HURRICANE RIDGE

Vincent and Charlie catch a breather in Port Gamble on the way back from Hurricane Ridge.

Lynn Gill, Kole Kantner, Charlie White, Vincent Muoneke, and I set out on the 6:10 AM ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge to climb up to Hurricane Ridge (5,200 feet) ... and return 286K / 170 miles. It was cold ... just above freezing when we set out and when we got to Hurricane Ridge. It was a nice day anyway ... and we were only a little concerned about the possibility of running into ice (we didn't).

We said hi to Dan Jensen at the ferry dock before we left ... he and Alan Bell were riding the Hood Canal Loop 2.0 from Bremerton. They beat us to Bainbridge at the end ... the ferry worker had heard we were coming from Dan/Alan.

As we were about to get off the ferry at Bainbidge, a bakery truck driver gave us a loaf of fresh bread for our ride. A nice treat that we enjoyed at several stops along the way.

With almost 13,000 feet of climbing, this was a tiring ride. The 5,000 feet from Port Angeles to Hurricane Ridge is a long, grueling climb ... but fortunately very manageable. Basically a consistent 5-8 %, with nothing over 10%. The rollers on WA-104 and US-101 added another 8,000 feet.

After a brief rest at the visitor center, we bundled up for the ride down.



Lynn struggled with her lights, but managed to make it without running into anything too big.

The biggest challenge we had was Vincent broke a spoke with about 17 miles to go ... huddled at the side of WA-104 in the cold and dark on the narrow shoulder, mostly staying out of the ditch and blackberries, Kole and Charlie performed surgery, removing Vince's rear brake so he could pedal. A couple of miles down the road, at the Port Gamble Road turn there was room to spread out a bit ... and a street light. We tried putting on a fiber spoke replacement, but couldn't remove the broken spoke ... a non-standard set-up. So the decision was made to ride gingerly the rest of the way, crossing our fingers that it would hold. It did!

We had time before the 10:30 ferry, so we stopped at a convenience store and Vince & I each bought a can of Fosters for the ferry ride back. Sort of becoming a tradition, as we've done that several times now. Very refreshing!