Saturday, June 11, 2022

087: 06/10/2022: Sequim to Crescent Lake WA: 60 miles today, 4009 miles in total.

This morning Christine and I got "beamed up" at this kiosk in Port Angeles. She took me to the trail after a good night's sleep there. 
We said our goodbyes on the Johnson Creek Trestle, a curved structure that takes one from the woods on one side of the valley into the woods on the other side.
This is a well-designed trailside stop.
The Olympic Discovery Trail runs on trails and very low-volume paved roads all the way from Discovery Bay to just past Port Angeles. It goes past so many diverse and interesting points along the way. 

Just look at the flowers, 
so colorful.
It runs along highways and
irrigation channels in the town of Sequim.
West of Sequim it goes by the new Dungeness River Nature Center. This center is built adjacent to the Railroad Bridge Park.
The construction is ongoing and includes the lengthening of the bridge in the direction of the new center.
I thought the design and layout for the new building is quite good with the windows of the Atrium (in the background) perfectly lined up with the bridge.
And the trail crosses the beautiful Dungeness River on this bridge 
before disappearing in the green foliage again.
Some more Spring flowers and 
the bees were humming away in this hedge. 
Sometimes you do not hear any traffic
only for the trail to swing back to the highway corridor.
The trail was linked up to the Moose Creek Trestle. A part of this trestle washed away in 1987, see the gap going into the trees. Trail volunteers built a long ramp to make the trestle accessible on this side, as
it crosses a beautiful stream.
Not long after the trestle, the abandoned rail line and trail reaches the coast and 
follows it to Port Angeles.
After passing this landslide, I reached Port Angeles and
Hollywood Beach.

Thanks Brandon Irvine of Discover E-Bike for helping me out with a chain cleanup here. You guys are real trail angels.
I crossed a small bridge on the Trail with this view of the sea. I was happy to see how old tree trunks have been worked into the landscaping downstream of the bridge.
The Port Angeles marina was quite full with a number of boats being checked out and cleaned up - probably for some sailing to Canada.
I reached the Olympic Discovery Trail Trailhead on the west of town and 
this part of the trail is a real mix. It is on road shoulders for a while, then on a newly constructed trail on an old rail grade
before it crosses the Elwha River on this hanging pedestrian bridge under the vehicle road. What a good idea to provide separation between motorised and non-motorised traffic. 
Then it was cycling through the countryside on road shoulders of varying widths. 
It was great to meet up with Christine for a coffee and a chocolate at Joyce General Store.
From Joyce the road climbed some more, see the view over the Strait of Juan da Fuca to Canada in the distance.
I soon came to the Spruce Railroad, a beautiful trail on the northern side of the Crescent Lake. This railroad was built during the First World War to export spruce timber to assist the war effort. The war ended before the railway was completed and the rail grade was never used.  
This trail is also part of the Olympic Discovery Trail and by far beats the other sections. It has a perfect paved surface, runs up and down very easy grades and the scenery is spectacular. 
It was quite rainy, but you make up your own mind, so beautiful.
Amazing.
This scenery is not seen from the car, as the road runs along the far shore all along the Lake.
Amazing scenery.
The trail runs through two tunnels as well. Both are within easy walking distance of the eastern trailhead. I encountered quite a lot of tourists along this section.
The Lake and surroundings are just beautiful. I can imagine what this lake would look like on a sunny day.
I soon passed the Lake and cycled into the fog.
I cycled past this huge log on the trail.
Too soon (have you read this before?) I saw the end of this part of the trail. 

Christine was so kind as to pick me up at the closest trailhead. Tonight we are sleeping in Forks and tomorrow I shall do the last 35 miles. 

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