75 miles, 7hrs 30mins (incl. 1 food stop)
Set off this morning at 8.20 under grey skies and 4C fully kitted out in my waterproofs. In truth, I didn't actually get rained on until some 20 miles into the day, then it rained lots, though, all told I only got about 1hr of rain all day (my first rain of the whole trip). When I told the local loggers over breakfast in the Spartan, though surprisingly welcoming J&J cafe at the north of Quinalt that it was the first rain I'd seen in 5 days in the state they accused me of being some sort of sun god.
On the topic of the loggers, I just have to mention the drivers the logging trucks here in Washington. Approx ever third vehicle that passes me on the roads is one of these pictured above, often with an extra trailer to boot. And while they look, and sound terrifying, I can honestly say that I can't believe there's a more courteous group of truck drivers anywhere out there. Even when I'm trundling along well into the shoulder lane of the road these guys go well out their way taking their rigs well onto the other carriageway to give me room. Now my pet theory I've come up with is that this seemingly relaxed attitude to their driving is a result of the nature of their 'quarry' - trees, there's seemingly billions of them here, they're not going anywhere and the harvesting of them means thinking in terms of multi-decades. As a result a couple of seconds being held up behind a bike isn't anything worth getting stressed about. Just a theory.
In terms of me, good news is that my knee is considerably better once again. Nothing more than a dull ache now and I was actually able to do some cycling out the saddle today. Which is just as well as the inability to stand yesterday has left me somewhat tender and swollen. It basically feels like a yellow dot squash ball has been surgically implanted under the skin of each buttock. Not too painful but very very weird. In terms of the ride today, it was very much a 'game of two halves' with a very slow 3hrs 30mins to do the first 30 miles before food followed by a respectable 3hrs 40mins for the next 45miles. Not sure what was in those pancakes at J&J's but it definitely worked.
Well, I'm shattered, so am off to bed, at only 8.30. Very much looking forward to rolling over the 4 miles of the Astoria-Megler bridge tomorrow into Oregon for a much needed rest day.
Before I go, though, I must say many, many thanks to all of you sending you messages/comments to me here and apologies for not getting back to you all. There definitely helping keeping me going along the way.
Wishing you all a good Easter weekend.
