West Coast 2018

44 miles A much shorter day – we took our time all day. Apparently taking it easy every now and then is really enjoyable- who knew? A late start (8.45) followed by a look at the shipwreck  ‘The Peter Iredale’ circa 1900 on the beach. We headed off to a town called Seaside 19 miles south, in the sea (you’ve got to take your hat off to the imagination the pioneers had in their naming of towns). We had planned to hire boards and go for a surf here, but it was overcast, the water cold, and the surf wasn’t great so we had a slap up breakfast instead. We made sure we wouldn’t be left without food again so stocked up in the local supermarket. The afternoon ride of 25 miles was beautiful – with clear blue skies and fine views.  The hills to get the fine views weren’t so great. We arrived at our campsite - the hiker biker site at Nehelam Bay State Park then set off to the beach for a swim -  OMG the water is cold here! I made it to my stomach t...

71 miles The shop at Raymond that we bought our ingredients for our evening meal last night had an extensive stock of lagers, fizzy drinks, canned food, chocolate and crisps. Unfortunately it had almost nothing that we could use to make a healthy meal. We ended up buying two tins of chicken chowder and easy cook rice. It was horrible but the cold six pack of lager made up for it... For breakfast this morning we ate our last two cereal bars and an apple each. In the hope that we’d find a nice diner in the first 20 miles or so. After thirty miles we gave up and finished our snacks – some peanuts and chocolate. By the time we reached Astoria (58 miles) I was considering eating my own leg. We were ready to eat almost anything. After cycling past McDonald’s and KFC we found a a place that did Mexican tacos which went down a treat. We found an ice cream shop (as you’d expect the single scoop is about half a litre of ice cream) – all the better for having been so hungry. Tonigh...

100 miles (exactly) today. We set off with a huge breakfast (blueberry pancakes and bacon) thanks to Carolyn our ‘warm showers’ host. We made it to Montesano (approx 30 miles) for coffee and cake then Grayland for lunch by 2.15pm having covered 70 miles. Grayland is one of those places that is summed up precisely by its name.  We had decided on the coastal route (105) because we thought we’d have scenic views of the Pacific for 50 miles or so. As it happened we just had long stretches of boring tarmac with no views. Until that is we’d got well past Grayland. The sun came out and the views were wonderful. We saw more eagles as well as Blue Heron. A real treat. We are staying the night at a functional, but not particularly salubrious RV park.

Set off at 7.15 having woken to a beautiful sunrise... A bald eagle flew above me shortly after taking this photo. Didn’t get a photo of the eagle but did spot this humming bird on a feeder outside the diner we stopped at for breakfast. After another very substantial breakfast (I’m actually putting weight on, even with all the cycling), we set off down route 101 beside hood canal - which isn’t a canal at all but a beautiful inlet over 80 miles long and sometimes a few miles wide. We had our first swim (no photo thank goodness) which was just perfect - the temperature was hitting 95’ F, so a cool dip was just the job. We also paid our first visit to Wall Mart- ridiculously big. We bought chocolate and wet wipes- both of which are indispensable when cycling and camping. Tonight we are staying in Shelton with Caroline. We contacted her through warmshowers.org - a community of cycle tourists who put other cycle tourists up for the night.  Caroline doesn’t cy...

70 miles. It turned out that Larrabee State park campsite is about 30m from a freight railway line – with immense trains that ran at pretty much the frequency that it takes to go back to sleep from the previous one. So whilst the campsite was lovely the sleep wasn’t great. We left at 7.15 having fruit and cereal bars before setting off. We cycled for 25 miles before having breakfast. This was our first experience of a proper American breakfast. I went for pancakes, eggs and sausage. For those, like me, who are  uninitiated in such things, the pancakes here are not the slimline crepe lookalikes we have at home. No, they are at least 1cm think and the size of a dinner plate. They are eaten with vast quantities of maple syrup and butter. I was in heaven! My breakfast made the extra large Weatherspoons fry up seems like a slimmers world special. It did take the rest of the day to digest though. We carried on, making reasonable pace when a couple of bald headed eagles caug...

77 miles We left at 8am after breakfast at the hostel. After several wrong turns and much indecision we made our way through Vancouver which we found to be a beautiful city. As with most cities it had affluent neighbourhoods, like the Cypress street cycle route which was dappled shade and manicured lawns outside palatial houses, and less affluent - which we found on the other side of the Fraser river, with dilapidated houses and rusting pickups outside. We made good progress and were only delayed for half an hour getting into the USA, we had lunch at   Blaine on the harbour side to celebrate making it into our second country. We slowed somewhat as the temperature rose, making it to Bellingham to buy supplies by 5.30pm. The last few miles were slower still with the effects of jet lag and heat catching up with me, but we made it to a lovely wooded campsite at Larrabee State Park where we were greeted by another cyclist (Randy from Colerado) who was clutching two cold ca...

Sarah gave me a lift to the airport. It felt very strange to say goodbye to her and set off through security by myself. Dropping off the bike proved very straightforward - because it was oversized we were ushered to a special desk and escorted through in minutes About ten minutes after boarding the plane - in row 75D near the back, one of the stewards asked if I was Mr Hobson. I said I was (I’m not a great liar at the best of times and did not think it was a good time to test that particular skill). He asked me to come with him. Compliant being my middle name I jumped up and followed him - all the way to BUSINESS CLASS - oh yes all those dreams of leg room and free champagne came true! Thank you BA! The flight went brilliantly- I smiled for 10 hours straight. Jaw aches a bit.... On arrival at Vancouver put bike together in the airport baggage reclaim area then cycled into Vancouver - 15 miles Met up with Simon my cycling buddy who set off from home a few days ago. We ...