Today was my first 60 mile day with the trailer, and contending with some decent inclines at that, 3300 feet of climbing. I consider this my first "real" day. And overall, it went alright. I had more trouble getting out of Port Angeles than I should have, but once on the highway, things got easier.
Biking around Lake Crescent was absolutely gorgeous. I remember seeing it with my parents last year and thinking it was the most pristine, bluest lake I'd ever seen. My Port Angeles hosts had warned me that it could sometimes be a treacherous ride as a cyclist with the winding road and lack of shoulder. There's a button you can push at the beginning to cause a light to flash and let drivers know there's a bicyclist in the roadway. ...But a single, potentially missed light to let cars know that somewhere in the twists and turns of the next ten miles is a bicyclist, only seems like it can do so much. But, thankfully, traffic was decently light and drivers were surprisingly kind, so it was mostly just a beautiful, reminiscent ride. ...The hill back up from the lake was sure a hell of a lot of work though.
My bike has issues I fear. It's developed a creak in the left crank, possibly needing removed and oiled. Though interestingly, after it rained, it mostly went away for the time being. ...At least one upside to getting drizzled all over later in the day. But a far worse issue is that my chain has started to skip when standing or biking hard on high gear. I assume the chain ring/crankset is worn out. ...I was worried about this before when I took it to the bike shop and paid a bunch (for me, relative to my cheap bike's value) to get it all fixed up, and the mechanic had told me not to worry about it. ...Bike mechanics telling me not to worry about things I think I should and end up needing to seems to be turning into a theme. I'm enduring and working around the problem though, while trying to figure out how to schedule necessary repair once I reach some kind of civilization (as measured by the presence of a bike shop,) again. I'll make it work somehow.
It's funny, my last hosts inquired about my host from Sequim, thinking they'd probably know him, and it turned out they did. Then when I came to stay with my current host, I found out she's an EMT here in Forks, and upon inquiry, sure enough, she's met my host of last night who is a nurse at the hospital in Forks (commuting from Port Angeles). The whole Olympic Peninsula really is a rather tight community. My host tonight was cool, made some excellent fajitas, and totally talked my ear off about her travels and ambitions and making sure I know that now when we're young is the best and sometimes only time to travel and do things. The socialization was much needed after the somewhat rough going day alone. Forks itself is an interesting little town, with its main industries apparently logging, prisons, and Twilight tourism. Its grocery store is probably the single most expensive I have ever seen (probably from being out in the middle of nowhere and having a monopoly on the market as the only grocery store in town). I rather wish I had managed to time my supply restocking to somewhere else.
I'm listening to the roar of the rain outside as I lie here slowly losing consciousness, and dreading camping tomorrow in a storm. But it is what it is, and one way or another, I will get through. It's awfully rainy around here, next to the rainforest after all, so I can't expect not to get rained on.
Pictures will follow later since I have no WiFi here and only limited data.
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