Weblog: Portland Cycle Tour: Forks > Quinault Lake

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I left the hostel around 9:15 and continued south along US 101. I soon found the Ruby's Rest geocache at Ruby Beach. Somewhere along the way I lost one of my sandals, which I had strapped to the side of my panniers. It's too bad, because I do attach some sentiment to those sandals which have been with me since before my trip to India. Objectively, it's not that big a deal, since they're getting close to the end of their life anyway. Later in the day, I lost the other sandal.

During a lonely stretch of highway, I saw a yellow caterpillar crossing the highway. I stopped because I wanted to take a picture of it as it reached the yellow lines at the centre of the street. It was quite suspenseful watching it cross the highway as multiple cars came along and narrowly missed it. Unfortunately, I think I caused its death when my presence caused a logging truck to move toward the centre of the highway and run it over. I felt pretty stupid afterwards, since I could have just picked it up and moved it to where I wanted it, and then brought it to the other side of the road. This stretch of highway also had several abandoned, dilapitated old industrial buildings that were fun to explore.

The campground at Quinault Lake that the cycling guidebook recommended has unfortunately closed, and there was a sign that recommended going to the other side of the lake and staying in the Forest Service campgrounds there. I went over to check out the campgrounds, but they're really expensive. A very basic walk-in site with no amenities but a pit toilet cost $12 a night! The area is quite developed, with many houses along the lake, so finding a spot to wild camp would be difficult.

Since the Sitka Surprise geocache was nearby, I decided to find it and hopefully find a spot to camp along the way. The much more difficult Wow! Now that's worth the hike! geocache was also nearby, and I accidentally selected that waypoint in my GPSr instead. What I thought would be a brief walk from the side of the road ended up being a three hour hike through some beautiful old growth temperate rainforest. This was the first time I'd done any hiking in the trail runners I'd bought in PG but never used for work, and I'm really happy with them. The geocache description claims that this tree is the world's largest western red cedar, but I think I've seen bigger in the Upper Walbran Valley, and the park makes no such claims.

By the time I got back to my bike it was getting quite late and I was getting nervous about finding a place to cook and sleep before dark. I finally found a spot in the woods next to a cemetary. Just as I had pushed my bike into the woods, a car drove up to the cemetary, drove around the loop, and went away, so I think I just narrowly escaped being cought by someone checking if there was anything going on. Later that evening some people were walking very close to me, just after I had made lots of noise zipping up my bivy and sleeping bags.

It was misty in the morning, sunny in the afternoon. I got my first flat tyre near Queets.

Thumbnail of: Fog at ruby beach Thumbnail of: Fog at ruby beach Thumbnail of: Fog at ruby beach Thumbnail of: Fog at ruby beach Thumbnail of: Fog on the road Thumbnail of: Caterpillar: Before the logging truck Thumbnail of: Caterpillar: after the logging truck Thumbnail of: Dilapitated buildings Thumbnail of: Dilapitated buildings Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Dilapitated buildings Thumbnail of: Dilapitated buildings Thumbnail of: Dilapitated buildings Thumbnail of: My on the big cedar

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Distance: 77.88km today, 250.65km total; Average Speed: 18.8km/h; Time: 04:06:55
Posted on Thu, 28 Aug 2020 at Quinault Lake, WA, US (altitude 72m) (map/google earth)