cramp-release grease feast

Evelyn and I rode around the Hood Canal. Counterclockwise.

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Here is a flickr set of the trip.

Friday

We met at Westlake Center just before 5pm. We took the 5:30 ferry to Bremerton.

There was a detour and we didn’t quite know which way to go after taking an alternate road in Bremerton, so we stopped and bought a map. Then we rode up a steep hill. Soon we found Campus Parkway, which was a wide gravel road into a cleared strip in the forest. We camped where the road narrowed. There were lots of ATV tracks and berries around, and a dead car in a dirt pit with a little makeshift shelter next to it.

Saturday

We awoke to rain, went back to sleep a few times until it stopped, and got up.

We gathered wild berries for our breakfast, but rode to square lake before preparing it. It was a nice lake, but the park had no trash or water.

We stopped at a newly installed pre-fab house for water, but it tasted gross and made us paranoid. We stopped at a highschool for water, but couldn’t find anything except a vending machine with bottled water, so we bought one. Then it rained. When the rain slowed, we left.

When we stopped for lunch at a crappy gyro deli on 106 it started pouring. We waited with two motorcyclists on Harleys until the rain slowed. One was a fireman and one was a Native American.

The rain continued periodically all day, but when it wasn’t raining, the sun shone through and warmed us and dried our clothing. At some point Evelyn got a flat tire.

We stopped at a vegetable stand at the south end of the canal to get vegetables for dinner. We got peppers, okra and apples.

We tasted and bought a bottle at the Hoodsport Winery before turning inland from the canal. The road to Lake Cushman was a huge hill. About 3/4 of the way up, we were resting and a woman pulled up and offered to let us stay at her house near Lake Cushman. We went to the park by the lake, but it wasn’t a state park anymore, it was a private campground. There was one site left. We had a campfire with wet wood that was hard to light.

Sunday

Lake Cushman had a lot of huckleberries, which we had in our cereal for breakfast. They were sour and good. I dug up a small beargrass plant, Evelyn took some pictures of the lake, and we set off for the north end of the canal.

It was a hilly ride. Evelyn got another flat tire once we got back on 101. It was a blowout through the hole made during the flat on Sunday. We stopped and constructed a boot from a mini vodka bottle on the side of the road. The replacement tube had 2 holes that needed to be patched before we could use it, and my pump stopped working. I oiled it and tightened it and hoped it would work later. We inflated the tire with her pump.

We stopped at the Pleasant Harbor marina for lunch. Soon we left the canal for Walker Pass, which I had not realized was almost 800 feet high. I guess the road to Lake Cushman was almost 1000 feet, but it was hotter when we climbed Walker Pass. The ride seemed long as we headed for the Hood Canal bridge. I got a flat tire. My pump worked. After the Hood Canal Bridge the ride didn’t seem so long. We got home and ate at Tacos Guayamas. I had a wet burrito al pastor.