty feet or so.
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Jess & Susan enjoying a champagne and some dry warmth after a cold, wet day
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Mill Bay Motel living room. Don’t know whether the haze is steam from our wet gear or a fogged camera lens.
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Route: Nanaimo to Mill Bay. Out of Nanaimo on Hwy 1, which was a 4 lane 65 mph roar of traffic with a wide shoulder but very uncomfortable for Jess. Stopped and got directions for getting to Mill Bay ferry on back roads. Longer route but much less traffic. Motel in Mill Bay.
General: A strenuous day in the rain with several climbs, very friendly and helpful people, a very weak Canadian dollar (presently worth .49 to our dollar) which makes possible buying such things as champagne and smoked salmon for dinner.
General: A strenuous day in the rain with several climbs, very friendly and helpful people, a very weak Canadian dollar (presently worth .49 to our dollar) which makes possible buying such things as champagne and smoked salmon for dinner.
Day 4--MILL BAY FERRY
September 8, 2000
Mill Bay to Port Angeles, WA
Mill Bay to Port Angeles, WA
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| Susan in her new yellow glasses waiting for the Mill Bay ferry |
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| Waiting for the Mill Bay ferry |
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| Victoria's Empress Hotel |
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| Quayside park with the Empress Hotel in background |
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| Jess communing with a flamingo at Victoria Crystal Gardens |
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Some beer drinking doggies in wigs and hats. Anything amusing for a dime on these streets.
You paid the guy something to take a photo of the dogs. |
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| What the? Our favorite bit of Victoria wildlife. This guy earns his pennies.
That evening we caught the Coho ferry to Port Angeles at 7:30 p.m.. We docked at 9:00 p.m. in bitter cold, wet wind, and pitch dark, natch. So we strapped on our reflective triangles and all of our warning lights and set out for Lincoln Park Campground, which was supposed to be 3 miles and a steep 1.3 mile climb away. Took a wrong turn so ended up climbing about 2 miles and riding 5.
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| Jess on the Coho Ferry to Port Angeles, Washington and the Olympic Peninsula |
Miles: 35
Weather: Very windy (headwinds), temp in the 60s and low 70s. Rained in the night.
Route: Mill Bay to Lincoln Park, Port Angeles Can't remember our distance but it was about 25 miles to Victoria plus a lot of city exploratory riding plus the miles to the campsite in Port Angeles. About 35 miles I'd guess.
Day 5--CHAINSUCK
September 9, 2000
Port Angeles to Forks, WA
Today we gladly packed up and left Lincoln Park in Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula and rode to Forks. We are in a motel because it has been cold, windy, and rainy all day and we'd had enuff!
Despite the weather it was a gorgeous ride along the foot (feet?) of the Olympic chain and around the east side of Lake Crescent, a 600-foot deep glacial lake with clear, deep-green water.
I took many pix which we will get developed and send. A couple we met on the ferry from Victoria took a digital of us at Marymere Falls today and one of us from their truck as they passed later. They are sending them to Scott for posting on the website. [They never did send the photos]Left: Topiary Octopus at
the Fiero Marine Life Center,
Port Angeles, Washington
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| Port Angeles by daylight, flanked by the Olympic Mountains |
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| Sol Duc Valley & Hot Springs in Olympic National Park |
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| Entering Olympic National Park |
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| A sign we saw that we thought was funny: ORGANIC LLAMA MANURE, $3 |
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| Storm King Mountain at Crescent Lake |
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| Our first glimpse of Storm King Mountain |
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| Jess with Crescent Lake in the background |
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| The single-log bridge to Marymere Falls |
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| Mutha & Dauta at Marymere Falls |
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| Mustachioed with Marymere moss |
Jess stayed in a C-store/Subway sandwich place while I loaded my bike in the littered back of the character’s beat-up truck and took off with him for his workshop. Don’t think I wasn’t pondering survival moves just in case he got any weirder than he already was.
We've been having a great —if soggy—time and will send accounts of our first week if this transmits.
Miles: 51
Weather: 50s to low 60s, all day rainy and strong headwind, particularly around Crescent Lake
Terrain: Rolling hills with one very long climb
Route: Port Angeles to Forks
Day 6--OCEAN CAMPING
September 10, 2000
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| Choice #1 on the ocean or Choice #2-- In the trees with a trail to the restrooms and will catch the morning sun |
Jess finally found the perfect campsite . . . after a search lasting nearly 1 hour! If you guessed Site #2, pat yourself on the back. (Jess takes after her father when he is searching for the perfect Christmas tree.) The site is sunny to dry our gear—and has a bear warning in the center of the picnic table. We're supposed to put all foodstuffs in our car. Ha!
We left Forks late this morning. We were in no hurry as we had decided not to go to the rainforest. We had seen enough rain. This left us with a spare day.
We cycled leisurely and made several stops along the way. The first was at Ruby Beach. We ate our lunch at the trailhead, chained our bikes to the trailhead rail, took our money and valuables with us, and hiked down to the beach where we explored tidepools and beachcombed. It is a very beautiful beach and area.
We stopped briefly again at a touristy place that had all sorts of chainsawed wood carvings and driftwood things.
Before we left this morning we stopped at a grocery and stocked up. We both bought plastic containers slightly larger than a shoebox to put our food in. I carry mine on my rack and Jess puts hers in her BOB pack.
We cycled leisurely and made several stops along the way. The first was at Ruby Beach. We ate our lunch at the trailhead, chained our bikes to the trailhead rail, took our money and valuables with us, and hiked down to the beach where we explored tidepools and beachcombed. It is a very beautiful beach and area.
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| My bike at the trailhead fence; we are eating lunch on a trailhead bench only feet away |
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Susan on the trail down to Ruby Beach. Note the fog behind her even at noon. My point-and-shoot just cannot capture the magic of this area so I have included several
Internet photos below. |
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| Internet photo of Ruby Beach from the trail down to it |
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| Another Internet photo of Ruby Beach; it was just too picture perfect |
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| Internet photo of the stream that bisects Ruby Beach |
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Susan in her new yellow specs before an interesting root at the roadside wood carving place
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My camera was cheap and my skill with it
zilch. I was very disappointed with my photos |
Steak, mashed potatoes, yellow and zucchini squash for dinner. We’re not skimping on our evening meals and look forward to supper all during the day’s ride, particularly if it is cold or rainy.
Below, a final photo of this beach--Kalaloch Beach-- and its piles of driftwood.
Miles: 36
Weather: Probably 70°F today for a high. A beautiful, sunny day but when you pedal from the sun into the shade of the fir and spruce trees the temps drop at least 10 degrees.
Route: Forks to Kalaloch. 45 miles with a long stop at beautiful Ruby Beach; Hwy 101 from Forks to Kalaloch Campsite in the Olympic National Forest.
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| Kalaloch Beach driftwood |
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