Olympic National Park and Hurricane Ridge – I highly recommend them!
On this day I need to ride to and sort of through Seattle to my Airbnb, then clean up, do some laundry, figure out some food for the next few days, and sleep in a real bed.
I had thought about heading straight to the Airbnb, but then I thought, “I’m on the Olympic Peninsula, and may never be again, so I should sample at least one part of Olympic National Park.” The Hurricane Ridge entrance was maybe 20 minutes away, so I decided to check that out . . . and I’m very glad I did!
The ride/road up Hurricane Ridge is part of the mountains I’ve been seeing from the campground by Port Angeles, and it was much better in person, though as I was approaching the beginning of the road, and/or the entrance to the Park, it started to get really smoky from a wildfire in the area. That almost convinced me to turn around thinking about smoke inhalation and no scenic views, but fortunately the smoky area was limited, and the road soon climbed above the smoke.
Most of the attached photos are from that ride, with a bit of a hike at the top.
The trees and the forest they make up changed visibly as the road ascended, and the lower forests were so thick and ancient looking, like you could get lost in there for days or weeks. One of my photos tries unsuccessfully to capture that feeling.
After Olympic NP I rode to the Kingston ferry for the crossing over to the mainland (is that what it’s called here??).
Being new to ferries I was waiting in line waaaayyy back from the front when a WSF employee drove by and asked if I was getting on the ferry. I told him I was and he said to follow him all the way to the front. Pedestrians, bicycles, and motorcycles have the honor on these ferries to be first on, first off, and go straight to the front of the line.
When I got to the staging area there were two other motorcycles (bikes) and a scooter. One of the bikes was a black Triumph Tiger 900 very similar to mine, ridden by an 81 year old British expat, and the other bike was ridden by his 77 year old friend and neighbor. These two guys do a lot of riding together, and we talked and exchanged life stories while waiting and then all the way across the channel.
From there it was about a 30-minute ride to the Airbnb, and time for clean-up operations to begin.
Photo gallery of day 8
