The Olympic coast is not really a place for bikes. The beaches are soft, the headlands have to be climbed on rope ladders, and the tide decides when you can move. That is exactly why I wanted to ride as much of it as the rules allow.
I started at Rialto Beach with a friend, two loaded bikes and a tide table taped to my top tube. We rode the firm sand at low tide, pushed over the driftwood when we had to, and spent the high tides on the forest roads behind the dunes.
Timing the tides
Twice a day the sea takes the beach back, so every stretch of sand is a window of about four hours. Miss it and you are sitting on a log for six. We missed it once, made coffee, and watched the sea stacks disappear into the mist.
Nobody tells you how loud driftwood is when the wind gets under it.
Three days, 94 kilometres, maybe a third of them pushing. It was the slowest ride I have ever done and I would do it again next week.