June 17, 2025
Day 20 - Rack it
Port Ludlow to Silverdale, but not like I planned
Today is the last day of our tour, our final 27 miles returning from Port Ludlow back to Mary and Sandy’s house in Silverdale, WA. I was planning to ride; however last night I realized it would be better to change that plan.
I mentioned a while back that someone had apparently backed into our bike rack and bent it. Since then, Rich had located a folding Thule rack that I’d had my eye on at the Trek store in Silverdale and put it on hold. He intended to drive to Silverdale this morning to purchase the rack.
However, there are a couple of issues that make me think I should ride along, or even drive. First, we have some questions about the rack re suitability for our Specialized e-bikes. A friend of mine has this same rack, but she has a road bike, and Jim said he thinks the arms that hold the bike frame to the rack are difficult to use. Secondly, Rich is still sick with what seems to be a sinus infection, and is experiencing “fog brain,” in part due to the cough medicine he’s taking. If there are questions, we should make any decision together.
Bottom line, I’m driving, and we’ll go straight to Silverdale when we leave the hotel this morning.
First order of business is to figure out how to get two bikes on our bent rack. If we can’t do that, we’ll figure out a way to put it in the back of the truck and pile the luggage around it. Fortunately, we’re able to get the tweaked arm up high enough to bungee cord the bike to it. We add a bike lock to make it extra secure, wave goodbye to Jim and Gen, and we’re off.
It’s only an 18-mile drive to the Trek store via the highway. We try out the rack inside the store using my bike. It turns out that the Thule rack won’t work for us. Its attachment arms have a limited range and are fiddly to work with and even the store salesperson can’t figure out how to attach it to my bike frame. Well, that settles that.
And we’ll make it home okay using our current bungee system.
Now we’re at Sandy and Mary’s enjoying a visit with Sandy (Mary’s back in Napa) and organizing for our trip home.
Our Salish Sea tour may be over, but this journal is not quite done yet. Stay tuned for a final entry reflecting on the tour and what I’ve learned along the way.
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On the plus side — due to rain, I didn’t get a video when crossing the famous Hood Canal bridge when we rode over it the first time, so Rich recorded this crossing from the passenger seat of the truck. And here it is…
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