Only the Beginning — Fian Shadow

We're up to 275 miles now at the end of day 5. My legs. Are. Sore. I woke up during the middle of the night and had trouble bending my legs because my quads are so tight. My butt is also pretty tender. Don't think that's ever going to change though...Here are highlights from the last few days.

Day 3 (50 miles) Anacortes-Port Ludlow

This was our first day waking up from camping and we got a late start on the day (9:30am). Luckily we had eaten breakfast and packed up before it started raining. We headed out of Deception Pass State Park on our way to Silverdale, WA but totally underestimated the number of hills we'd be encountering.

The morning started off great. We rode along a beautiful beach near San de Fuca and saw some guy throw a bunch of shrimp heads into the ocean. We almost saw the eagles swoop down and gobble it up but it didn't happen before we left. After spending some time on the beach, we headed up this massive hill which started the beginning of the end of our great morning. We went up hill after hill after hill until we lumbered into Coupeville and enjoyed some delicious pizza at the Coupeville Pizza Factory. After 90 minutes of gluttonous binging, we realized we weren't going to make it to Silverdale so we took it easy the rest of the day. We headed to Ft Casey, took a ferry over to Port Townsend, and went up so more hills! We strolled into Port Ludlow around 6:30, ate dinner and set up camp at an RV park.

Day 4 (58 miles)

We woke up to rain today. Luckily it stopped raining in time for us to pack up camp and get started on the road. We rode for the next few hours in light showers up heavy hills...since when are there so may hills on the coast!? Oddly enough, we saw a lot more bike tourists today who were headed to Port Townsend. It was nice to see we weren't the only ones out 'enjoying' the weather.

By the time lunch rolled around, the sun came out and we were in Bremerton; an unfriendly town for bikers. We got honked, yelled and swerved at as we rode up the uneven, potholed streets and I couldn't wait to leave the city behind. We spent an hour sunbathing in Harborside Fountain Park where we let our gear dry out and then had a particularly jarring experience on our way out of the city. We had to merge onto a highway and ride on it for about two miles during rush hour. It seemed like a particularly fitting exit from such a...pleasant town.

From Bremerton we headed to our final destination for the day: Twanoh State Park. After a leisurely 20 or so miles, we arrived and set up camp. Shortly thereafter, Bo's friend came to our campsite with fried chicken, potatoes and biscuits! It was a much appreciated dinner. We stayed up until 11pm talking and then headed to bed.

Day 5 (58 miles-Twanoh to Montesano)

Today was the toughest day yet for me. I could barely sit on my saddle and my legs were the tightest they had been. We also had to ride the same distance as yesterday and shave off two hours so that we could meet up with Bo's brother.

There were a number of hills in the morning (surprise!) followed by some awesome downhills*. After meeting some friendly locals in Shelton, we started our pursuit toward Montesano. On the ride we passed Washington Correction Center and cruised down a logging highway. Although I was in pain from sitting for so long, today's ride was fairly easy. The logging highway was a consistent 3% decline for about 20 minutes so my legs got a much needed break.

Since we were short on time, we skipped lunch and passed through the small town of Elma. Their roads were so annoying! We had to persevere through 15 miles of gravelly, bumpy road to get to our destination. To put a feather in the cap, we had a strong headwind to work against us for most of the way. By the time we were done, my hands were numb, my butt was even more sore and I was a bit cranky.

We met up with Joey, grabbed some lunch and a motel room, and tried our best to recover. We also had the fun task of doing laundry in the bathroom sink (That was a first!). After a Pizza Hut dinner we passed out watching Divergent, awaiting tomorrow's big journey...

*On one hill I managed to get up to 37.8 mph! It sounds dangerous but it really wasn't.