Pacific Northwest - Nine-day tour circling the Olympic Peninsula

I just completed my first-ever self-supported tour. I spent nine days going 664 miles around the Olympic Peninsula following Adventure Cycling Association's new "Washington Parks" route.

I had awesome weather and saw lots of great scenery. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good place to tour in western Washington, especially for those of us in the Puget Sound area who can start and end the trip right at home.

For lots of pictures and details, check out the journal I created at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/skyler2008

Thanks for posting this - looks like it was a great trip (and you were definitely lucky on the weather).

Nice!

wow - i've always been interesting in that route.

i heard WSDOT is putting in new rumblestrips (or already has?) on some sections of 101, did you see any of that? supposedly the strips will take up the whole shoulder, forcing us into the road itself.

thx for posting! and congrats on a big tour too.

i heard WSDOT is putting in new rumblestrips (or already has?) on some sections of 101, did you see any of that?

The portions of Hwy 101 that I had to ride on all had wide, fairly clean shoulders. The only rumblestrips I saw were the kind that were 12" wide right at the fog line with 4' or more of smooth shoulder outside of the rumblestrips -- I love that setup because then you have smooth pavement to ride on and an audible warning if any vehicle behind you is drifting over the fog line.

nice one! Sure is good riding out thataways.

The portions of Hwy 101 that I had to ride on all had wide, fairly clean shoulders. The only rumblestrips I saw were the kind that were 12" wide right at the fog line with 4' or more of smooth shoulder outside of the rumblestrips -- I love that setup because then you have smooth pavement to ride on and an audible warning if any vehicle behind you is drifting over the fog line.

That's what seems to have been done on 410 heading to Mount Rainier, as well.

A rumblestrip on the center divider, and 12 inch rumblestrips on the shoulders.

East Hill

Nice looking route. I have a friend who did essentially the same route last year (without some of the side trips) towing his 3-y.o son in a burley trailer! There's some nice, empty roads out there!

Nice trip report! Thanks for sharing.. I need to get out and tour that area.

You were right in my neck of the woods. The road name change may have come from the fact that I believe Youman's is a family name...maybe first settlers, not sure, so did you go up and over what we call 13 corners....its a gravel windy road that goes from the East Fork Wishkah over to the Wynoochee?

so did you go up and over what we call 13 corners....its a gravel windy road that goes from the East Fork Wishkah over to the Wynoochee?

Yes, that was the route on Wynoochee-Wishkah Rd -- a steep climb followed by a steep descent including 0.6 miles of gravel. Then the 9-mile ride on Wynoochee Valley Rd into Montesano had about 3 miles of freshly oiled pavement. I've never encountered that before and I wasn't sure exactly how slippery the oil was, so I just treated it like my winter commutes in black-ice conditions -- riding as straight as possible with minimal braking and cornering.