Day 6, 8/20/08

We turned in our best mileage today, 57 miles. Some was not in the forward direction, but was still a very challenging day. It was clearly our toughest ride yet. Not just because of the distance, but for most of the ride it either drizzled or poured rain. Early in the ride and late afternoon, early evening, it was partly sunny. We decided to camp at Iillanhee State Park. Our map said it was 3 miles NE of Bremerton, WA, but it turned out to be much further than that and very hilly. It took us around 1.5-2 hours to get there once we were in the town of Bremerton.

It was not raining once we arrived at the campsite around 8:20 pm. The first thing we did was pitch our tent. By the time we each took a hot shower, well, the hot water ran out halfway into my shower, so mine was ice cold, it had begun to drizzle again. Not cooking anything tonight. We set in the drizzling rain and ate fried chicken, broccoli salad and triscuits we picked up at a nearby store. Food never tasted so good. It poured much of the night but our tent kept us both dry. We both like rain, but are getting tired of it for sure. The ranger said that it was the wettest Aug. 20 on record.

Earlier in the day we met up with some folks on bike tours. We were discussing gear and safety and such and this old gal came up to me later and gave me an extra safety triangle she had. Very sweet. We strapped it on the back of Sam's bike.

Another couple riding a tandem bike was in the lead when we crossed the Hood Canal. What a scary, yet exciting ordeal that was. It was a long bridge, narrow lane for bikes, lots of traffic and it was raining hard. And given all that, some jerk in an SUV actually honked at us.