After a warm and friendly visit with Helouise and her kitten, Tabitha Trout, we continued on our journey. Early Tuesday morning Helouise filled us with delicious egg benny rocket fuel and we rode to Sidney (30km North of Victoria) to cross the US border and take a ferry to Anacortes on Fidalgo Island – the “real” start to our journey in a way. We would be in a foreign country and things would be ever so slightly different. As Anna put it: “I’m in the US now so I can’t blaspheme.”

That day we rode along the west coast of a worm of land between Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands, taking us through forest on windy roads, across the beautiful Deception Pass (below), by sweet smelling farm land, along a never-ending 3-hilled road next to the ocean and exposed to winds picking up and finally, after a frustrated hour trying to find it, to Fort Ebey State Park.

To tell you the truth, Washington has always seemed a bit…spooky to me with trees that seem a darker green and older farms, roads, and houses in the rural areas. That day reinforced my feeling of eerie Washington. It may have been the colder weather but everywhere we went, the streets were empty of people. There were cars on the road and people in buildings but no one out walking. There were newly built but never sold and lost-looking homes on the coast. And there were the cars that rode past our waving them down to ask for directions when we couldn’t find the campground.

Maybe it was also due to the day being harder than the two before. It started with rain and ended windy. Fort Ebey was further out than we expected and, yes, we really couldn’t find the campground. We spent an hour going down the right road, doubting it, going back and then down a wrong road, back up, etc. In the end we found a map of the park and, the road to the campground being quite a long ways around, we took a shortcut on a hiking trail that ended up being fairly steep to push our bikes up but thankfully, a shortcut. I almost cried.

Supper was a can of chili and Foster’s from a Texaco gas station picked up in doubt that we’d find a grocery store (and we never did come across one). A little sketchy but very yummy after the long day and enticing to the raccoon stalking our campsite.

The next day we woke to clearer skies and a good view of the Olympic peninsula. Tired and cold we were slow to get going but eventually left camp around noon and biked to Keystone Harbor to take a ferry to Port Townsend.

From Port Townsend we biked south, over the Hood Canal Floating Bridge and to a campsite shortly after, Kitsap Memorial State Park. It was a much easier, sunny day than the one before. We filled out panniers with good food from a hippy grocery store in Port Townsend and the floating bridge was beautiful to ride over with a lowish sun making the calm canal waters multi-coloured.

We are getting more skillful hanging out food from trees but did lose a foot of rope to Kitsap Park.

Day 5 started with a lofty goal of getting to Tacoma in the evening. It would be a long day and not possible in the event of injury or flat tires but we were motivated knowing that there would be a few days break in Tacoma. From camp we bike to and past Bremerton, around Port Orchard and to SE Sedgwick Rd (160). This road would take us to the Fauntleroy ferry terminal but first, it would almost chew our legs up with a series of long, steep hills. Lunch on the ferry to Vashon Island was devoured.

Vashon Island was only a detour to avoid the Tacoma Narrows Bridge but ended up seeming like a pretty cool place. Would be nice to go back there some day. It seemed a little touristy but not as bad as some islands get and the people were really nice. Coming up the hill from the ferry terminal a man turning onto the road yelled from his car: “You’re almost at the flats! Three hundred more yards you can do it!” I appreciated the encouragement.

And finally it was flat. We biked to a ferry terminal at the south end of the island and boarded a 6:30 ferry to Tacoma – joyous that we’d obtain our goal by getting there in the evening.

It was still a 100km day – more than I’ve ever biked in a day. And it ended with a game of frogger across a few roads and across railway tracks. Not that there was any train activity but I still had all those movie scenes where someone gets stuck in the track and then a train comes in my head. And the bikes would not make for a quick getaway.

This ends the “ferry riding” portion of the trip. We’ve biked around 350km so far and have many more to go. We’ve been on a 2-day break in Tacoma to visit Anna’s great aunt and uncle. It’s kind of cool because if not for this experience, I might have never visited this city. Hopefully I can write about it later. For now, I’m eager to get back on the road tomorrow. From Tacoma to Portland in hopefully 3 days.

My bike still needs a name…