Washington State Ferry – Gav's Cycling Adventures

Seattle to Port Townsend – Stage 1

After 5 days of travel, acclimatisation, sightseeing & final preparation, today marked our first day of cycling on our big adventure. The plan was to get to breakfast for 8am, so we had plenty of time to load the bikes & ride the 2 miles to the Washington State Ferry Terminal for the 9.35am departure. However, we hadn’t factored in that the short order cook would choose today to have a lie-in!!! The outcome was breakfast took more than an hour & it quickly became clear we wouldn’t be catching our planned ferry.

By the time we were fully loaded (the panniers, plus tent, sleeping bag, air mattress & rucksack weigh a touch over 20 kg -about 44 lbs in old money) & ready to leave the Holiday Inn (our base for the last 4 nights) it was almost 9.45am & light rain had started to fall. Not the start we planned, but in the grand scheme of things, this wasn’t going to define the trip, the day or the morning. We made our way across town & joined the queue (or a line as was pointed out to me) for the 10.40am ferry crossing to Bainbridge Island.

The 35 minute crossing offered up great views of the Seattle skyline & as I was lining up my photo the Bainbridge Island to Seattle ferry chose that moment to cross behind us.

We were planning to take the main routes across Bainbridge Island on our way to Port Townsend, but in a strange twist of fate, the delay to our departure resulted in us meeting a fellow cycling aficionado by the name of Bob at our coffee stop. He’s a local & he shared his advice on how to avoid the busy roads for the next 15 miles – he’s a keen long distance rider who spent 6 weeks or so earlier this year cycling part of the Southern Tier route across the USA. He also kindly shared his phone number & offered to help us if we get stuck.

Bob’s route was an absolute gem as it started off taking us through the Norwegian settler town of Poulsbo – as we left town, we had the road almost to ourselves & we also kept being rewarded with huge views of the coastline. Partway along Bob’s detour an approaching cyclist waved to us & the next thing we knew he spun around & started riding with us. We had a very pleasant chat for about 20 minutes or so before he needed to go his own way – before he left us, he shared another detour to the beautifully named Paradise Bay Road.

These encounters are events we’d hoped to have at some point along our adventure – to experience 2 such meetings on the first day was amazing! As we carried on along Paradise Bay Road, we were teased with views of the Puget Sound, as well as passing fields of horses, cattle & llamas!!! We passed through the idyllic town of Port Ludlow where once again we could see across to mainland USA – by now the light rain & slate grey skies of this morning were a long distant memory.

As we reached Port Hadlock, we returned to the busy main road that we’d been fortunate to avoid for the last 30 miles. However, after a long drag up to the airfield we picked up a nice tailwind & descended into Glen Cove. From here we picked up a delightful gravel bike trail that hugged the coast, then cut across what looked like a boat graveyard – further research shows that the Aleutian Express is undergoing repairs. Before we knew it, we’d been delivered us to our hotel for the evening – the Aladdin Inn is situated right on the shoreline & the third photo below is from our hotel room!

In the excitement of the late start & our detours, we didn’t stop for lunch, however The Bayview Restaurant ensured that we received a feast fit for kings! The salad, 12 ounce rib & coconut cream pie didn’t stand a chance!!! I washed it down with a Port Townsend IPA while Sean chose a red ale as we relaxed from our sea view! Should you ever visit, I would absolutely recommend the Bayview Restaurant – top quality food & a really friendly welcome.

I made a last minute decision to write up today’s adventure, as it was the first day of us riding & because it ended up being so different (in a very good way) to what we had expected! While tomorrow looks set fair for a glorious day in the saddle (with another ferry crossing), it looks like our planned route across the Cascades may not yet be open. However, that’s a problem to sort out another day – tomorrow actually!!!

I’m hoping to do another update next weekend. but will try & post a few photos on Inst & Facebook.

Travel, final preparation & sightseeing ahead of the Grand Depart.

The adventure began when Barry The Taxi picked us up from Fishponds at 9am on Monday 25th April. First stop was the Heathrow Hilton Garden Inn at T2 / T3, prior to taking our PCR tests in the afternoon. We received our negative results at 6pm & then completed the final paperwork & checked in online prior to relaxing with dinner & a couple of drinks.

After a light breakfast, we popped our boxed bikes & suitcases onto a trolley & walked them across to check-in at T3, where we were looked after by the Virgin Atlantic team – our bikes were too big to fit through the normal queueing system, so we were taken to the express team where we were fast-tracked through check-in process. Within 30 minutes of arriving at the airport, we’d completed check-in, dropped off our oversized bikes & were clearing security & chilling out as we waited for our gate to be called.

We were flying Premium Economy, so were greeted with champagne as we took our seats for the flight. We took off on time at 11.50am & this felt like the real start point of our adventure.

A mere 10 hours later (after 3 films & a lot of feeding & watering by our cabin crew) we were wheels-down at Seattle-Tacoma. It took about an hour to get through immigration, baggage collection & customs. After a 40 minute taxi ride, we were registered in the Holiday Inn Downtown, our hotel for the next 4 nights. Seattle is 8 hours behind the UK, so our body-clock believed it was 1am on Wednesday morning, but our watches told us it was 3pm on Tuesday, so we quickly unpacked & got out for some sightseeing & a couple of celebratory beers (by the time we returned to the hotel at 9.30pm, we’d had 6 pints, but we slept well & avoided any jetlag!).

We enjoyed a big breakfast on Wednesday morning, before heading up to the Space Needle to get the sightseeing underway. Sean & I both struggle with heights, but sometimes you just have to face your fear & go outside your comfort zone. I’ve a feeling we’ll be doing a lot of this over the coming months!

We had our first experience of the vast number of sculptures in the city as we walked through Olympic Park, a stand-alone part of the Seattle Art Museum. Although the temperatures are very much like spring in Bristol, we’ve been really fortunate that the weather has stayed dry while we’ve been out & it’s been sunny most of the time.

The Seattle Art Museum itself has a great piece of live action installation art – a huge man swinging a hammer! I’ve probably not done it justice with the video below, but you’ll get the idea of what I mean.

Some of my longer standing bank colleagues may remember taking a course titled ‘Fish!’ – it featured a company based in Pike Place Market who sold fish to the general public. I’m delighted to report they’re still up to their fish throwing antics – this is a PLAICE well worth a visit!!

The whole waterfront area from the State Ferry Terminal (where our adventure will start with a boat crossing to Bainbridge Island) to Pike Place has some big views across the bay. I stopped briefly to get a couple of photos of all the people queueing outside the very first Starbucks, as well as looking at some of the colourful fruit & veg stalls.

At various moments over the last few days, the Space Needle has popped into view – if ever you visit Seattle, it’s well worth making time to visit the park around the Space Needle & take the lift to the top. As you queue for the lift, take time to learn all about how & why the Space Needle & adjacent monorail was built.

In addition to sightseeing, we’ve also run around town picking up a few last minute items ahead of the adventure starting. This took us to some places that we wouldn’t have thought to visit normally, We passed the Public Library, walked down to Lumen Field (home of the Seattle Seahawks football team & Seattle Sounders soccer team) & spotted a dining cart that had been converted into a banana stand!

We’ve walked in the region of 7 or 8 miles a day, so food & drink has been an important part of our planning! I’ve enjoyed trying a few craft IPA’s like Space Needle & Pine Place, while Sean’s been testing out some of the red ales.

We’ve been fortunate to have a small, greenspace just across the road from us – we’ve seen squirrels galore in there, as well as a couple of rabbits. In addition to the wildlife, the park has been planted with striking flowers, as well as being a quiet space with a large chess set, Jenga & Connect 4 are available too.

This morning we packed our panniers with all the kit we plan to use over the next 6 months – a few of my observant friends may have noticed that all our photos show us in the same shirts. That’s because we’ve been wearing the same set of clothes since we started our travelling on Monday morning – we’re both now looking forward to throwing them away tomorrow morning!!

Our bikes were dismantled by 73 Degrees in Keynsham 10 days ago & MBR Bikes of Seattle have done a great job rebuilding the bikes for us – we put the bikes through their paces yesterday on a short shakedown ride to South Lake Union. The big adventure begins in earnest tomorrow, as we head towards Port Townsend – by the end of the day we’ll be even further West than we are at the moment!