Day 19 July 6, 2001

Forks, WA to Aberdeen, WA

            Although we have packed sleeping bags with us this entire trip, we haven't found much use for them except when a family doesn't have enough beds for us to sleep in. Simply put, camping has not been the choice for the majority of our nights. When we arrived in Forks last night, we seriously considered camping out for the first time in a while. The bike shop owner informed us of a good place to camp and we were almost set to sleep with the bears, but we didn't. Thank Goodness! Jake is the cautious, parental type in our group. He is always quick to take the conservative side when a decision is needed. (I am sure all of our mothers are glad he is with us) After consulting with some of the people in Forks, Jake let us know that last night wouldn't be the best night to camp; not if we wanted to get a good rest. He was right, and thankfully we slept in cozy motel.

            Upon awaking and prepping our bikes we exited out our motel room using the sliding glass door into what felt like an outside cooled by a humidifier. You could wave your hand in the air and it would come back totally wet. Now it wasn't raining, but as soon as we got on our bikes and starting moving at twenty miles an hour, we were wet like it was raining. Our "Chicken Suits" (rain tarps) didn't make it out, but we utilized all of our warm weather clothing to keep our bodies toasty. As you can see by the stats above this was the second longest day in mileage we have come. It certainly didn't feel like it though. We departed at an early hour and felt the aid of a nice tail wind most of the day. Instead of stopping once for lunch, we wised up and ate two smaller meals. The first meal came at a beautiful beach near a town named Kalaloch, Washington. We munched on some dried fruit and PB & Honey sandwiches. Sandwiches are beautiful, sandwiches are fine. We like sandwiches, we eat them all the time. They're perfect for a quick nutritional hit. The scenery at Kalaloch was amazing, as was the chill we were feeling by the time we were ready to leave. It was cold! The combination of a wet cool day, with five bodies digesting a light snack, covered in dried sweat made it very cold.

            The afternoon brought warmth to our bodies as we left the Hoh Rain Forest and all of that cold moist air. We cruised today! The day was well over 100 miles, but none of us felt like it was that long. The early start and nice tailwind made for a fairly early arrival in Aberdeen. Denny's, unfortunately, was our choice for dinner. I don't know why we wanted to eat there, but we were tired and super hunger. It was located next door to our motel, so that made it easy as well. Our bill came to a whopping $60.00 on $2.99 "Grand Slam Breakfast Specials". You can figure out how many we ate between the five of us.