Ride to Port Angeles

Neah Bay to Port Angeles: 72.1 miles
Total Mileage: 448.4 miles
Quote of the Day: "The more ups and downs, the more joy I feel.  The greater the fear, the greater happiness I feel." -Jack Kerouac

Shockingly there was another great sunrise this morning over Canada!  This morning we had to do a bit of backtracking to get out of Neah Bay, but that meant we would be riding along the coast for several miles before heading inland and back into the forest.  I may or may not have been involved in a crash while telling my one and only ghost story.  Thankfully my fall was broken by a grassy ditch so I ended up with a cut up hand and some bruises; the bike remained unscathed. 

After a hill climb, just a few miles from lunch, we pulled over to wait for the rest of our group and snacked on some blackberries. 

Right before lunch we were surprised by a 0.75 mile 9% hill climb.  I had been having a few problems with my gears and sadly half way up my chain fell off.  After putting it back on I set out to tackle the rest of the climb.  One rider did some great chalking close to the top and there were high fives all around when we arrived. 

Proof of the hill!

Today's lunch was on the beach and did not disappoint.  Before the final turn we did have a run in with a large semi truck.  We were on a huge descent and for safety reasons riders tend to put some major space between themselves.  Because the roads here are pretty curvy it makes it hard to keep track of people until everyone arrives at the bottom.  Out of no where after being unsafely passed by several cars we heard the blasting horn sound and immediately our minds went to worst case scenario.  We never found out what made the driver hit his horn, but were grateful that everyone arrived safely.

Spontaneous dance party!!

The ride post lunch was not the easiest, and we unfortunately had a lot of climbing to do after lunch.  The first hill became a running joke because after each turn the trees seemed to level out, but the thing kept going.  Ah the life of Drift West'er.

As we rolled through a town called Joyce we saws some great street name.

Once we hit downtown and caught the bike trail we assumed the ride would be relatively flat one.  Sadly, we could not have been more wrong.  It was a slow and steady climb for the last few miles and then we made our final turn of the day.  We were greeted by a huge mile long climb.  Louisa had been bonking pretty hard all afternoon and after one look at the hill she broke down.  The two of us walked the last mile and were greeted by some AC and cookies at the host.