Feb. 23, 2011, 3:38 p.m.

Moustache Ride 2009: Deception Pass State Park to Kitsap Memorial State Park

In the summer of 2009 I rode my bike 2100 miles down the Pacific coast from Blaine, WA to San Ysidro, CA. I started riding on Aug. 12th and reached the border on Nov. 22nd. This is my ride diary. The prelude to this diary can be found here.

Deception Pass State Park to Kitsap Memorial State Park

Day 2 (8/13)
67.75 mi
10.2 av
6:36 hr
140 mi tot
1824.2 odo

First Morning on the road! I successfully poached the previous night's campsite! I packed up and ate breakfast by the sea. I met an out of luck fisherman who was going to get a beer instead, said he had a PhD in drinking beer. Then I was on my way at 8:30. The ride in the morning was rolly and cloudy with short scattered showers.

I stopped in Coupeville for lunch. I decided to get a cauppichino to lift my spirits and it did! I also stopped at another farm-side produce stand and got a zucchinin and some blueberries. Yum! I rode a short distance to the south end of Whidbey Island and stopped at Ft. Casey. It was great. The Ft. was built in 1893. It had all the concrete buildings standing complete with some of the artillery guns from the time. I went wild taking pics all over the place. There was also a light house with some of the original shells. They were huge, 213 pounds! In hindsight I stayed way too long.

I saw a ferry come in and leave which I should have been on. When I did get on a ferry it was 3:00 pm. While waiting I met a Canadian couple taking a bike tour around the sound. They were nice, I swapped info with the husband and showed off my bike buckets to both. On the ferry I talked to another guy who was riding his bike on the ferry but just needed to get to Pt. Townsend. He was a bit of a loon. Kept going off about how Jefferson County (Pt. Townsend) was communist because they stole his car. Later in the conversation he mentioned that he did pay the car bill in time, go figure. He had a cool radio that was solar powered. We compared our gadgetry mostly.

I got to Townsend at 4:45. The day I set out for myself was still 30 mi. off. I should have camped outside of Pt. Townsend but I decided to keep going like yesterday. It was very foolish of me. When I started to ride the weather got more and more cloudy. I ran into scattered showers again. As I was riding I noticed that the forests are super lush like the rain forests of the other side of the Olympic Mountains. It seemed like a bad omen to me. I really pushed myself. Towards the end I was feeling pretty desperate and I started searching for places along the road to pitch my tent. I may have done just that except I didn’t have enough water. The lesson is, stop over extending yourself jackass!

At the end of the day came the Hood Canal bridge. It was a new shiny bridge with metal grating on the roadway. I soon learned that it was horrible to ride on. Everything was fine at first. Then I developed a little speed wobble so I slowed down. That just made it worse and I almost lost control on the hwy! I felt like I was very close to having a horrible accident. I was able to stop and regain my composure before going on. The trick is to ride all the way on the right side where there was metal plating set over the grating. I finally ended up at the Kitsap Memorial SP, outside of Poulsbo.

I took my first shower of the trip today. I had planned to be a stinky biker and not worry about my smell but it got to be too much for me. I wanted to take a shower in the park but the showers only took small bills and the park office was closed so I couldn’t get change. I ended up taking a free, extremely cold, and very public shower outside of the restrooms by the beach. It was a humbling experience. I vowed to take real showers from that day onward.

Tomorrow may be another long day. Hopefully with better weather.