Living Well With Diabetes

For the first time on the tour, I didn’t have anywhere to go today. Since I’ve decided against taking highway 101 “the long way” around the Olympic peninsula, I have an extra day or two. Instead of venturing east and north towards busier areas, I decided to make a side trip to the sandy beaches of the Ocean Shores, Washington area.

I thoroughly enjoyed a leisurely morning gathering my things together for the 25 mile or so bike ride to Ocean Shores. It should have been an easy ride and it was except for the hilly section just west of Hoquiam. There was one hill measuring 14% grade — the steepest I’ve seen on this tour. Fortunately, it leveled out to 10% after not too long. 10% never felt so nice! Another quarter mile of so of that and it was back to 6% which is typically about as steep as most major roads get around here. A mile or so later, I was up on a plateau of some kind and the road was mostly level. Since I wasn’t in a hurry to get anywhere, I stopped more often to take photos or simply to take a break. It was a a casual day of riding.

I arrived at the turnoff to Ocean Shores about lunchtime. I decided to continue north away from Ocean Shores and along the coast to the town of Copalis Beach. There I went out towards the beach and had some lunch at the Griffiths-Priday State Park. Even there, eating at a picnic table with sand at my feet, I was well over a quarter mile from actual beach where I could stick my toes in Pacific Ocean. I might have done just that except for the cool temperatures (low 60’s) and the 15-20 mile per hour wind from the northwest.

Tomorrow, I’ll retrace my steps to Hoquiam and then continue east to McCleary. Winds are supposed to be from the west so I might even make it as far as Shelton. Stay tuned here to find out.

Comments(1)