September 10, 2026
It’s a travel day but first I had breakfast with my mom and 3 of her friends in the chow hall. One is 99 and you wouldn’t know it. All really nice folks.
I rearranged my gear and took out stuff I wouldn’t need on an overnighter and left it in my blue backpack. I got every thing else arranged and positioned things so I could get to them as I needed during the day. I got on the road at 10:15, right on my schedule for the 30 minute ride to Port Angeles. The weather very nice, about 60°F and no wind.
The ride went well until I hit bad traffic due to construction and we creeped along for miles. It finally opened up and I arrive at the Port Angeles ferry terminal about 11:15.
I was told where to park the bike and then instructed to go inside to check in. I have a reservation for both directions so paid for that, $50 each way and the checked that I had a passport. I also had to sign a waiver that they are not responsible for damage to my motorcycle.
I met a couple who were booking for a ferry ride tomorrow. They are from Pennsylvania and doing an around the country trip to finish off visiting the remainder of the 50 states they hadn’t visited yet. This is for their upcoming 50th wedding anniversary.
I went out to my bike just as another one pulled in. It’s a Honda dual sport and looks very nice. The gent riding it went in to check and then he and I spent most of the rest of the trip hanging out and chatting. He is a retires US Navy submarine commander. Very impressive.
The ferry showed up. It’s huge.
They loaded the cars first and then the bikes. There were three of us now as a guy showed up on a noisy Indian. When the staff pointed to where we park, the guy didn’t notice the curb drove over it, and it made a load clank after the rear tire cleared and the pipes struck it. I think he was embarrassed a bit.
After loading, I tied my bike up to the stair railing next to me the roped they had hanging there. Then I pushed a big wooden block under the right side. The boat can roll a bit and this is supposed to keep the bike upright.
Unlike riding the Seattle ferries, passengers are not allowed to remain with their vehicles the other guy and I headed up to an upper deck and sat outside, chatting, and enjoying the beautiful weather.
The boat did roll a bit but a check was made and the bikes were OK.
After about 90 minutes we docked in Victoria, a beautiful city. There were two HUGE cruise ships docked there.
We got the OK to return to the vehicle deck and I went down and untied my bike and got ready to disembark. I was directed to the exit and pulled in line for the immigration check. It took about 10 minutes to get to my turn and I was at the gate for less than a minute. He scanned my passport, asked a few questions, and I was on my way.
I had put the campground in my phone as a destination and it talked through getting out of the harbor area BUT, OMG, the TRAFFIC. Stop and go for 20 minutes. Then it turned out there was an accident up ahead so I did a detour and got around some of it but then ran into construction. I think that by the time I cleared the city it had been about 40 minutes.
The ride to the campground was nice. A pretty fast road, curves, through a forest. I pulled over at one point and changed my speedometer to Km. The navigation app sent me down a wrong road so I had to backtrack a mile to find the campground.
I arrived just after 4pm. It’s a nice site, all gravel that looked like it had been recently raked. I changed clothes and then called home. The is the fist campground in a long time that has cell service.
I got the tent set up and dinner started, Mango Sticky Rice.
After I ate, I went out for my evening hike. The water is nearby about a kilometer and a half hike down a moderately steep trail.
I was the only one there except for the maintenance guy. I walked around and took some photos. I shot a short video of what I think was otter.
Here are some other views of the area and some more animals.
It was a 30 mile + 75 Km day or something like that.
No comments:
Post a Comment