September 20
44mi/71km
1900ft/580m elevation gain
I wondered how long we’d be back in the States before hearing gunfire. It is a regular noise on all the long hikes we’ve done. It’s not a sound we heard in Canada. It took one day. Similarly, cows are a constant feature of long trails in the US, particularly in the West. While we did see cows on Vancouver Island, we hadn’t seen any prior to that on this journey as far as I can recall. We saw lots of cows today. Also: deer, mostly in people’s yards.
In the morning, we took showers at the campground before heading out. Early on, we rode into the town of Sequim. We got some groceries, a new utility strap for my bike rack (I broke one yesterday), and coffee. It was a really nice section of trail through Sequim into Port Angeles, where we arrived around lunchtime. We have found the general etiquette around sharing a multi-use path to be better here than it was in Canada. (People would never alert you if they were passing, many dogs were not on leashes, that sort of thing.) Nearly everyone here waves or says hello to each other on the path, which is nice to see.
For awhile we rode right along the waterfront, which was great. We saw gulls and kingfishers. Other times we were in the trees. Fall is in full swing. I also saw some Chipping Sparrows today. At Port Angeles we stopped at the wharf for lunch. We had fried rockfish po’boy sandwiches, which were so filling I didn’t eat anything the rest of the day until we had dinner at camp.
After Port Angeles, the trail was on the roads a bit more often, although there were still a few nice segments of dedicated path. We have to plan our days a bit carefully for the next week or so, because there are not options for wild camping, so we need to stay in developed campgrounds. Our options were a campground on the beach at about 40mi/65km, or a more primitive campground in Olympic National Park at around 55mi/88km. We opted for the campground on the beach, figuring we could stop early and enjoy it. When we arrived, the camp host showed us the hiker/biker site which was totally secluded, and gave us a free bundle of firewood.
This campground also has showers, and since we arrived early, we took advantage as soon as the tent was set up. Two showers in one day! I’m glad we took showers this afternoon, because the water was warm but not hot, and that would be chilly in the morning.
One more detail that we’ve noticed coming into Washington: suddenly, there’s no bear-proofing. All through Alaska and Canada, every town, every rest stop, every campground, the trash cans were bear-proof. No more!
We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and a fire tonight. We also walked around the area. This area, Camp Hayden, was part of the Harbor Defense of Puget Sound during the WWII era, along with Fort Ebey, Fort Casey, Fort Worden, and more. The bunkers here housed massive 45ft(14m) guns, which were obsolete almost immediately after being built.
We are camped up near the bunkers, uphill from the main campground. We have the place to ourselves up here- a little bluff looking over the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We’re glad we stopped early for this.
