Port Angles, WA

Cory, Harper, Marci and Jason

On Sunday, we met up with Jason and Marci from Kansas City.  We met them on a Bicycle Adventures tour of the San Juan Islands 6 years ago and have done several cycling trips together since.  It has been a little different this time.  We haven't done a trip together since Harper was born 20 months ago.  Cory, Harper's nanny came along to take care of Harper while we were riding and provide sag support to us.  It all worked out really well and we had a great time together.  (Photos of our excursion to Port Angeles)

Sunday morning we picked up their rental bikes and went for a ride on the Burke-Gilman trail along the edge of Lake Washington in Seattle just to try out the bikes and make adjustments.

Jim and Heidi had borrowed a "pack'n play" and Burley trailer from friends for Harper and they loaned us their 4Runner as a second car for our trip out to Port Angeles.

Dungeness State Park

Monday morning we met up at Marci and Jason's hotel near the Space Needle, packed up the cars and headed to the ferry for Bainbridge Island.  We made a stop at Bainbridge, walked around town, went to the play ground and had some lunch before heading out to Port Angles.  We made a stop at the Dungeness State Park near Sequim (pronounced something like Skwim).  Since it was a clear day we could see across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, BC.

Lake Crescent

Tuesday we did the ride out to Lake Crescent and this time we got to see the lake.  It is a pretty lake, but it was overcast and a little chilly, so we had lunch and headed back to town.  Highway 101 is the main highway in the area with some logging truck traffic.  We had remembered being sprayed by the trucks in the rain the first time we did this ride, but today, the traffic was fairly light and only one incident of a logging truck getting "a little close".

On Wednesday was the big climb up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.  This is a 20 mile ride from Port Angeles (sea level) climbing up to 5200'.  It was a mostly sunny day for the climb with great views.  There were a few clouds on the descent and it got pretty chilly going 35-40mph even with a raincoat on to block the wind.

We had a great dinner in Sequim at the Alder Wood Bistro... if for some reason you find yourself in Sequim be sure to have dinner there.  It came highly recommended and did not disappoint.

We are all back in Seattle now.  Beth and I are spending a final night at Jim and Heidi's house repacking for our trip back to New Mexico.  We can't thank them enough for letting us use their house for staging, storage, stop-overs, a loaner car and rounding up baby support equipment from friends during the last 2 weeks.  Luckily we will get to recipricate soon as they make a trip to NM for 2 weddings and some mountain biking in NM, Colorado and Utah... or at least that is the plan.  The car and bike rack are ready to go.

Time to head for home and get back to work for a while, but we are already planning the next big trip... this one has been fantastic!

A panoramic view of Hurricane Ridge that Jason took with his iPhone using AutoStitch