Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Around Puget Sound (2022-10-15)

Bonneville T120 in Sumner

Went to the Olympic Peninsula the long way around to escape the smoke. Needless to say, it didn't quite work.

Geotagged Album

Albums from past rides:

Elbe II (2022-02-12) (Album)
Puget Sound Motorcycle Shops (2021-11-13) (Album)
Hood Canal by Motorcycle (2021-06-18) (Album)
North Puget Sound (2021-06-12) (Album)
Wilkeson by Motorcycle (2021-05-02) (Album)

Part of why I was so itching to go on this ride was because I wanted to try out the exposure bracketing feature on my camera. I would've greatly preferred going into the mountains, but that was unfortunately where the worst of the smoke was.

More after the break…

Part 1: Outbound

Part 1: Outbound

Since I'd be covering a long distance on this ride, I started at 6 AM to both beat traffic and get home at a reasonable hour. I thought about using the Southworth ferry, but my past experiences of long waits during their employee and boat shortage soured me to the idea, so I decided to go via Olympia. Also, since I knew the route by heart, I didn't bother with the GPS for most of it.

To avoid the worst of the smoke in Seattle and southwest King County, I used SR-520, I-405, and SR-167. Thus, my first stop was for gas in Auburn, followed by downtown Sumner. Along the way, the smoke didn't seem too bad, but I could definitely smell it everywhere.

Hometown Charm Cafe and Parklet
Kincaid Avenue Construction
Electric Coffee House: This wasn't here before!

I was a little hungry at this point, so I scoped out breakfast places. The Hometown Charm Cafe from a past ride wouldn't open for another hour, so I did the usual thing and looked around on my phone. The Buttered Biscuit was just on the other side of one of the downtown blocks, but I didn't see the route there, so I used my GPS and headed right over.

The Buttered Biscuit

When I sat at my table, I scoured the menu for something with bacon, eggs, and pancaked, but turned up nothing. I ended up ordering a meal comprised of sausage gravy, a split biscuit, a ground beef patty, and a medium egg, which was both quite good and very filling. Sadly, I wasn't able to avail myself of one of the interesting breakfast cocktails since I had to ride out.

After bundling up, I rode along some familiar streets through Sumner and Puyallup to get to SR-512, from both my recent trip to the Washington State Fair and bicycle rides in the area including the STP. One thing that caught my attention was the new Milwaukee Avenue Bridge, which I was completely unaware of previously.

Between Puyallup, I-5, and Olympia, I saw several of the same cars over and over again. Traffic was a bit heavy, especially as I approached I-5 on SR-512. Once on I-5, I only stayed on it long enough to get to US 101, which I'd remain on for the entire way to Quilcene.

I was starting to feel the wear of the ride on my mind around Shelton, but didn't want to pull off until US 101 stopped being a freeway. When I did finally pull off, it was at the Shell in Skokomish. Coming in too hot, I ended up running wide and had to stop before cutting an exiting driver off. I really should've slowed down more!

I spent most of my break at the Shell drinking a Diet Coke I bought at the convenience store. Towards the end of it, a guy in an old Toyota station wagon waxed poetic about the Triumph he had back in the day.

Twin Totems Convenience Store
Parked at Twin Totems Convenience Store

Part 2: Olympic Peninsula

Part 2: Olympic Peninsula

The more rural part of US 101 was a nice ride up the Olympic Peninsula, though I did end up stuck behind slow cars from time to time. I even passed the slowest of them when the coast was clear.

After ascending to Walker Pass, I had to stop to get photos. (It sure was smoky up there!) Shortly after, a woman parked her car right in my shot, but she was nice enough to move her car before getting out of the car to take her own photos.

Bonneville T120 at Walker Pass
Parked on United States Route 101 at Walker Pass
United States Route 101 at Walker Pass
United States Route 101 at Walker Pass

I stopped for photos again in Quilcene, also spending the time to consider my route home. I eventually settled on Kingston instead of Bainbridge Island, mostly because I didn't want to deal with Downtown Seattle.

Parked at Peninsula Foods, Quilcene
Parked at Peninsula Foods, Quilcene

Rather than doing an unnecessary out-and-back, I used Center Road as a cutoff to save time to SR-104. Once on the latter, traffic was fairly heavy albeit not too slow. After crossing the Hood Canal Bridge, I hung a left to get photos of Port Gamble and the leaves changing on the trees.

Port Gamble Water Towers
N Rainier Avenue, Port Gamble
N Rainier Avenue, Port Gamble
Port Gamble General Store and Cafe
Walker Street, Port Gamble
Washington State Route 104 in Port Gamble

As I approached Kingston, I saw the tell-tale long line of cars heading the other way from a ferry that had recently arrived. Fearing the worst, I headed straight to the ferry terminal, and when I arrived, I saw the ferry finishing up its loading. I asked the ticket clerk if there was a chance, to which I responded with, "Hurry up." I quickly paid and headed right down to the ferry where I was waved on as the last vehicle. The crews are so nice!

Once on the ferry, I drank my energy drink and ate a bag of Cooler Ranch Doritos that I'd bought at a vending machine on board.

Part 3: Return Home

Part 3: Return Home

After being stuck in bad ferry and local traffic on SR-104 on the way out of Edmonds, I took side streets through Richmond Beach to avoid having to deal with getting over to either I-5 or SR-99 and back, culminating in my usual route along 8th Avenue NW. The smoke was much worse on the mainland and I had to flip my visor down when moving because it stung my eyes too much.

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