Neah Bay and another beautiful day, sunny warm and not a breath of wind. I get the coffee on, tidy up a few ends and start packing the bike. I meet the neighbors, five Russian guys, SCUBA divers from Oregon up here on the Peninsula exploring the reefs and kelp forests.Those that speak the better English are fairly chatty; they like the bikes and nod their approval when we fire the machines up.
We check out and off to our first stop for the day, the Makah Cultural Center about a half a mile up the road. I first read about this visitor center over ten years ago when the local Makah people were preparing for a traditional whale hunt using open canoes and hand harpoons as in the old ways. The band caught a lot of flack from some groups for hunting whales old school; whether you agree or disagree you have to admit that hunting whales in a thirty foot canoe with wood harpoons and bone harpoon heads takes a lot of guts and I admired them. The whalers were successful and the whale skeleton now hangs in the museum.
I found this museum particularly interesting. There was an abundance of historical artifacts as well as plenty of historical date pertaining to the Makah people and the place where they live.
Next we're off to buy some smoked salmon from the local dealer. Surprise when we find him at home in his shack on one of the side streets. He and a pal are carving up an elk; he has plenty of Dungeness Crab for sale but tapped out in the smoked salmon department.That's too bad because we wanted to get a bunch of smoked fillets for snacks over the next couple of days.
Now we head off to Cape Flattery to hike out the trail to the headland on the tip of the cape. The road out is a newly made paved road and is in tip-top condition and with the twisties and the gentle rise and fall it is a pleasure to ride. Lori's in the lead and wastes no time wheeling us up to the parking lot at the trail head. It's not a long hike, less than a mile and easy to tackle.
You start with an elevation drop and continue downhill throughout the walk. A large segment of the trail is boardwalk so it is accessible for pretty much anyone.
The trail continues down with a few lookouts along the way until you get to the end where there is a wooden lookout platform with a spectacular view of the ocean and the rocky shoreline. The lookout is a couple of hundred feet above the crashing water. The cliffs are riddled with caves and there is a notice informing us that when the waves are particularly heavy they crash up into the caves so you feel the ground rumbling beneath your feet.
The currents swirl around the rocks washing tons of kelp in large eddies, like a washing machine. We were told that there were whales sighted in the straight a couple of days prior but none today. There were lots of Murres flying about screeching as they flew overhead.
Cape Flattery Lighthouse, the most North-Westerly light in the contiguous United States.
The air is fresh and we're feeling hungry, which is not surprising as we hadn't had any breakfast save for a couple of cups of coffee. The trail back to the parking lot is all uphill but it is an invigorating walk and I feel great when we get back to the bikes. It's time to saddle up and head out for some brekkie/brunch/lunch whatever. We decide to ride the twenty-five miles to Sekiu where I had spotted an oceanside cafe the day before. The ride back along the coast was nothing short of fantastic! Once again the sweepers, the ups and downs and the road condition was superb, add to that riding with your best buddy and it just doesn't get any better for the two-wheeler.
The cafe is still there and we're soon tucking into lunch. yes with chowder again, I can't get enough of it, Beef au Jus and Reuben sandwiches. Someone, and I won't say who also indulged with some lemon merrainge pie.
With lunch done we're back on the road heading east on Hwy. 112 until we get to the junction of Hwy 113 where we swing south and to the junction of Hwy 101. It's a quick scoot down to the town of Forks where we top up the tanks and set the course for Olympia, one-hundred and fifty-eight miles away.
Looking south along the Washington coast.
Next town is Aberdeen, a mill town and the home of Kurt Cobain, that's about all I can tell you. Despite a detour around a construction site we're through Aberdeen in a matter of minutes and now heading east on Hwy 12 with our sights on Olympia where we'll hole up for the night. The traffic builds all the way to the State Capital and the forty-five miles quickly pass and we're soon merging onto I-5 for a couple of exits, hopping off at Exit 102, the Tumwater exit where there is a Comfort Inn I know of, in fact Lori and I stayed here for a night in June 2014 on the "Desert Honeymoon: A Motorcycle Odyssey" tour which you can read about at http://steve-buckton2.blogspot.com.
Check-in is a breeze despite the hotel's computers being down. The front desk gal gives us a rate off the top of her head, $80.00 for King Suite, deal! She puts it in writing for us and throws in a restaurant discount/freebie coupon. We unpack in record time, program the restaurant address into the GPS and backtrack about four or five miles to The Outback Steakhouse. We're sitting in the lounge area, our complimentary Bloomin' Onion is on the table and I look back over the wonderful day, the over hill and dale ride all the way from Neah Bay, the laughs and the fun time we had together and I say to Lori, "That's a long way for a free entrée."
Steve Buckton
Olympia, WA.
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