Day 8: Bogaschiel State Park to Humptulips

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Written by guest blogger, Craig Skiles. (Post 9 of 14)
Originally posted here.
Commentary [in green] provided by yours truly.
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Sunday June 14, 2015, 68 miles (109 km) - Total so far: 417 miles (671 km)

Once again, we had a beautifully clear and cool morning of riding. However, we did actually see some of the famous Pacific Sea fog as we approached Ruby beach.

Our view at Ruby Beach.

[Sarah: Craig and I experienced unseasonably perfect weather on our trip down the Pacific Coast. The photo above is far more representative of a typical June morning along the coast of the Olympic Peninsula. We only experienced thick fog for a few short miles on our ride. Not once did we need to don our raingear.]

Colorful cairns marking the ocean.

We stopped at a couple of the beach pull-offs and hiked down to the water. But we didn't seem to be too excited about being there. I think the fog and the tourists put a damper on our enthusiasm.

We entered and exited the Olympic National Park a handful of times on the trip.

At Kalaloch Resort, we stopped at the store to use the restrooms and eat lunch. Sarah had turned me on to eating ripe avocados with just a little salt sprinkled on them. So to prove to her just what kind of gentleman I am, I had bought an avocado a few days ago and planned to share it with her today. I cut it in half, ate my half, then showed her how lucky she was to have a riding partner like me.

She set her half on the bench next to me and then ran off to go get her spoon. At this same time, a crow swooped down next to my bike and looked to be headed toward my food bag. So I jumped up from the bench and shooed it away. By now Sarah had returned to the vacant bench only to find her avocado missing. She asked me what I did with it and thinks I'm joking when I say, "I don't know." She didn't believe me until we found a crow across the street munching on an empty avocado peel. She'll probably never trust me again.

[Sarah: I thought to myself: "How kind of Craig to share an avocado with me! But then how devious of him to play a prank on me by hiding the avocado!" There was no pranking here; Craig is indeed 100% gentleman. I was livid when I saw the MF'ing crow across the street with the empty avocado peel. Dude, I was salivating for that avocado! How dare you steal what Craig so graciously gave to me! What a loss!]

After the avocado robbery, we headed out onto Hwy 101 and prepared to cross the Quinault Indian Reservation. The road was pleasantly hilly and with moderate traffic. The fog had lifted, and it was starting to get hot by the time we rolled into Amanda Park on Lake Quinault.

There is a great little store there, and we bought lots of junk to eat including Dr. Pepper and Snickers Bars. A few minutes after arriving, Sarah said she could hear her tire leaking air. I thought she was going crazy, but sure enough her rear tire was flat after about ten minutes. She quickly fixed the flat, and we had to work as a team to get the Marathon Plus tires back onto the rim.

[Sarah: Hard-headed me is usually pretty adamant about wanting to take care of myself. But I appreciated Craig's assistance with repairing the flat. The experience proved that we worked well as a team.

We planned to wild camp tonight just north of Humptulips, so we spent the next hour riding down every poorly traveled dirt road until we found a nice place just off of the Moclips Hwy.

[Sarah: Craig isn't kidding when he said that we rode down every dirt road. Being an easy-going guy, I'm sure Craig would have been fine crashing at the first stealth possibility. Alas, Craig humored me by continuing our search for a wild camping spot. Thank you, Craig, for at least pretending to share in the joy of finding the perfect spot.]

The mosquitoes were bad, so we quickly ate and jumped into our tents to read and talk. Sarah was worried that I wasn't comfortable wild camping since I was a retired old man. But I bragged about how extensive my backpacking and adventure racing experience has been, and she was amazed and awed at my comfort with camping in strange places.

[Sarah: Indeed, Craig exhibited no trepidation. I was impressed that an old, retired, happily man married was comfortable wild camping. Craig passed my wild camping test with flying colors!]

Our "wild camping" spot.
We were only passed by one automobile.

Today's route: