So... The big day finally arrived :-). I got a good early start, and managed to leave the motel by 5:30am, giving me plenty of time to catch the train into Seattle to make the 6:45 ferry.
The day was much nicer than yesterday in terms of clear sky, with just a few high clouds, and a bit chilly, but not so cold as to be uncomfortable. The ferry left right on time, with beautiful views of Seattle and across Puget Sound to the Olympics.
I arrived in Bremerton at 7:30, an conveniently, there was a Starbucks about 10 yards off the dock, so before setting out on the ride, I got a good hearty breakfast with a grande latte to fuel the first couple of hours. My route to Bremerton ran across through almost pure forest for most of the way. Not the most scenic day, but I sure saw a lot of trees! Spruce, fir, hemlock, cedar, pine, alder, and lots of big leaf maples!
After one minor GPS failure (my Garmin wanted me to use a gravel private forest access road, so I had to backtrack and reroute about 5 miles), I eventually headed down toward the coast along the Kitsap River.
Here the landscape got a bit more interesting, with a mix of forest and scattered small farms.
After a little over 6 hours in the saddle, and 92 miles later, I rolled into Aberdeen, WA. Aberdeen is definitely an ESF "stumpy" kind of town- the welcome sign on the road in proclaims it to be the "lumber capital of the world!". Lots of sawmills on the riverfront, and they've got the forests to keep them busy for sure!
Tonight I'm staying at the Travelodge in downtown Aberdeen, and it's definitely a step up from my place at SeaTac. That motel was clean & cheap enough, but I'm sure going to appreciate the firm bed and nice pillows here :-). So for now, I'm off to a well-earned dinner at Steam Donkey Brewing! According to Strava, I burned 3500 calories today, so I've got my work cut out for me :-)
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