Thursday, January 8, 2015

Kitsap Loop (2014-12-31)

A short ride with its main portion from Bainbridge Island to Southworth.

NOTE: It's been a week since I did this ride, so I won't remember all the details correctly.

More after the break…

Part 1: To Seattle Ferry Terminal

Just like last time, I started at 06:00 this time as I knew I wouldn't be covering as much distance. I was also riding the same bike as the past few rides rather than my main touring bike.

My route was mostly the typical one: Dexter Ave N, the parking lane of 2nd Ave at speed, but I used Yesler Way instead of Jackson St to get to Alaskan Way and the ferry terminal.

Since it was a normal weekday for a lot of people, I saw a lot of commuters coming into Seattle both by car and by bike.

Part 2: Kitsap

From the ferry terminal on this side, I went up the normal climb, and was delighted to see some improvements. I was glad that I had started a little later since it was already a bit light out.

I then rode along the highway to Poulsbo, then went through the old downtown instead of the strip mall corridor along the highway.

I exited Poulsbo proper out the south end via Silverdale Way.

This was the route I used to take through the area before I learned of SR-3's lesser grades and car drafting. Since this ride was shorter, going a little slower was fine. As usual, the huge ridge north of Silverdale took a while.

Rather than taking that same over another huge hill into Bremerton, I took Northlake Way and ended up at SR-3 fairly quickly.

Rather than dealing with Bremerton itself, I just took the SR-3 bypass of it all the way to SR-16, then made the normal exit. However, I had to wait for a while for an opening for the (stupid) left exit onto SR-166.

I ended up with a stick caught in my bike that was dragging along the ground and it took a while to find a place where I could pull it off.

I stopped in downtown Port Orchard to pick up some batteries as the rechargeable AAAs for my taillight weren't working so well, but didn't find any. Instead, I got some ice cream so I could use the facilities.

I ended up backtracking to the 7 Eleven I had passed earlier for some batteries instead.

And then I continued on my way, following the shoreline.

Following the same road, I ended up in the hills near Manchester for a while.

And then finally made it to Southworth.

Part 3: Return Home

For the last leg, I followed the low route around Alki, hitting a Starbucks for coffee along the way.

While there, I saw someone using a selfie stick. The sight of it kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

After I continued all the way around to the Spokane Street Bridge, I kept an eye out for the guy with four buckets attached to his bike while I crossed over and under it, then waited at the crosswalk to get on the northbound side of E Marginal Way S.

When I hit downtown, I was caught in the snarl of rush hour traffic. The parking garages were particularly problematic as so many people were leaving them. I ended up getting out of the road and walking a block to a street that wasn't impacted by I-5 traffic.

The last leg of my ride was the normal one along Dexter Ave N and the Burke-Gilman Trail to Ballard, and it had just gotten dark by the time I arrived.

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