{"id":567,"date":"2009-08-27T01:27:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-27T06:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/?p=567"},"modified":"2012-06-24T17:51:37","modified_gmt":"2012-06-24T22:51:37","slug":"washington-state-olympic-peninsula-and-pacific-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/washington-state-olympic-peninsula-and-pacific-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington State &#8211; Olympic Peninsula and Pacific Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(Quick note: My SPOT tracking should be back on tomorrow, Thursday Aug-27. Also, I updated the <a href=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/rides\/us\">US ride page, Washington section<\/a> and created a <a href=\"http:\/\/picasaweb.google.com\/tlausserPicasa\/USRideWA\">photo gallery for Washington<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>I just crossed the mighty Columbia River over to Astoria, Oregon. This concludes my ride through Washington State. Here are a few impressions, both from the vacation trip with Jill (Olympic NP) as well as the last three days of riding to and finally along Pacific Coast Highway 101.<\/p>\n<p>Olympic National Park is one of the finest parks in the US &#8211; it has so much variety: High mountains with glaciers, remote wilderness and wildlife, temperate rainforest with giant, old-growth trees, and ruggedly beautiful Pacific Coast. It is worth more than one trip, as it&#8217;s impossible to really see everything here in just a few days.<\/p>\n<p>After resuming my ride from Bellevue I first need to get over to Seattle. There are many bike paths, so it&#8217;s not too bad. Still, riding near downtown Seattle is quite the contrast to the lonely stretches up North in Yukon and Alaska&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/CrossingLakeWashington.jpg\" alt=\"Crossing Lake Washington on Bike Path next to I90\" \/><\/p>\n<p>From Seattle I take a ferry across Puget Sound to Bermerton. This way I escape the traffic South of Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/SeattleSkylineFromFerry.jpg\" alt=\"Seattle Skyline as seen from Ferry to Bremerton\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Beautiful scenery along the Hood Canal and two memorable stays at the Potlatch State Park and later the Twin Harbor State Park near Westport.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/BoatsInHoodCanal.jpg\" alt=\"Evening mood in Hood Canal with Olympic NP mountain range in background\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/BikeAtStateParkOnHoodCanal.jpg\" alt=\"One of the many WA State Parks (here at Hood Canal)\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/BikeAtMudFlats.jpg\" alt=\"Circum-navigating one of the many bays which turn into mud flats at low tide\" \/><\/p>\n<p>More fresh Blackberries along the way &#8211; oh it&#8217;s good to ride in berry season! Finally the Columbia River crossing across the Megler bridge is pretty cool, some 6.5km and a good hill climb, very scenic but also very narrow shoulder&#8230; <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/LookingBackOnMeglerBridge.jpg\" alt=\"Riding across the 6.5km long Astoria Megler Bridge\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Astoria has charm with all it&#8217;s piers and restaurants; also the bridge and the Ocean-going vessels are something you don&#8217;t see every day!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/BikeInAstoria.jpg\" alt=\"At a pier in Astoria\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now I&#8217;m looking forward to the Oregon Coast!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Quick note: My SPOT tracking should be back on tomorrow, Thursday Aug-27. Also, I updated the US ride page, Washington section and created a photo gallery for Washington.) I just crossed the mighty Columbia River over to Astoria, Oregon. This concludes my ride through Washington State. Here are a few impressions, both from the vacation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2307,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions\/2307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tlausser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}