Olympic Peninsula Day 4

Note that this post will be late; at Sol Duc Lodge in the  Olympic National Forest we do not have internet or cell service. In fact we don’t have a telephone or a TV. OMG, what will we do?

One of several building murals on the side of buildings in Port Angeles

I had told the riders that day 4 reminded me of the 4th letter in the alphabet because the ride was both Dangerous and Difficult. The dangerous section was from mile 16 to 26 along the south shore of Crescent Lake.  This was US 101 and there was no shoulder. But the main danger resulted from continuous blind curves – drivers could come around a corner and see cyclists, totally unprepared. Immediately after the dangerous section we had a 15 mile climb, the difficult section.  It turned out these descriptions were much overblown; everyone got through both sections with flying colors.

Also, as the rode deeper into the rain forest the rain forecast changed from 65% probability of rain to 33% and the further we rode the more sun we saw.  The last 12 miles into the national park was a beautiful forested area with very large trees, particularly Hemlock and Douglas Firs.

Photo from the west end of Crescent Lake.  We had a picnic lunch at this spot.

Near Sul Doc we stopped at a place were you might see salmon jumping.  The photo at left is from this spot; it brought back memories.

When my family moved from Kansas City, Kansas to Old Ocean, Texas in 1949.  All of the trees in the area (Brazoria County) were covered with Spanish peat moss.  It provided an eerie feeling, particularly at night. But the moss has disappeared from my boyhood home. I’m not sure why.