Pacific Coast Tour – And so it Begins. Day 0 – 3; Seattle – Port Townsend, WA

Day: 0
July 17, 2021

Portland to Seattle (Amtrak)

All we really had planned for this day was checking out of our Portland Airbnb that we had been living in for the last 6 months, and catching the Amtrak train up to Seattle.

So that’s what we did. We thought we were rockstars picking seats on the more scenic coastal side of the train, only to realize the train was going the other direction so we were in fact seated backwards on the inland side. Wah-wah. The train doesn’t get too scenic between Portland and Seattle mostly following I-5 so at least we didn’t miss much. And we’ll be seeing lots of views of water in the upcoming weeks anyways.

Day: 1
July 18, 2021

Distance: 0 mi / Rest Day
Seattle

So Andrew and I spent a long time deciding which day would be “Day 1” and in the end we decided even though we didn’t ride, this was still the first full day of our trip, so day 1 was a rest day!

We hung out with Andrew’s brother and his partner. We went to an art museum, enjoyed some coffee and even hit up the movies to see Black Widow. Wait… are we just on a normal vacation?

So that night I think it finally hit me what we’re doing. I awoke in the middle of the night with just a cloud of anxiety. Not enough to change my mind or anything-don’t worry, just the feeling itself. Hopefully that’ll all settle down once we get rolling…

Day: 2
July 19, 2021

Distance: 28 miles (28 total)
Seattle to Kitsap Memorial Park

Finally rolling out! Our anxieties were at an all time high with our stomachs in knots until we finally made it out on the bike. We had a short easy mostly downhill ride into downtown so we could catch our ferry to Bremerton.

It was both of our first times on a ferry with bikes so that was a pretty neat experience.  We had fun taking lots of pics and just wondering around.  It made for a nice start to our adventure. The bad part however is that it meant we wasted the nicer part of the day on a ferry.

Once we hopped off the ferry in Bremerton it was a lot of uphill and sun. We had a few minor technical difficulties dropping our chain, and the heat wasn’t helping. We ended up eating lunch right by a construction site after our chain had fallen off for the second time.

As we rode northward we occasionally got peeks of large bodies of water, but mostly we were tucked away in the trees (but not tucked away enough for shade).

On a whim we went down through the historic district of Silverdale and found a lovely waterfront park with some shady tables and beautiful views. Then it was back into the sunny woods for us; up and down hills until we made it to our campsite, Kitsap Memorial State Park. The park is cute with a couple hiker biker spots, and access down to the water. Since our day was pretty short we had time to explore the campgrounds a little, eat dinner, adjust the derailleur for fewer dropped chains, and in general relax.

Day: 3
July 20, 2021

Distance: 40 miles (68 total)
Kitsap Memorial Park to Port Townsend

We shouldn’t have complained about the heat so much, because today we woke up to a nice drizzle that the Pacific Northwest is known for. Luckily the tree canopy over our campsite allowed for a still pleasant morning. But it didn’t protect all of our things from getting slightly damp.

It took about an hour or two until the cloud we seemed to be riding through disappeared and took the misty rain with it. Luckily, the rest of today’s weather was much nicer than the previous day!

Pretty early on we crossed the Hood Canal on the aptly named Hood Canal Bridge. It’s a 1 mile long floating bridge. The experience was made even neater because we got stuck waiting for them to open up so a single sailboat could past through. Because it’s a floating bridge the panel that opens to let boats pass slides sideways instead of lifting up. While it was too foggy to see much scenery, we did see some sea animals include what I’m guessing was a sea lion and some porpoises!

Just after we crossed the bridge we had our only technical difficulty of the day, another dropped chain….this time though it got stuck in the crank arm, so it took us a hot minute to get it out. (Andrew’s Note: Pretty sure we have this figured out now and it boils down to operator error. I’ll get better I swear!)

The scenery of the day was a lot nicer than previously, I don’t know if it was the more pleasant temperature, but the trees today just seemed cooler (pun intended). We had several hills, but got to enjoy both ups and downs switching our speeds from 30 mph to 3 mph.

We ended up enjoying 2nd breakfast in the town of Port Ludlow. We were looking for a coffee shop, but settled for a very well stocked gas station next to a closed pizza parlor. We enjoyed some heated ramen and Abuelitas hot chocolate!

We were doing really good on time and energy so maybe we got a little cocky. The map told us the street would turn into Flagler St, so when we saw a turn with that name and highway route number we thought that’s the way we should be going. When I suggested we double check the map, Andrew confidently replied “nah”. About 4 miles later we realized we had turned onto Indian Island, with the only way off being the way we came. So that was a ‘fun’ detour.

Andrew and I were very excited when we hit the Larry Scott bike trail. Even if it was only 7 miles long, it was seven glorious car free miles without having to think about directions.

Once in Port Townsend we opted to get some celebratory beers from Pourhouse which had a lovely waterfront patio. We quickly stopped at a grocery store to stock up, then killed some time wandering the historic district before our ferry across the Puget Sound was set to leave. Port Townsend was a super cute area that we’ll probably plan to stay longer at on our way back down the coast.

Originally we were going to go an additional 10 miles out to Fort Ebey, but with our detour earlier, and not wanting to push ourselves too much too soon, we opted to stay the night at Fort Casey, located literally just off the ferry. (Although I really wish we’d known that before following the road signs leading us up and over a giant hill, then down and around back to where we had just been!). This campground was very different from the previous one. We were essentially in a small field surrounded by RV campers right on the water. While a little exposed, it also felt kinda nice.

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