Discovering the Olympic Peninsula
I feel like the summer weeks are flying by. On the one hand I am sad like I always am, too many things to do and not enough time or energy to do it. On the other hand Little John is almost back to normal! His surgery was June 2. And we were told no running, jumping, or fun kitty adventures for at least 8 weeks, so you know, basically the whole summer so in that regard we have been counting down the days.
Fortunately we didn’t have a lot of big trips planned this summer that we had to work around. But one trip we did have planned was a bike trip up to the Olympic Peninsula with some friends to ride along the Olympic Discovery Trail. Ever since we skipped the Olympic Peninsula on our Pacific Coast ride, I knew I wanted to go back to at least ride the Discovery Trail one day. We did this ride with two other friends, Erin who had been to the Peninsula several times and was eager to go again and D’Arjan who had never been.
Andrew’s mom, Sally, was visiting us the week before our scheduled trip, and since she didn’t need to be home by a certain date she offered to extend her trip to take care of Little John while we were gone. Being only one and a half he’s a very rambunctious cat for someone who is supposed to be on strict bed rest. We are very thankful that she was able to step in with the extra care needed and that they got along splendidly so that we could enjoy our trip without worrying too much about Little John.
The Trail
The Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) is unfortunately incomplete. It is meant to be part of the Great American Rail Trail, so I have hopes that one day it will connect without highway miles. In my opinion, while the highway miles were shitty, the good did outweigh the bad. And you could skip a lot of highway riding if you start about 10 miles in at the first main trailhead rather than starting where we did in La Push.
As of July 2025, the ODT is split into 4 segments. It wasn’t intentional, but we more our less split up our trip days in line with the segments.
Day 1 - No Vampires Allowed - Ocean Edition
La Push to Cycle Camp (Mora)
Wednesday July 9, 2025
Distance: 8.2mi*
With a couple Nervous Nellies in our group with regards to time (myself included), the group decided to get out of Portland extra early. It is about a 4 hour drive to Port Townsend (or PT as the locals call it). Erin had the biggest car so she picked up D’Arjan, Andrew and me and we were on the road by 7am. This gave us plenty of time to eat lunch and explore PT before our shuttle pickup.
Weather wise upon arrival, there was an on and off light drizzle – a stereotypical day for the Olympic Peninsula. We opted for Pizza from the Pizza Factory (open on a Wednesday and offering both vegetarian and gluten free options) and perused a few shops. We even made a few purchases while in town before making our way to our shuttle meetup location. While it technically is possible to bus from one end of the ODT to the other, we opted to hire a private shuttle (Olympic Hiking Co.) to simplify logistics and maximize our time. Money well spent.
We got to the meet location 30 min early, and conveniently so did our shuttle driver Wayne. So, after transferring all our gear over to the shuttle pickup truck, we were back on the road, with another 3 hours of driving, it was a long day driving wise. Wayne was very friendly and even took us on a few short side quests showing us things (like a lavender farm and the Lake Crescent Lodge) that he knew we wouldn’t see while coming back through on our bikes. Part way through the ride D’Arjan realized he had forgotten a charging cord compatible with his new battery pack, and Wayne found us a quick store where D’Arjan could buy a new one – although a joke for the rest of the tour became about if D’Arjan had a long enough charging cord because the shortest cable they had for sale was 10ft long! This was also the second charger based issue of the day as we had done a quick backtrack at the start to grab an extra charging brick for Erin from our house right after we left.
Finally on the Bikes
When we finally made it to our starting location in La Push, it didn’t take us long to unload the truck and load up the bikes. We took some starting photos by the beach and put rubber to road by 4:30 pm. With only 8 miles to the campground we were feeling great about time. On the drive up Erin told us she had 3 goals for the trip –
- Eat ice cream every day (obviously)
- Jump in a lake
- Go on a couple side quests.
About 6 miles into our 8 mile ride, we stopped for milkshakes at Three River Resort – a wonderfully Twilight themed restaurant located between Forks and La Push, WA on the edge of the reservation (so no vampires allowed!). I decided to try one of their twilight themed milkshakes – “Midnight Mystery” (Pineapple Pomegranate) and it was fantastic! But, everyone else chose normal flavors like huckleberry and cookies & cream – and when polled on rankings gave the milk shakes a 6.75 average. Tough Crowd.
After ice cream it was a short 2 mile downhill ride back west toward our intended campground for the night – Cycle Camp. Cycle Camp is the coolest little hippy-esque camp you can stay at. Bob, the host runs the place on a donation basis for people on two wheels (so motorcycles are also welcome). He gave us an “orientation” upon arrival, showing us a lot of art he’s collected (or had guests create) over the years as well as the actual amenities. He has really made a neat space out there.
By the time we got our tents set up we realized it was already 7! Fortunately the sun sets pretty late, and the sun had come out by that time, so we all went over to one of the picnic tables to make dinner: Indian food (Tasty Bites) for A&I, Cuban beans & rice dehydrated meal for D’Arjan, and ‘Thanksgiving’ for Erin.
*Side Quest - Bonus Beach Miles
Distance: 8.1mi (Total 16.3mi)
Seeing as we were only 4 miles from Rialto Beach (Erin’s favorite beach) we decided we’d accomplish our first side quest of the trip and take an unloaded ride down to the beach to check it out.
Compared to the uphill climb out of La Push, the ride to Rialto was surprisingly flat. We made it down to the beach just in time for the Golden Hour. The near sunset views over the rocky ocean features were stunning. But not wanting to ride back in the dark, or deal with the traffic of everyone else out there waiting for the full sunset views, we opted to head back to camp before the sun actually met the horizon. This turned out to be a great decision as we were only passed by one car on our way back to camp on that one and only road out of the beach.
Properly tired enough to sleep on the ground, we all retired to our respective tents for the night eager to get some rest before our first full day of riding.
Day 2 - Into the Woods We Go
Cycle Camp (Mora) to Lake Crescent
Thursday, July 10, 2025
Distance: 44 (Total: 60.3mi)
Bob, our camp host, greeted us in the morning and offered us chocolate coffee (which was basically instant coffee and hot cocoa mix or backpacker mocha). Who am I to turn down free chocolate coffee? Coffee in hand, we all chatted for a bit and had a mostly leisurely morning. After packing up we took off around 9am with a small chill in the air.
The first two miles were backtracking along highway 110 past the restaurant we had had milkshakes at the night before. Being a dead end highway to the beach and us heading AWAY from the beach we weren’t expecting to come across too much traffic, but there was just enough cars passing us to be annoying. Where were all these people going? After 10 miles of riding we made it to the main highway, 101. We opted to pause for second breakfast at the junction before carrying on to the busier road.
While the 101 has a lot more traffic, it at least came with a decent size shoulder for us to ride on. Although I don’t remember much about that 10 mile stretch of road, so it must have really been a head down and ride sort of section, but at least I don’t have terrible memories? We did find a convenient store in Beaver to pause at for treats, cold drinks, and restrooms along the way.
When we finally made it to the turn off from 101, we thought we would be getting on the actual Discovery Trail, but alas, at the intersection we were greeted with a sign that said 7.5 miles to the trailhead. And with that a lunch goal was set. At least the road we turned onto was fairly quiet with very few cars bothering us. It was also lined with berries. Thimbleberries (a sort of wild raspberry) were the most prevalent (and a personal favorite of mine) but we also managed to find black cap raspberries and salmonberries ripe for picking! Most of those berries were past their prime back in Portland, so it was exciting to see them begging to be picked.
Olympic Discovery Trail - What We Came For
The morning was wearing on us, it was all uphill and not necessarily the most pleasant of riding with all the highway miles. So when we finally reached that 7.5 mile mark and we weren’t greeted with a trailhead, but instead another sign, this time telling us 2 more miles to the trailhead we were exasperated. Does the trail even exist? Fortunately, yes, the second sign was real and we only had another 2 miles to go. Our hungry tired selves managed to make it to the actual trailhead where we found a sort of parking alcove with decent sitting logs that we were able to hang out at and finally enjoy our lunches.
Just as we were packing up lunch, excited to ride on the actual trail, that’s why we were here after all, it started to rain. With a collective gasp and “oh no” we all put on our rain jackets and both grumbled and laughed at our luck. Why would it rain in a rainforest!? Fortunately the rain didn’t last too long, a half hour maybe, but it was just heavy enough to get us decently wet, you know, the kind of rain a family of vampires might use to play baseball in.
Rain or not, the trail itself was beautiful – super lush and green, even more so than what we typically see in the Portland area. So beautiful in fact that while we were all gawking around at the scenery on a downhill, D’Arjan hit a rough edge of pavement and came very close to sliding off the trail. Thankfully he was able to deftly control his bike and save himself from what would have been a very scary fall and he kept riding with barely a pause, nerves of steel! We were all able to laugh it off and keep riding while quietly counting our blessings.
After around 10 miles of trail riding we intersected with highway 101. The trail continued up towards Lake Crescent and the Spruce Railroad Trail, but our intended campground for the night, Fairholme, was off highway 101 (unless we wanted to add several detour miles to access from the trail). Seeing that there would be another chance to get on the 101 down the trail, Erin and I continued on the trail for a little bit further, while D’Arjan and Andrew opted to beeline it on the 101 to the campground for near 3 miles.
Friendly Folks and A Little Road Magic
I mentioned our intended campground was Fairholme. Unfortunately due to it’s popularity, we were not able to secure reservations. Based on what we had read online, the rangers & camp hosts are generally very nice and accommodating for cyclists allowing them to set up tents in a couple of small corners of the campground. But, since it wasn’t a sure thing, we wanted to get there as early as we could so that we could come up with alternate plans if need be. While Erin and I were on the trail, I was scouting out potential camping spots off the trail. I did actually find a decent looking spot, but it was at the top of a very big hill that I was not willing to climb back up for.
When Erin and I made it back to the 101 we were on the North side of the road, with just under 2 miles of definitely downhill riding to get to camp, which also happened to be on the North side of the road. Rather than cross the busy highway twice, we opted to ride like salmon on the wrong side of the road. (In addition to a shoulder, the cars actually had two lanes since they were going uphill). It was a wild experience.
We met back up with D’Arjan and Andrew at the campground only to discover that there wasn’t a ranger/camp host anywhere to be found! So our plan of begging a place to stay vanished. Now what? After talking with the not at all helpful camp store staffer we were in a bit of a panic. Before we had time to come up with a plan we saw a couple loading kayaks onto their car with bikes on the back. Maybe fellow bikers would share their campsite? Erin and I went over to explain our situation and politely ask if they’d be willing to share their campsite and miracle of miracles, they agreed! Joel and Mary are the best. Road Magic for the win! Now, their site wasn’t very big, but it was just big enough for us to squeeze three additional small tents in.
We opted to spend the bulk of our evening in the day use area to give Joel and Mary space but we did get to chatting with them later. As it turns out, they had actually bought their bike from a friend of Erin’s who once had a shop on Whidbey Island! They had also done some bike packing trips of their own and they were friends with Pat, a WarmShowers host Andrew and I had stayed with in Friday Harbor on our Pacific Coast Trip! We’re all connected!
Perhaps you remember that I said one goal was to have ice cream every day. With lodging secured we went back to what the internet had described as a “well stocked” camp store in search of our daily frozen treat. Maybe I don’t know what “well stocked” is supposed to mean, because aside from drinks and souvenirs, the camp store was pretty bare. Their ice cream cooler was a depressing bright white void with 4 sad bars spread haphazardly across the base. Bubble Gum flavor. Ugh. Even we have standards, no ice cream for us. We could at least take care of that “jump in a lake” goal. And that we did, well everyone except D’Arjan who didn’t believe us when we said it “wasn’t that cold”. (To be fair, he was right, it was very cold)
As the evening wore on we started to make our way to Joel and Mary’s site, passing not one but two unoccupied sites on the way. (I hate that these sold out campgrounds seem to always have empty sites at them!) Since it was 9:30pm by that point, and the sites were hike in, meaning you had to park up the hill and carry your gear down to them, Erin and D’Arjan decided to risk moving their tent over to give a little more space back to Joel and Mary (and more importantly have their tents actually set up on flat ground). All out of luck for the day, the actual registered campers did show up and so not wanting to have that happen again (nor bother Mary and Joel in the middle of the night), D’Arjan and Erin begrudgingly set their tents back up at Mary and Joel’s small site.
As it turns out they just chose the wrong empty site. The other one was still empty in the morning. At least it gave us more space to have breakfast in the morning, but I really wish we had actually been able to reserve the spot since they never came.
Day 3 - Lake Views and Single Track Climbs
Fairholme Campground (Lake Crescent) to Elwha RV Park
Friday, July 11, 2025
Distance: 32.5 (Total: 92.8mi)
No longer a detour, we were able to take a quiet gravel road to connect up to the Spruce Railroad trail. This section of ODT was amazing. And, I guess we had started just early enough to have the trail to ourselves. Beautiful tree lined shades of green slowly transitioned to pops of vibrant blue as the lake would dance into view.
We came to a tunnel, and knowing that the Devil’s punchbowl feature was by a tunnel, we parked our bikes and took the little foot path around it. Wondering if the punchbowl wasn’t as noteworthy as we thought I opted to snap a few candid photos, but in doing so Erin paused in the narrow path causing D’Arjan who was right behind her to slip in the sand and come very close to falling off a cliff edge. Yikes, that’s the second time we all saw his life flash before our eyes! Fortunately nothing bad happened and we were all able to laugh it off (yet again) as we got back on our bikes and continued along the trail.
As it turns out there are two tunnels, the second one being much longer and the actual location of the Devil’s Punchbowl feature. Again we parked our bikes and took the little side detour, this time much more impressed with the rock features on the lake side of the tunnel. As the name implies it was a sort of bowl made of the rock. It was dramatically deep and unimaginably blue. Photos don’t do it justice. And, to live up to the devil’s name, the area was covered in poison oak, which we hadn’t realized until halfway down the trail. We seem to have lucked out this trip and managed to avoid touching any of it while we weren’t paying attention.
By the time we made it to the real Devil’s Punchbowl we had started to see a lot more people – both bikers and hikers. They had all been coming from a trailhead on the other side of the lake where we opted to have our second breakfast before venturing off pavement and onto the Olympic Adventure Route.
It's Time for an Adventure
We were all excited to leave the main ODT and do the single track adventure route. The first 4 or so miles was an untrafficked gravel road. It was nice to get away from the crowds again. A sharp turn with a steep ascent seemed to come at us out of nowhere. I’m pretty sure we all ended up walking up at least part of that climb. Fortunately we didn’t have to climb the entire hill, because the actual single track trail started probably 3/4 of the way up.
I don’t consider myself a mountain bike rider and I personally didn’t do much research on the trail beyond agreeing that trail is better than highway. The single track trail itself was definitely a lot more single than I was anticipating. I’m pretty sure some of the segments were only a foot wide. And if that wasn’t narrow enough every few minutes you’d see one or several large slugs that had laid residency in the middle of the path. I’ll just assume we didn’t kill any. My front paniers while small, didn’t make the trail any easier.
The terrain itself was surprisingly smooth compared to some trails I’ve been on, but it was mostly uphill so it didn’t take long for me and D’Arjan to fall behind Erin and Andrew. At one point I even ended up falling off the trail! Fortunately a big bush (not poison oak thankfully) caught my fall. I was totally fine, however I fell in such a way that the weight of my loaded bike was pinning my leg underneath me, and being on the side of a downhill slope I didn’t have a lot of options. After a few weak attempts to get up on my own and feeling the start of a weird twinge in my ankle as I tried, I opted to wait for D’Arjan to pull me back up onto the trail – I’m glad I wasn’t in the back! (I probably could have figured something out, but it was nice to know that I didn’t have to!)
The trail continued up and up, and gave us occasional glimpses of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Canada in the distance. While there were lots of nice segments where we cold zip through trees, some of the switch-backs were super tight and steep causing us to slow down or in some cases dismount and push. More rocks and roots started popping up in the ground as the miles continued and I felt myself starting to swerve a lot more. And while no one else was there to see it, D’Arjan reported his third near fall – fortunately since they always come in three’s there would be no more of those and he weathered the three close calls with serious fortitude.
Ice Cream or Single Track?
Erin, remembering her first attempt on the Adventure Trail pointed out an upcoming route change opportunity with a possible diner shop that had milkshakes. Ice cream sounded nice. As we continued on I felt myself getting weaker, and when we made it to the fork with a bailout opportunity I declared that I needed to stop for a meal before carrying on. We all gave ourselves a nice break and chance to think through our options. (I also foraged some nearby thimble berries). After realizing we had only made it up 5 miles of single track and there was still 15 miles to go D’Arjan and I opted to take the ice cream bail out option while Erin and Andrew continued on the single track trail.
D’Arjn and I took a steep gravel access road down to Joyce. While I mostly enjoyed the downhill, I also felt a little bit of waste on all that climbing effort we had put in to get there. Our gravel access road popped us out onto highway 112 near Joyce, home of Blackberry Cafe , where we were able to enjoy some fresh blackberry milkshakes. While it wasn’t as good as my milkshake from Day 1 (the fresh berries clogged the straw) I still felt like we had made the better decision.
After milkshakes D’Arjan and I had mostly highway riding on the shoulder. It wasn’t that bad but it was definitely a slog. Still way easier and faster than the single track we had been on. We were happy to have a mile or two detour on a less populated road, but we did still have about 10 miles of shoulder riding before we made it to camp.
Once Erin and Andrew made it to camp they reported that the terrain on the adventure route immediately got even harder after we left so even though we missed out on some nice views and had to deal with a little more highway riding, I’m glad we took the easier route. Honestly, were I to plan out the route again I would prob do something similar to what we did. I’m glad we saved some highway miles and enjoyed some of the adventure route, but I don’t see myself ever feeling the need to finish it.
D’Arjan and I arrived at our campground, Elwha RV Camp, relatively early around 3 or 4 and were able to check-in and relax. We booked a group site which gave us a nice area to spread out that was away from the bulk of the RVs.
Without us to slow them down, Andrew and Erin were pretty quick wrapping up their last 15 miles of single track and got to camp maybe an hour after us. There had been thoughts of doing a side quest down to the mouth of the Elwha that night, but everyone was pretty exhausted and opted instead to relax, charge our devices and enjoy some glorious showers. Oh, and of course enjoy more ice cream from the camp store. D’Arjan even made a burger run to a nearby diner while the rest of us cooked our packed meals (potato night at camp!). The campground even had a greenhouse we were able to pick and add fresh herbs to our meals.
Day 4 - Side Quest Saturday
Elwha RV Park to Sequim Bay State Park
Saturday, July 12, 2025
Distance: 50.2 (Total: 143mi)
Today’s segment was meant to be our shortest easiest day. But with so little miles on the agenda, it was easy to add in some side quests! Since we hadn’t made it to the Elwha River mouth the night before, we opted to go check it out first thing in the morning. It was sort of on the way anyway. The river used to be dammed, and in the twenty-teens they removed it, and now the mouth is constantly changing as the silt built up behind the dam is washed downstream so Erin wanted to see it knowing it would be different from the last time she had come. We were happy to oblige not having had many large body of water views on the trip yet.
The morning started off hot and sunny, so much so that we were all extra concerned about sun protection. However as we dipped down towards the Strait of Juan de Fuca we entered into a cold fog. It’s amazing how different the temperature could be less than 5 miles apart! We admired the Sea for a bit hoping, but not really expecting, for a break in the clouds. We got a few decent views in before we decided it was probably time to get rolling.
Did I mention our detour came with a big hill to get down to the shore? Climbing out was slow going but there were a couple good black raspberry bushes (sometimes you just need a little berry power to get you up the hill – I made it a bonus goal to have at least a few wild berries every day).
Once we made it back to the main Olympic Discovery Trail Route we were once again on paved trail. We got to fully enjoy the greenery surrounding us once again, and this segment came with some pretty neat bridges. Riding along this stretch of trail definitely made me want to plan another long rail trail ride in my future – car free riding is the best.
Into Town
Once in Port Angeles (PA to the locals) we decided it was high time we treat ourselves to something fancy, so we stopped for elevensies at New Day Eatery where we enjoyed some symbolic pancakes in the form of frnech toast. (They were symbolic because although that’s what I had been wanting, none of the PA breakfast places had pancakes!).
Knowing it wasn’t too much of a detour, I requested we ride out to the end of the Spit – Ediz Hook, because why wouldn’t you? So that we did. Fortunately a lot of the marine fog had cleared up while we had eaten, and the views from Ediz Hook were stunning. We were all worried about having to return into a headwind but fortunately it wasn’t too bad for us.
ODT at Its Finest
After our little detour we got back on the ODT and headed east toward Sequim. Powered by a big meal and a beautiful day we were cooking along the trail. The stretch between PA and Sequim was probably my favorite. It came with a good mix of water views and trees, and of course it was all car free paved trail! We even got several decent views of Mt Baker in the distance. Although there were a few annoying dips down a steep path to a short bridge that you would then have to climb back out of again – clearly the original train bridge being too expensive to replace for cyclists.
There was a particularly neat bridge leading up to the Dungeness River Nature Center. This area was full of other tourists and while their cafe didn’t have any ice cream I was able to find some cute Indigenous designed espresso mugs that I made room for in my bags.
Sequim was a resupply stop for us. Before the grocery store though, we had some unfinished business for the day – ice cream. Sequim being known for lavender most of us opted for their seasonal honey lavender flavor. Yum!
We doodled over to the Safeway and took turns inside grabbing the few supplies we would need for dinner and the next day. After stocking up we still had about 6 miles to our campground, Sequim Bay State Park. Being a Washington State Park, it had hiker biker sites – no reservations needed!
Lavender being my favorite I would have loved to have spent more time in Sequim and maybe hit up a lavender farm, but the day was getting late and we wanted to get to camp. I had to settle for stolen smells by brushing my hands against all the street lavender that was in full bloom.
The last bit of trail was a little more exposed than we would have liked. And despite being so close to a rainforest it was a hot last bit of riding; apparently Sequim is in the rain shadow of the Olympics and thus only gets 15 inches of rain each year. We did get to see not one, but two owls while riding though! Finally, around 6pm we made it to camp and we had a feast of snacks – because that’s what happens when 4 bike tourers go shopping hungry.
Day 5 - Locked In
Sequim Bay State Park to Port Townsend
Sunday, July 13, 2025
Distance: 41.6 (Total: 184.6mi)
This trip was D’Arjan’s second time bike touring, his first trip was a much shorter tour, it was with us on the Trask Trail last year. But being his second tour he hadn’t yet dealt with some of the classic hardships a bike packer faces at some point or another in their rides. The night before he had warned us that he wasn’t sure he could do another day on the bike and wanted to talk about it while we were together at camp.
As D’Arjan explained his symptoms we all agreed with him that he had experienced what endurance athletes like to call “bonking”. In fact he even told us that earlier in the day he had nearly asked “Hey y’all, what does bonking feel like?” I’m pretty sure bonking is a right of passage, and fortunately once you experience it you are going to do your best to make sure it never happens again. On a tour it’s what happens when you don’t eat enough throughout the day to supply the calories you need to consistently spend the energy pedaling. It comes on suddenly and you just feel like you hit a wall, like you’re a failure and lose all will continue. But you don’t feel hungry, so it’s not at all obvious as to why you all of a sudden feel shitty. D’Arjan got to experience this feeling for the first time this trip. Our riding and eating schedule from the day before had not been particularly “anti-bonk” friendly since we all had small-ish camp breakfasts so we would be able to eat more in PA. Then the larger meal made it difficult to keep having little snacks since we all felt pretty full after.
After talking about the challenges D’Arjan was facing (and offering WAY too many perspectives, opinions, and advice) we started coming up with options for the next day. Unfortunately our easiest bailout option – take the free bus to the car or to simply bypass the highway miles was out the window when we realized the bus didn’t run on Sundays! So keep that in mind if you plan on doing the ODT and are hoping to use the bus as an option!
The bus wasn’t our only way out though so we talked through a few other options to choose from if the morning ride proved impossible. But in the end after eating some dinner and showering, D’Arjan felt revitalized and motivated, so he decided he was going to “lock in” and finish the originally intended route with us. As a group we committed to do a better job of stopping at regular intervals and making sure everyone was snacking efficiently to keep our bodies fueled. We also decided to leave really early so that even if we ended up needing to take a lot of breaks we would still get home at a reasonable hour (we still had a 4 hour drive home after our day of riding after all).
We set our alarms for 4am with a goal to be moving by 6. And at 5:57 we were on the trail – nailed it! Turns out day 5 would be our fastest day yet! We were making amazing time and riding at our fastest pace yet. Whatever internal pep-talk D’Arjan gave himself was working, something to remember the next time I feel down.
The first 10 miles of the day continued on trail, and I managed to find my daily foraged “berry power” pretty early on. There was a short 1 or 2 miles on the highway but overall it was a lovely way to start the day. I was also happy to have found an abandoned bundle of dried lavender on the side of the trail that I then carried with me for the rest of the trip providing wonderful smells throughout the day.
Last of the Highway Miles
When we made it to the end of the trail at Disco Bay (aka Discovery Bay) we paused for a some quick ‘dancing’, a decent snack and prepared for some highway miles. The official ODT trail follows Highway 20 around the bay before connecting back with the off road trail in Four Corners. The official ODT website also highly advises against riding the 6 miles on highway 20 and provides a couple of alternative options (such as that bus that doesn’t run on Sundays).
We chose the riding detour, adding 12.3 miles of riding. While yes it was still 7 miles of highway riding on 101 and then 104, both highways at least had very wide safe feeling shoulders which was especially nice for the 600ft climb we had to do.
We eventually turned onto Center / Chimacum Rd which was a lot quieter and while not as big, still had decent feeling shoulders. Overall I’d recommend the detour we took if you don’t want to deal with the bus (or are riding on a Sunday). And we had driven on highway 20 5 days prior – trust the warnings, it did not look like a safe one to ride. It was windy, no shoulder, hilly, and the cars were not being leisurely in the slightest.
The benefit of doing our last day on a Sunday, is that there was a farmers market in Chimacum! After the dread and concern of yesterday no one actually expected us to make it to the farmers market on time (Sundays, 10am – 2pm), but as it turns out, we actually got there too early! We rolled in at 9:30 as they were setting up. Fortunately the market was attached to a cute, well stocked local grocery/farm stand so we were able to rest and grab “lunch”. Andrew even grabbed us all a mochi ice cream, which even at 9:45 in the morning hit the spot! Ice-Cream, Check.
I decided I wanted to hold out for a local made waffle sandwich from Fast Breaker; apparently the market is very strict about vendors not being able to start early so even though they were there and ready Fast Breaker had to wait until 10 to serve me. The market people rang a bell at 10 and everything. Thankfully it was well worth the wait.
We were all eager to hit the road again, not wanting to lose our morning momentum, but also it was starting to get hot! We were all thankful we had left early so that we hadn’t had to climb the morning hill in the 90 degree temperatures. We had about 6 more miles of exposed road riding before we were finally back on the last segment of trail.
The Final Stretch
At the Larry Scott trailhead we all rejoiced to finally be back on protected bike path! For Andrew and I we also had a little nostalgia remembering that that specific trailhead is where we had rested and aired out our tent on day 2 of our Pacific Coast ride back in 2021 after having a rainy start and some accidental bonus miles. We didn’t stop to rest this time though, with 7 miles to go we were all “locked in” and eager to finish.
On the trail we passed a few other walkers, bikers, and even a few horse back riders. At some point we paused for a quick snack and a nearby raven was making the strangest noises – it was like a dripping in a cave. Who knew they could do that? We were glad there were some birdwatching walkers nearby to validate our awe.
The ODT trail itself doesn’t really take you into the heart of Port Townsend, instead it just kind of dumps you out in the marina. Don’t get me wrong one of the themes of the trip was “that’s a good boat” so it seemed fitting to end by a bunch of boats, but definitely anticlimactic. But, we did it! We even finished the ride before noon! We took our celebratory pictures, and made our way to the nearby parked car so we could make the 4 hour drive home.
Final Thoughts
Overall I did thoroughly enjoy our ride on the Olympic Discovery Trail. I don’t know that I’d necessarily recommend riding the whole thing for people looking for a rail trail experience, but if you don’t mind cars or are doing a grander trip it’s well worth investigating. My favorite section was definitely between Port Angeles and Sequim, although the Spruce Trail along Lake Crescent is also spectacular. Riding along the ODT reminded me how awesome it is to be on a rail trail: no cars, and not having to think about the route at all makes a huge difference! About 65 miles of the 184miles I did this trip (so basically a third) wound up being highway miles, although the 10 – 15 miles near La Push and Rialto Beach really weren’t that busy. (Erin and Andrew had a little less highway time with the Adventure Trail). I never felt unsafe while riding on the highways we took, but I do hope they’re able to connect those last bits of trail because it is much more pleasant of an experience on trail and quieter roads. Once complete, the ODT will be a can’t miss bike trail.
Andrew’s Note: The Oregon Adventure Trail portion of the route was definitely more challenging than I had expected going into it. Erin had warned us that the uphill feels never-ending but the downhill goes by quickly which I would fully agree with. Doing the trail on loaded gravel/touring bikes is clearly possible but the bike begins to be the source of many challenges (wide panniers on a narrow trail, difficulty navigating switchbacks, lower steering leverage). Those technical issues aside this part of the trail is really beautiful and the riding is so different from what I regularly get to do that I absolutely loved it and enjoyed the challenge, but you should probably think through your bike and gear choice a little bit more than I did if you choose to include this on your route.
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