A Tour through the “Twilight” Zone – or circumnavigating the Olympic Peninsula on bicycle and trikes

My mother had been asking for a cycle tour for her 60th birthday for a number of years. After much ruminating on options, we settled on a tour of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. The tour would take place in September and be held to celebrate her 60th birthday and my dad’s 65th.

The collapse of the economy happened as we were in the planning stages, so the trip remained uncertain for a period of time. As it got closer, we were able to make it a reality – but without the presence of my husband, who had been laid off, and just started a new job prior to the trip. He would not have enough vacation accrued to join us. With finances a bit tight, we decided to continue with the plan of credit card touring, but only renting one room in each location. There would be a lot of family togetherness, reminiscent of days long in the past.

As it turned out, that modification was for the better. We called a couple of the locations a few weeks ahead to gauge the need for reservations. We were surprised that at the end of September, few rooms were available. So, we went ahead and booked the whole circuit, which took away some flexibility, but promised to get us around the loop on schedule.

Heading out

My parents drove to our starting point, as transporting 3 people and 3 cycles by airline is prohibitively expensive these days. They stopped over at our house in the Bay Area and picked up my bike to continue the journey to Medford, OR and then Shelton, WA.

On Friday evening, I departed work and flew from San Jose, CA to Seattle-Tacoma, WA, where my parents picked me up. We drove approximately 1.5 hours to Shelton, WA – the start point for our tour.

Saturday, September 12 – Shelton, WA to Brinnon, WA – 41 miles

We dined on the free breakfast at the Shelton Super 8, packed up the bikes, locked up the truck, and headed north around 9:00 a.m. We headed out of town on Shelton Springs Road and joined up with Highway 101 a few miles out of town. I learned the first day that I was going to be practicing patience, as traveling with two inexperienced cycle tourists led to a 1:1 stopping ratio. The first day, we had 1 hour of stopping for every hour of riding, and it wasn’t to take in museums or spectacular views. It was just jacket-changing, food stops and bio breaks.

We picnicked along the Hood Canal and dined on tasty energy bars. The route was gently rolling with near-constant views of the sparkling water of the canal. It was a bit reminiscent of riding along the shores of Lake Tahoe. Other views were of marshlands, colorful trees and saw-tooth peaks in the distance. The roads were fairly heavy with weekend boating traffic, and had adequate shoulder about 50% of the time. I sliced my rear tire about 20 miles into the day and had to put on my spare.

We stayed at the Bayshore Motel in Brinnon, which we dubbed the “Motel 1.5”, due to its 60’s décor – paneling, brown and orange mottled shag carpet, Naugahyde chairs, and a stale smoke smell. The saving grace of Brinnon was the Halfway House Restaurant near the motel. I dined on Hood Canal oysters and marionberry crumble pie. It is a local spot not to be missed if passing through the area.

Monday September 14 - Port Townsend/Diamond Point, WA to Port Angeles, WA – 33 miles

Happy Birthday, Mom! We started the day with cinnamon rolls and quiche in our bellies and a short climb up to Highway 101 from our lodging. A few miles after traveling on or parallel to 101, we found the Discovery Trail near Sequim. We also found a brief rain shower.

We arrived in the town of Sequim around 11:30 and went directly to Mike’s Bikes. I got another spare tire to carry with me (ensuring there would be no more flats for the duration of the journey). And, my Dad got a minor derailleur adjustment, as his gears were skipping in the back.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we continued on the Discovery Trail to the west. We met quite a few other cycle-tourists in the section between Sequim and Port Angeles. One was a man on his way from Victoria, B.C to Southern California. Another was a woman, named Astrid, from Great Brittan who was circumnavigating the globe. She had already completed Europe, the Middle East, India and Asia and was headed down the West Coast and toward the southern tier route before heading back to Europe.

We stopped and petted every dog and chatted with every cyclist we met along the way. Finally, we arrived in Port Angeles at 5:30, having only covered 33 miles in 7.5 hours. We made a hasty cleanup effort and headed out to Bushwacker’s Restaurant to celebrate Mom’s birthday in style.

Wednesday September 16 - Port Angeles, WA to Lake Crescent, WA – 28 miles

There was a storm in the forecast for Wednesday, so we tried to get an early start. We rolled out at 8:00 a.m. But, our attempt to get out of town was foiled. My dad had bulge on one of his tires and decided to change it about 2 miles from the hotel. Then, we started the bio breaks. Finally, we were rolling again, but hit a GPS-induced dead-end. We headed back to the last known through road out of town and headed uphill. About halfway uphill, we had another bio break, and finally another one at the top of the hill at a gas station as we headed out of town. Unfortunately, it seems my mom left her expensive prescription sunglasses at that stop.

After leaving town, we were finally in a pleasant section of road that was fairly quiet. It started to look like rain, so we stopped and pulled on our jackets. Less than two minutes later, the sky opened and a downpour of Biblical proportions started. About a mile after the deluge started, we spotted Granny’s Café on the side of the road. We pulled off and enjoyed another fabulous local-diner lunch. I had chili and sweet potato fries – both of which were excellent. It turns out the owners were originally from the area where my parents live, so they had a nice chat.

Once lunch was finished, the rain had slowed to a more modest pace. So, we headed back out on the road. We got to the east shore of Lake Crescent and pushed the button to alert drivers that there were cyclists on the narrow and winding road. We were fortunate that there was roadwork happening with one-way traffic controls, which gave us predictable 20-minute sections with no cars.

We arrived at Lake Crescent Lodge at 2:00 p.m. and begged our way into our room by 2:30. Normally, check-ins aren’t allowed until 4:00, but a maintenance supervisor took pity on us in our soaking-wet state. We bathed and had a nap. Around 4:30, the rain had stopped, so we headed out for a hike to Marymere Falls. It was a beautiful stroll through the rain forest, and we were glad to have made the trip.

We finished the evening with a gourmet dinner at the lodge. It was well worth the price tag. Plus, we didn’t exactly have any other options at that point. After dinner, we sat on the verandah and watched the sun set.

September 18 - Forks, WA to Kalaloch, WA - 42 miles

We started the day at a no-name restaurant across the street from the hotel. The meal was serviceable and the cheapest breakfast of the trip, so I wasn’t complaining. The road out of Forks was winding and we had little shoulder all day. The traffic was extremely light, so the situation was workable. It seemed there was not much commercial traffic on this western leg of the loop, as most was concentrated between Port Townsend to Port Angeles and from Aberdeen south.

About eight miles before Kalaloch, we came to the coastline and got our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. That section was also in the national forest, so we enjoyed seeing mature landscape, and not the monoculture of the logging industry.

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon when we came into Kalaloch and the lodge. Kalaloch lodge has to be one of the best-kept secrets in Washington State. It is a wonderful spot to get away. We had a long stroll on the beach and took some nice photos of the epic driftwood.

We had a wonderful dinner right by the windows and watched the sun go down. A storm rolled in very quickly in the evening, and it rained all night. But, the rain cleared in time for our next riding segment.

September 20 - Amanda Park/Lake Quinault, WA to Montesano, WA - 51 miles

We awoke to a crisp, but pretty morning at Lake Quinault. We stopped at a café down the street and took a brief stroll through the Lake Quinault Lodge. A 3.5-mile ascent awaited us after leaving the lake, but it really was only a mile straight up and the rest was rolling. The sun was beautiful peeking through the dense trees.

We suffered the chip-seal surface on Highway 101 until Humptulips. We stopped at the local grocery to buy lunch goods and asked about the turnoff coming up. We were glad we did that, because our maps said to look for Hoquiam Road, but the lady at the grocery said to look for Youmans Road. It was labeled as Youmans on the highway and did not become Hoquiam road for several miles.

Shortly after turning off 101, we stopped for lunch. As we were eating, a couple young men in a truck alerted us to a cougar on the road. We spotted the cougar a couple minutes later and decided to continue on. In the small town of Wiskah, we stopped and finished our lunch. We then headed into the Winochee Valley, which was spectacular and quiet cycling. We had a short and steep climb followed by a descent on a dirt road. That was a little crazy for me, but the trikes fared pretty well. We were praying my mom did not get another bumped tire in that section.

The remainder of the trip through the valley was gorgeous. We stopped and chatted with a few locals – one lady had a spectacular flower garden. We snapped photos and tried to keep things moving, as we had our longest mileage day. The route dropped us right into downtown Montesano. We checked into the Monte Square Hotel adjoining the gas station. It was adequate accommodation with lots of space in the room, despite being on the wrong side of the tracks.

We had dinner at the Bee Hive Restaurant – a classic 50’s diner. I enjoyed my fries and pie, though the pie was not quite up to the level of the Halfway House in Brinnon.