indyfabz

Olympic Discovery Trail. Here is the link again:


ODT Home

alan s 

Question about the ODT End to End Map. Any idea what the colors mean? There are two shades of blue, purple and yellow, but no indication of what they stand for. The home page shows a continuous black line from end to end, which is inconsistent with other information saying the trail is incomplete. Have you ridden it or are you able to shed any light on the route?

indyfabz

Never ridden it, but I do know it's not complete. If you click on the "View larger map" icon at the upper right of the end to end map there is a legend of sorts on the left. Seems like the purple is paved trail. Yellow is dirt trail.

alan s 

That seems to work. Thanks

Doug64

I've ridden in the area several times before the trail was built, and it is a relatively easy route from Port Angeles to Port Townsend using the highways.

Big Lew

I have ridden from Victoria via Port Angeles to both Port Townsend and Quilcene Washington
where I stayed overnight on my way south. They're almost the exact same distance, 47 miles,
taking the Black Ball Ferry. Even having to wait for and ride the ferry, I had no problem riding
that distance in one day as there are only small hills along the way. It depends on the departure
time from the Seattle terminal, and the same for Port Angeles to Victoria, if it's possible to do
the total distance in one day.

spinnaker

What is "the 90" and 7? I am seeing no such routes.


The Coho ferry sounds interesting. I did not realize there was one all the way to Port Angeles. What do they make such a long run when there are roads? 6AM would be like 10AM for me so not too bad.

Carbonfiberboy 

I like to ride to Anacortes and take the Washinton ferry to Sidney. It's a beautiful ferry ride through the San Juan Islands. Going north up the east side of Vancouver Island, you can take the Swartz Bay ferry to Tsawassen, then Tsawassen to Nanaimo, which gets you up out of the worst of the traffic. Plus it's fun.

skimaxpower

Weather is best from July 5th -> September 30th. Locals know this is funny because it always rains on our July 4th parties. This is also peak tourist season. You pick between "cold rain" or "crowds." This recommendation is applicable for the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island as well.


Those are bus routes. The Coho ferry is one boat that runs only from Port Angeles to Victoria. The Coho ferry is privately operated. There are lots of other ferry boats running throughout WA state that are publicly operated, cheap, and run by the state of WA. The (privately operated) Victoria Clipper ferry is the longest and most expensive option available to you.

Both WA and BC have excellent state parks systems (and provincial parks system, respectively). If you're willing to camp, you can enjoy inexpensive beachfront accommodations nearly every night.

Trevtassie

Highway 101 along Hood Canal is fairly sketchy, narrow with some pretty deep roadside ditches. You can get off it by cutting the corner across the Olympic National Park to Port Angeles, but it's hilly with gravel bits, plus the gunfire from the "enthusiasts" up there can be quite disconcerting. Having done both that bit and Vancouver Island I'd say save the time for Vancouver Island. If you don't mind gravel and the odd black bear, get a copy of Backcountry Maps Vancouver Island (or copy the relevant pages) There are some awesome logging roads to be had. The BCMaps books has the forestry road numbers on the maps. The loggers are awesome too, pull over and stop well out of the way and they will slow down. They also seem to radio each other, as the next truck along will anticipate and slow down in advance. When you get closer to civilisation the tourists aren't so good, they drive like lunatics, I even saw loggers chasing them down as they are private roads.
EDIT: Ah hah, I just figured you were talking about the ferry from San Juan to Port Townsend. I'd still say go direct to Victoria. The ODT between Port T and Port Angeles is pretty boring, winds around a fair bit, a sort of 2 steps forward one step back path. At Port Angeles you could ride up into the Olympic National Park, but nowhere near the top to camp.

spinnaker

I thought I read that the Coho leave Seattle very early to Port Angeles then on to Victoria?

skimaxpower

This is incorrect. There is no ferry that goes directly from Seattle to Port Angeles.

COHO ferry (aka: Black Ball ferry) is a car/passenger ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria. No more, no less.

Victoria Clipper is a passenger only ferry that goes from downtown Seattle to Victoria.

The WA state ferry system runs multiple boats that traverse Puget Sound. Many depart from Seattle. They can get you to the Olympic Peninsula, but not directly to Port Angeles.


Might I recommend you spend some time with a map of WA state.

spinnaker

That is what I thought. But I am confused by this post

https://www.bikeforums.net/19412779-post10.html

Poster clearly mentions Seattle dock.

I also saw a post on tripadvisor about the coho from Seattle early in the morning. Not finding it now so I may have misread it.

I admit it would be really odd to run a ferry to Port Angeles when you can drive there.

So what is this cheap ferry in the thread above?

skimaxpower

I presume that post is recommending an economical mix of public transit combined with taking the low-cost WA state ferry system from downtown Seattle to Bainbridge island.

No offense, but you seem to struggle with this stuff. You should just take the Victoria Clipper straight from downtown Seattle to Victoria and stop over-thinking it.