Day 3,
August 12 2008
Fairholm Campground to South Beach Campground.
71.9 Miles
After spending a lively night in the Fairholm Campground, I left my new friends before the were really awake. I guess they are a lot more casual about bicycle touring than I am. I prefer to be riding by 7am, but I also have a set destination in mind and their attitude (as is the attitude of many of the tourers I’ve met) is to ride until they don’t want to ride anymore and stay there for the night. I’d like to be that casual, but I also know that if I just chose to stop whenever I didn’t feel like riding anymore, I’d probably only make it about 20-25 miles each day. I’d never make it to the border of Mexico at that rate.
Anyway, my early departure treated me to a cool morning and a long, and I mean long uphill right from the start. Not only was he campground at the bottom of a long hill, but our campsite was at the bottom of the campground. I probably spent 1/2 hour just climbing the 1 mile hill. I did eventually reach the top and began a steady grind onto Forks, about 25 miles away.
One thing I have noticed about solo touring, at least for me, is that I routinely forget to stop and take photographs. When I was riding with Chris he was stop all the time, to his credit, by the way. I’ve notice on this trip that if I see something scenic, I’m more likely to ride by and think to myself, ‘wow that was scenic’, but I don’t immediately stop. Eventually I remind myself that I have a camera, and I should take a picture so that others may partake of its beauty. I’m trying to get better at figuring it out the sooner, because I’m getting tired of turning around and riding back just so I can get the shot.
So once I arrived in Forks, I rode around town to take care of some errands. Here is the thing about fully loaded touring in a strange place. You don’t always know where all the services are so you end up putting on more miles just riding back and forth across town trying to find everything. Yes I make an effort to stop and the first Visitor Info I see but in Forks they were kind enough to to stash it south of town about a mile. I rode there only to discover everything I was looking for was a mile back to the north. After awhile that kind of thing wears on you.
My most important stop was at the library, so I could update the blog. The second most important stop was to get food. Surprisingly enough I ended up spending about 3.5 hours in Forks, including shopping for dinner since I knew my destination tonight was considered primitive. Dinner consisted of hot dogs and chips. I know, very lame. But lets face it, I’m no gourmet when left to my own devices. Besides, I’m just thrilled to be using my ultra cool backpackers stove. The rest of the day was spent riding to Kalaloch. A few miles before the campground I finally spotted the Pacific Ocean. Now I feel like I’m on this adventure.
My 1st view of the Pacific
Maury
