Summer was waning; scheduled visitors had departed. We had anticipated this denouement and planned to fill the void with our own end-of-August adventure, one that would entail minimum planning and prepping, a true getaway. We had been on self-guided cycling tours before, in Europe (Denmark and Austria), on Level 1-2 difficulty trails that kept us to cycling paths and off roads (as opposed to off-road), and we fancied a mini-reprise. And even though our summer had been busy, we had managed to keep a semblance of “training” on Victoria’s Galloping Goose and Lochside Trails.
Our planned window of opportunity portended sun, little wind, and low 20s Celsius. It was to be a low-carbon footprint holiday, discounting of course, the ferry crossing on the Coho from Victoria to Port Angeles, a 90-minute sailing. Leisurely was the byword. We pedaled our bikes out of our garage; new panniers clipped on and filled with snacks and clothes for an overnighter; and turned out of our driveway at nine a.m. onto the Lochside Trail.
Cycling into Victoria’s Inner Harbour and terminal with time to spare, we sipped coffee on a sunny bench before lolling on the gently metronomic deck of the Coho, arriving at noon in Washington State.
Port Angeles is a smallish town (pop. 20,000) in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains. Low key and funky, it provided an excellent place for a meal and some public art viewing before accessing the Olympic Discovery Trail. It takes less than a half-dozen blocks of minimal traffic and street riding from the terminal to get a fortifying meal, admire a few public art sculptures in passing, and connect to the trail.
The Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. A few cyclists organized in 1988 to create a 210-km (130-mile) public access, non-motorized trail along the Juan de Fuca Strait in the lee of the Olympic National Park, mostly (70 per cent) from an abandoned rail corridor. There had been intermittent rail passenger service and freight for the mills, mines and quarries of the area since 1887, but the businesses and the need had dried up by 1985.
The public started using a completed trail section in 1998, 20 years ago. And we were the fortunate recipients of their love and labour because now the trail is mostly paved (it is American Disability Association affiliated), trestles made sturdy, and several rest areas installed on route. And how fitting that our destination in Sequim (pronounced skwim), about 50 kilometres away, would be a caboose bed and breakfast!
We cycled the East Central section, one of four designated as the ODT. It was cool along the cold-current strait for the first part and then the trail wound its way upward steadily through wooded terrain and we broke into a sweat. Occasionally, we crossed rural back roads and noticed signs, “Caution! Entering Trump Territory.” It provoked discussion, but we came to no consensus whether they had been posted by supporters or a liberal warning. The bucolic and pastoral scenes more than compensated for politics though. For three hours, we soaked up the beauty of horse country and lavender fields, the Olympics in the background, cool woods and an occasional steep coasting down with bursts of climbing up creek vales over trestles, and the far-off drone of a rural airfield until we entered the outskirts of Sequim.
This town is sleepy but enticing and off the main highway. It will host its own 22nd Annual Lavender Festival on the July 20-21, 2018 weekend. However, if you miss the actual festival, the lavender fields around still offer redolent remnants. In fact, our destination was just down the road from a festival participant, the Purple Haze Organic Lavender Farm.
The Red Caboose Getaway is a most unusual bed and breakfast, refurbished cabooses hosted by seniors Olaf and Charlotte Protze. They moved from San Francisco after careers there – Charlotte an event planner and Olaf (originally from Calgary) an architectural photographer – and reinvented themselves in a hobby business, fulfilling their passion and interest as “station masters.” They are truly enjoying an inspired senior life.
The Protzes have developed six cabooses that are authentic on the outside and have specific themes for the interiors, such as “The Circus,” “The Lavender,” or “The Orient Express”; and the accoutrements match the theme down to appropriate feature movie dvds and authentic railway paraphernalia. The rail cars are configured into a “roundhouse” formation, and there is also an art deco, stainless steel, 1937 Pullman for breakfasts.
To exercise different muscles, we decided to walk along the ODT to a restaurant, about five kilometres away on the John Wayne Marina. The actor/Western tough guy spent many summers sailing his yacht, the Wild Goose here, and loved the area so much that his family still owns 60 hectares on Sequim Bay. In fact, John Wayne donated nine hectares to construct the eponymous harbour in 1985. Enough being enough, on many counts, we took a taxi back.
After a renowned Charlotte-gourmet and sweet breakfast, we explored historic Sequim, which included an opera house and a grain elevator, and cycled out of town towards Dungeness, about 10 kilometres away. Still wanting to be leisurely, we included a side trip to the Jardin du Soleil lavender farm and the Dungeness County Park bluffs and spit of the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, relatively flat riding along farmland and meadow and swept seascape. We may have made a wrong turn here and there but as Olaf said, “Sometimes the wrong turns are the most memorable.”
Then we made tracks to reconnect with the ODT and return to Port Angeles, a 70-kilometre trip this time because of our detour loop. We enjoyed once more the mottled light along the historic, timbered Dungeness River Bridge, and the quaint Church of the Woods near Bobcat Hollow Road. There was even time to browse a book store after a late lunch before catching the ferry back. How appropriate to find a book, Coffee With Buddha! When I read that mindfulness keeps you in the present moment and then you can attend fully to what’s in front of you, here and now, I felt sated, food for thought and belly.
Our total door-to-door, 36-hour cycling adventure was just less than 150 kilometres. We did a high-five self-congratulation, well pleased with our active accomplishment. A brief neighbourly outing that more than met our needs.
IF YOU GO:
Recommendations:
* For ferry schedules and service, visit Black Ball and Coho www.cohoferry.com/Fares
* Port Angeles has several restaurants but for a funky one close to the ferry terminal and trail access, visit The Next Door Gastropub on West First Street www.nextdoorgastropub.com
* For more information and maps, see the Olympic Discovery Trail https://olympicdiscoverytrail.org/explore/trail-segments/
* For another planned trip, Port Angeles has its own 17th Dungeness Crab and Sea Food Festival (Oct. 5-7, 2018) www.crabfestival.org
* For more on Sequim and Dungeness, see www.visitsunnysequim.com
* For more on the railway themed stay, see Red Caboose Getaway B&B.
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