Bike Forums - Olympic Discovery Trail west central info

Good place to stay is the challenge. I live in Hoquiam, a 2 hr drive south of Lake Crescent (approximately). Your choices for hotel accommodations are in Port Angeles or Forks as far as I can tell. Both towns have motels, a place I stayed once in the Forks area was the Huckleberry B&B. Forks has had a minor boom due to the vampire movie tourist trade and it looks like some of the locally owned motels have spruced up their act; there is no recognized major chain there. There is a guy on here called lascauxcaveman who owns a hotel in Pt. Angeles, we actually inquired in the lobby there last time we were in town, it looks to be a good value and very well situated. So far we have done the Elwha River Campground west of Pt. Angeles which accommodates tent campers and RVs. There is a hostel just south of Forks, I can't recommend it, have only noticed it, can't think of the name, might be on the web. The National Park Service operates a hotel at Lake Crescent but I think it requires advance reservations, however, they often have special on call places for bicycle tourist campers. That's about all I know, we have only started to explore up there and our digs are usually camping, sometimes tent, sometimes in our vintage RV. There is plenty of camping at Mora/La Push can't remember if it is national or state parks. Also check out on the internet a link on something that looks brand new we just noticed: http://www.quileuteoceanside.com/ can't recommend, only just noticed it but from pics it looks nice and the area is awesome with beaches (Rialto Beach) even if contaminated by the whole vampire movie thing. Check it out!

Oh yeah, trail surface. The main road highway that runs along Lake Crescent is narrow, two lane and very bumpy. It is overhung on one side by sheer mountainside and the other side borders the lake. It is dangerous and there is a bicyclist advisory somewhere along the road on both ends of it. Expect danger.

Can't comment but can only report that on the east side of the lake there reportedly is a trail that runs around the north side of the lake which is an old railroad grade and supposed to be good cycling. Don't know any more than that but I think it appears on the map that someone provided in the link above. The proprietor at the Elwha River Campground/RV park told us about it, we have not been there yet.

Our area and all of SW Washington is somewhat undiscovered, mostly because there is not much of a cycling community, and it is pretty low key out here, not very trendy, and the support services for travelling are...well...anyway, let's just say it's ripe for discovery by the right people!