America One Spoke At a Time: The Game is Afoot

The great cross-country bike ride began on May 31, 2018 at 10:00 am Pacific Coast Time. We have no set time schedule, but suspect we will be in Savannah, GA in late July or early August.

Jay At Start of Ride
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The start of the ride began at Rialto Beach, WA. After a hug and kiss from Helen, Jay pushed off. This ride will be a scenic tour of America one spoke at a time. As we did on our drive to the west coast, visiting roadside Americana and chatting with people along the way will be our top priorities.

Jay’s Day 1 ride was 45 miles. Most of today’s ride was on the Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT). The ODT runs from our start location eastward to Port Townsend, our jumping off place, before joining up with the Northern Tier Bike Route from Adventure Cycling. The trail sometimes is a low traffic road and sometimes a dedicated no motorized vehicle use pathway.

Part of the Olympic Discovery Trail

Jay concedes he had no great epiphany or insight. Rather, under overcast skies, he pushed along, following and crossing rivers, riding the canopy of overhanging trees or along desolate stretches of road that only occasionally were punctuated with a fully load logging truck. The take away from Day 1 is that America is indeed a beautiful country endowed with a cornucopia of natural wonder!

The start of Day 2 from the moss-covered trees in the Fairholme Campground in Olympic National Park could best be described as “you can’t there from here.” Jay’s Google route noted that he would be on the Olympic Discovery Trail; the view of the local environment gave him pause. The day before his Day 2 ride he drove the car on his intended northern bike route. The road, initially paved, turned to packed gravel (still okay). The road then turned into an unimproved dirt road (bad). The signage indicating “Road Closed” was the deal breaker.

Road Construction on 101

The southern route on the 101 was undergoing extensive road construction, so Helen drove Jay and his bike to another access point on the Olympic Discovery Trail. Perfect riding followed.

When entering the western suburbs of Port Angeles, the ODT transverses a neighborhood of upscale home with manicured

Xeriscape Lawns
Port Angeles

“lawns.” The lawns were mostly xeriscape (rocks and low bushes). Jay also noticed that at the trailhead parking lots he saw Priuses, Subaru Outbacks and other mileage-friendly cars. The same observation held true for vehicles in Sequim (pronounced squim), WA.

In our northern Atlanta suburban home, SUVs and trucks are the norm. It appears that social norms here are more aligned with our desire to be earth friendly.

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