Prologue…

We had a couple wonderful story filled zero days with a Warm Showers host. The inspiration to this entire ride was to visit Westport Winery and pick up our wine. We finally arrived on day nine.

On day eleven we reached Lake Crescent. This lake has been the location of many important events and firsts in our lives, the biggest being that we were married here. It was at first exciting to be back and then horrifying with what it is turning into now that the Spruce Railroad Trail is completely paved.

July 24, 2021

Zero Day, Westport Winery, and an incredible visit with our WarmShowers host.

No Over-Thinking Required

Ever since we fell behind on our mile “schedule” in the first couple days, my left-brain was stuck in recalculation/replanning mode. Our finish date was driven by my return to work, and in my head I “had” to devise how we were still going to make it on time. Each morning we briefly discussed possibly gaining back some miles, and then were met with more of the unexpected. To compound this mental exercise, in the last 24 hours of checking the weather, temps were set at triple digits for the last couple days of our trip.

Yet each and every day, my “mental chatter” was being pushed aside. A once small voice gaining mental ground with every unplanned moment that had worked itself out, requiring no over-engineering. Being replaced by a synergy that comes from embracing new experiences each day and letting trust, in myself, my partner, and what shows up, deepen and expand in unexpected ways.

Over dinner the night before, enrapt in conversation with our hosts, we began exchanging possible scenarios for extending our stay another day - a few hours was proving too short for the stories yet to be shared. By morning, over home-made pancakes it was decided. We would leave the following morning in caravan and start again further up the coast to catch the ODT back home, all made possible by a shuttle from our gracious hosts. Unspoken, but quickly voiced in my head - the time lost was now gained, and travel further north temps would still be less than triple digits before our trip ended. We just might survive the heat and end our trip on time, no over-thinking required!

We barely left the sun-filled kitchen all day, sipping coffee over relaxed conversation, and picture window views, time evaporated. It was late afternoon before we rode down to pick up our wine and find thank-you treats for our hosts.

In celebration of our trip’s milestone goal and magical good fortune, we toasted to it all, lazing on a porch swing over-looking the winery gardens in full retirement fashion. Indeed, Herkimer, “life in the slow lane” makes for the best adventures by far! For that is the secret of “slow” - it does not mean you have to do less, you can actually do more. It was clear Jim and Fran had perfected the art of creating beauty in their lives through many mediums, clay, paint, straw, yarn, ukulele, plants, bubbles, and more, all made possible by knowing the secret of “slow”.

July 25, 2021

Unexpected shuttle and the Sol Duc River.

Zero Day

I intentionally woke up early to thoughtfully make our entry in the Warm Showers travelogue our hosts started with their first visitor only a few years ago. I marveled at the connections they had made, enriching their own lives, while brightening a travelers experience, and over the years gaining an extended family across the world.

Even with the road trip caravan ahead, we still shared a beautiful hand-made breakfast before loading the truck with our bikes, and the car with our packs. A few group photos and we were ready to fast track the miles up the coast, enjoying extended time for conversation and the relief of A/C on another cloudless day. Neither of us were sure exactly where our host’s intended drop-off point was going to be - wanting to be mindful of the time and gas involved. After passing up both Lake Quinault, and a stop at Ruby beach, in favor of getting lunch in Forks, we shared a picnic lunch at the local park. But instead of unloading our bikes after lunch, Herkimer decided he just had to know where we were going to camp that night, after Nivaun described our hidden location, discovered on our first ODT ride to the coast. So off we went, heading further North, then East, delivered road-side to our accommodations for the evening. We re-loaded our bikes in the shade trying to ignore the radiating heat. Once fully assembled for our short ride into the woods, a final photo documented “how we roll” in the Warm Showers memory book. With immense gratitude, we exchanged farewells and turned down the forested path leading to our Sol-duc hide-away, still in amazement at being gifted a true zero day. Thank you so very much Fran and Jim for everything!

Our camp spot was just as we had found it a few years before alongside the Sol-duc river. We waded out to a rock to dangle our feet and soak in the coolness, as the heat of the day wafted down river above our heads. As we slowly reconnected ourselves with our natural surroundings, an eagle splashed into the rivers edge across from us and paused before darting back up into the air. All of us were seeking reprieve from the sun. The rest of the evening we made the most of our zero day enjoying dinner, wine and down time underneath the cool canopy of forest and river - it was good to be home.

July 26, 2021

On the Olympic Discovery Trail and the Spruce Railroad Trail.

Seeking sanctuary from our Sanctuary..

After two days of waking up within 4 walls, it was hard to pack up and leave one of our most favorite camp spots. We gave ourselves as much time as we could knowing we would be in the shade of the ODT after a few short miles, and then on to Lake Crescent our most treasured place below 3000 feet in the Olympics.

As we made our exit from the woods back to our drop-off point the afternoon before, we felt the temperature shift. It was early morning, but we were already hop-scotching the road to follow the shade from side to side until we reached the ODT trail section. Once on the trail, we started to see just a few weekend day-riders and wondered how that would change the closer we got to Lake Crescent. Almost all of our trips to the Lake were in the off-season for events special only to us, and began years back when the trail was still a narrow foot path. This was the first time we would be experiencing the paved trail in the height of summer, after it was extended the length of the lake, and widened well beyond city park dimensions, complete with landscaping.

We were relieved to find the creek further down the trail was still running, after discovering the one at the entrance was almost non-existent, and decided to break out our chairs for lunch, trail-side. A young bike packer showed up not far behind us for a quick water break on his way back from the coast, after leaving a couple days before from Port Townsend. It was refreshing to hear his new found appreciation of the bike packing experience vs destination gravel rides. We shared some stealth camping options beyond Port Angeles and wished him well.

As we made our way down the “crescent roll” switch-backs on to the section paralleling the lake below, we marveled at how far the weight of our bikes carried us down the gradual descent to the lake. It wasn’t until we were within 4-5 miles of the parking lot that we started pedaling, and got the first indication our experience riding along the lake front was going to be more overwhelming than we ever anticipated. We stared at each other in disbelief, as a young blond astride a beach cruiser wearing her thong bikini and a shirt-less dude trailing along beside her passed us by. The trail and the shoreline were quickly filling up with sights normally seen on city beaches much further south, and there were more people arriving. We left the overflowing parking lot, shell-shocked into the reality that "our lake" may never be the same.

Feeling invaded, we rode as quickly as we could for the cover of the forest, down a side road looking for any possible camp spot along side the exit flow, Lyre creek. We found a spot far enough off the road not to be seen, near a closed off bridge, and decided that was decent enough; as long as no one decided to make the closed off bridge their late night party spot. The only lingering concern was a car parked along-side the dead-end above us. As we started to unload our bags, we heard voices coming toward us from the creek down below, where we had just scanned and decided it was too bushy and steep to go down. A few seconds later, appeared a guy carrying snorkel gear followed by a girl in a long full skirt. They were just as surprised to see us, explaining they were heading back to the car, after giving up on plans to snorkel the creek, as he had done for many years, remarking about the plant and rock forms unique to the area.

Relieved to finally be on our own, we set about making camp and winding down mentally as well as physically from a more than expected first day of mainstream travel. We were now about 2 days away from the cabin and planned to make early starts to gain most of our miles before the afternoon heat. We debated trying an alternate route further up to reconnect to the road but decided minimizing surprises was going to ensure our survival. Time and heat were now both going to be working against us.