Day 140 Port Angeles, Washington to Cobble Hill, BC: We Made It!
We walked into the town after midnight and spotted several motels with vacancies. But hey, who is going to pay for a motel room for just a few hours? (Don't answer that!) At the terminal building we found some wide benches around back. So that was our last camping spot on this long journey.
Our final camp spot. Note that even homeless people can have a MEC sleeping pad on their bench.
By 6:30 staff began to arrive and by 7:00 they opened the doors to the waiting room. We brushed our teeth, ate our yogurt, and all was well.
By the way, here is a map for the bike trail we followed. We found it in a "maps" box on the trail, but only at the end. There is a companion map for the next county to the east. Both would have been very helpful to have had in advance. Fortunately, we had Bill Abbey, which actually was better!
We found this map too late to use. For cycling this region (Jefferson and Clallam Counties) check www.ptbikes.org Note that the quaint covered bridge on the cover is at the bottom of the "black hole" from yesterday's blog. It all depends on your point of view (and the time of day (or night)).
The Coho is a smaller boat than a typical BC Ferry, and it wallowed a bit on the way over. Still, it was a smooth and quick ride, and we soon were approaching the familiar sights of the Capital.
The iconic blue bridge. Unfortunately it is slated to be replaced
Slowly cruising the bikes through downtown, we appreciated again the things that make us at home here: A gentle sun with non-sticky warmth, flowers everywhere, sedate traffic and reasonably polite drivers, the smell of the ocean, the views of the Olympic mountains.
An off note. The adjacent road has only one lane. If the cyclists take that lane the speed limit automatically becomes about 15 kph. Is that really what the City wants?
Our destination was the bench set up by the family in memory of Hilda and Walter, Dodie's parents. This older lady was there, taking advantage of the rest spot.
We returned to the Blue Bridge and began our cycle along the Galloping Goose trail. This would take us to the Lochside Trail, from which we could hop to the Mill Bay ferry, cross the Finlayson Arm, and cycle the 15 last km to home.
A cafe near the beginning of the Galloping Goose bike trail
Canada's most costly danish, at $3 plus 42 cents tax. This danish and sandwich cost $11.20 in total. The danish was just OK, but the wood fired oven bread in the sandwich was top notch.
So at last we join the other cyclists whose blogs we have been watching. One by one they landed on their home perches, and were silent.
We have landed, but we still have a little to say. We need to summarize what we have learned, about ourselves, about other people, about equipment. We need to thanks those who have helped us. We need to finally answer the Questions we Asked Ourselves from the beginning of this blog. All this will be for another day (probably tomorrow). Right now we are really beat, like suddenly we are feeling the 7,653 kilometers we travelled. There is a bed with a real mattress calling to us, but it's been a great ride!
Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles) Total: 7,653 km (4,753 miles)
