47 miles from the farm in Olympia to the Vashon dock in Tacoma. Olympia was nice, as well as out around the fort. Kind of a bore otherwise. Got lost for 45-60m in Tacoma trying to stay off the main roads. I met a cool old squid and road with him for a while in Tacoma after he gave me a thumbs up for catching up with him. Two hours from Oly to Steilacoom, about 45 minutes to Tacoma, then a lot of time spent lost getting through it. Riding alone the shore and looking at the Olympics was just amazing and must be repeated. The narrows bridge looked pretty cool from up on the hill too.

About an hour across Vashon sticking on the highway. That was just an exercise in climbing hills. 13 miles. Pretty, except I was mostly focusing on not having a heart attack on the hills. A more casual route when not trying to get home right away would be better. Should take the WHa(?) out there one of these weekends I’m not on a bike trip. Hopefully there’ll be one before the end of the summer.

Then about 9 miles from Fauntleroy back to Georgetown. Came within a foot of getting by a car looking left while making a right turn on red when I was on the path. That was good for the old blood flow. Saw the bike sabbath kids at the north end of the Duwamish trail too, but had plans to meet Mom and Tori for food at Squid. That was about a half hour.

So I guess that’s just shy of 70 miles, which isn’t much more than the 63 coming down on the other side. Mom said not very many people biked back anyway, so I’m glad I took a different route, got to see some new places, and could go full bore with little regrets. Seven hours, including an hour long lunch, the two ferry rides (bout 40 minutes total) and getting lost in Tacoma. That makes, uhh, 4.5 hours travel time or so, which wasn’t bad at all for the IRO.

I think it took us six hours including stops to do the 63 miles as a group down the other side yesterday. This was basically Bremerton, including the Belfair Valley Road (detour suggest by Brandon) to Belfair, then south on WA3 to US101, taking side roads starting at the intersection of US101 and WA8 to add a little fun.

I failed to find a working hose at Squid, so I ran home for some ice cream. Next time I need to bring heavier sunscreen, the spray works fine when I’m not out in the sun for six hours but I’m a little warm. Now I’m going to try to squeeze in a nap before going out to lament loving and it not working with J.