I looked forward to this ride for months, excited that I could check off 2 goals with 1 ride: Ride a National Park and bike an epic climb. I signed up for the century route, but didn’t properly train for it. So I ended up cutting the ride short to be safe, and kept all the best highlights of the route that I could. I loved this ride and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Ride Summary

Experience

Super friendly riders. Every rider passing greeting me with a friendly good morning, and most shared some small talk. Even though I rode alone, I felt like I was riding with friends.
Riders spanned from children, mountain bikers, casual cruisers, jeans on clunkers, bikepackers, ebikes, people like me, all the way to flashy cyclists and outright speed demons.
While there were only 800 riders, I was always within reach of others on Hurricane Ridge.
A large team of riders clipped a laminated photo on their backs, depicting a young and cheerful cyclist. He was a friend and ride organizer who passed from COVID just 2 weeks before the ride. I don’t know how they shared this explanation of him again and again without tearing up, because I teared up just hearing about it. When I shared this with B, he said, “Well, he should have been vaccinated”. THe thing is, maybe he came down with a COVID a month ago when vaccinations were available, but maybe he’s been in the hospital since January. I didn’t ask. COVID death is interested as it’s largely preventable by changing your behavior, but like all illnesses, he might have done everything right and still died.
Riding through Elwha felt like the opposite, I was a tiny speck, alone in a vast wilderness.
I awed at the wilderness of it all. I could see into underbrush and trees that probably doesn’t often feel the touch of man. I recently watched the Twilight movies, so I played the soundtrack for myself while riding. I longed for the large expanse of northwestern rainforest the movie depicted and was just out of my reach from the bike.

Weather

Shore breezes added refreshing coolness and the blue sky allowed the sunny summer heat to come through. The early morning brought the first rain in weeks. This day had a little bit of everything, and it was all perfect. Just as I started to overheat, I’d turn a corner that opened up to the cooling sea. Just a I got to cold, the trees would open up and I’d toast a little in the sun.

Spotted

Unusually large amount of insects, spiders, caterpillars and worms on the asphalt.
Beautiful bald eagle in flight overhead
Deer at the summit

Roads

I think little fairies swept all the roads for us, there wasn’t a spec of rubble. The roads were lovely.
Elwha was a little confusing. Permanent-looking signs said that this part of the National Park was not open to motor vehicles….and yet I stayed on a road the whole time. Why was the road there?
The Olympic Discovery Trail made the route feel calm and safe, but the Waterfront Trails was confusing, poorly signed, haphazard and in poor condition.

Mechanicals

My bike fell at the first rest stop. I now have 2 little scrapes on the paint job. The brake hoods are a little bent, and the fall added a slow, high-pitched squeak that followed me the rest of the way up the hill. I couldn’t figure out where it was.
My pedals locked up during the descent. While far less concerning that brakes locking up, I did feel uneasy. Luckily I was able to release it without having to slow down.