Detailed Ride Report
Now that the dust has settled a bit and my brain has come back from the consuming effort of the ride I am going to throw down a bit more info on our adventure.
Day 1 Edmonds,WA to Forks, WA
Day 1 - 144 Miles planned
Map:
Map
We were warned at the restaurant the night before that the Ferry would be hard to get on because of Labor Day so I made the call to get up a bit early to make sure our first come first serve tickets would get us on the 8:50 Ferry. Well we made it to the dock in plenty of time to be first in line as the 7 whatever AM Ferry had not left. We pulled to the side and waited for the Chase Crew. Well damned if they did not blow right past us..
Fuck up #1.
So we scurried aboard the Ferry and as Dio said we were the “Last in Line”.
I was a bit worried about the Sprinter being too long according to the instructions, but when an 18 wheeler came cruising up next to us it was a facepalm moment. You can see it in the photo below. Technically he was the last in line.
There were no tie downs for the bikes so we just kickstanded them and took off our helmets and gloves. I went to the Sprinter to grab my Go Pro to mount it and damn if I did not misplace my glasses. I spent most of the ride looking for them (knowing I had a spare), thinking fuck up #2… this is going to be a long trip if this shit keeps up.
Because we got on the first Ferry our drone dude from DroneGenuity would miss us. After disembarking he texted me “I am ready”. I just replied shoot the Ferry we F’d up and are already in Kingston.
I had wanted to film the guys on the top at the front of the Ferry and by the time I found my glasses and walked up the announcement came “BACK TO YOUR VEHICLES”. Shit that was not 55 minutes
Guess 55 is with boarding and disembarking because it had only be about 25 minutes.
Fuck up #3.
So we stopped just past the offload area in a parking lot to do our riders meeting. We chatted about the route, the possibility of rain and some general BSing of course. I had created some special hand signals for the filming so we went over those and realized we are WAY ahead of schedule. That would be the only day we were SO FAR AHEAD!.
We mounted up and rode through some small towns on HWY 104 with some nice views and a lot of small sporting boat launches, cabins and outdoorsman stuff. It was just 60 degrees (not bad) and overcast as we rode along Port Gamble Bay on the Puget Sound. Then we crossed the Hood Canal Floating Bridge which was all a metal grating surface. It was damp so chill was the pace, I did not want to have to hit the brakes on the metal. We continued and after a bit knowing that we were literally an hour plus ahead when we hit sunshine I went to the front with the intent to give the guys a treat. I found it and we pulled off to hit a Starbux
We chilled in the sun for a while before getting back on the road. Enchanter asked “How the hell did you know there was a Starbux here?” Road sign bro.
The weather was a bit better now in the middle to upper 60’s and the sun was shinning! It was our first experience of many where people asked where we came from and where we were going. Telling a mature woman that we were going to San Diego raised some eyebrows.
We continued into Port Angeles for lunch and our one gas stop on what would be the shortest ride of the trip. We missed the restaurant and got to do a loop around town as it was one way streets a block a part. Nice town and the
Chestnut Cottage made for a good lunch. With only 60 miles or so in the books and showing 145 miles as my range I skipped getting gas.
Onward we went and soon we went off 101 a turn North took us to HWY 112 through the small towns of Coville, Ramapo and Joyce paralleling the Puget sound. 112 became the Strait of Juan de Fuca HWY and to our joy it was not straight. It was fun twisties throught the forested shore. As we neared Pillar Pt we found a couple "Motorcycles Beware" signs and it was motocross on the pavement. I enjoyed it actually and it was nice of Washington State to warn us.
We came to the Pillar Pt turn off where the film crew was waiting just down the road. Film dude said to do a second roll in to get good footage and then another to get the best drone stuff we could. J.P. the Director of Photography was a real pro and wanted to get the good stuff. Today we had time in the pocket to do that. I knew we did not have time in our down to the minute schedule to do that everytime.
Then we sat around the corralled bench above the beach and got a good view across the Sound to Canada. It was beautiful and the chat was fun.
After a half hour or so we mounted up and rode out to find gravel strewn roads which kept the fast fun in check, but it was still good. 112 went west toward the Neah Bay but it was a one way out and one way back so we veered south on 113. We had sent the Chase van ahead (camera 2 crew) to Lake Pleasant. We hooked a right back on to 101 at Sappho and the lake was just ahead. It took us 3 tries to find the right Lake Pleasant Road to make our way to the public access where we found a quiet and beautiful lake. Gorgeous with only one boat on the lake. Super pleasant. The weather was awesome and some chilling happened there. One of the film crew guys is a roller blade aficionado and had planned to do some filming on them, but the parking lot was full of gravel so that was a no go. The other drone/camera crew would leap frog us for some fly by footage.
After leaving the lake we continued on our path and I was getting low on gas. The lack of signs saying what the distance to Forks was had me concerned as I got down to a 40 mile range. I had skipped gas in Port Angeles because ya know. Multistrada with a big ass tank and the map saying 144 miles total for the day.
We came to a self-serve non-manned gas station and I thought better to be safe than sorry so filled up as did Mamola and a couple others. Once back on the road a Forks sign immediatley came up. 8 miles..
All good the gas was ethanol free and 92 octane. We checked into the Motel and I came to find they had run my CC for all 8 rooms. So now I would have to keep track so the riders could pay for their share. Not a big deal, but keeping track of bills on a ride is not high on my priority list. We unloaded our luggage, showered and handed over our SD cards to the DIT for him to download.
Soon we walked to
Blakeslees to grab some grub and party for a bit. Nothing but locals and us. After eating we managed to find a few seats at the bar and we started to drink and BS about the day. A good time. My plan was to be in bed by 10:30 after doing a quick post on barf and checking work emails because each day would have a 6:30AM call to action with KSU at 8:30. I managed to get to bed around 11:00 so not too bad. That would change soon.
I have to give props to Enchanter for the hard work helping with route planning and time to the stops. As noted we had our stops down to the minute via GPS and we went back and forth a dozen times getting it refined to what we thought would work. Also thanks to BZ for the encouragement, reviewing the script, work testing GoPro settings before the ride, collecting data during the ride, working late into the night and then being ready to rock everying morning. We have become good friends.
A few pics I did not post on the road.
others are here
Now the assumed dead dear slid back towards us and I watched it slide by me just to the left of me. Reminded me of racing in Portland where it was a rider sliding below me. Everyone made it OK, but it did create for some epic chat at our next stop. Enchanter and SLO were both saying we needed more separation. In particular lateral as Mamola was damn close when he went by him and if ass packing happened the day would have turned extra ugly for sure. Later that night BZ stitched together rough footage from several of the GoPro’s to get a view of the drama that unfolded. That will make for some good film, with a GRAPHIC WARNING of course. Can’t wait to see how the real footage compares to my memory of it. Heck I thought it was two lanes each way and it was not! We were a bit behind so we have our first Gas Station lunch and discussed the incident. Some emotional content for sure. 
