Through Washington state to the Pacific Coast

This post is from a newsletter I sent out while cycling from Canada to Mexico in 2017

Hello friends,

Yesterday I reached the Pacific Ocean, which felt great, 526 miles since starting out. The journey from Victoria to Westport took me through the beautiful San Juan islands, the forts of Port Townsend, over to Seattle and finally westwards across Washington to the open coast.

Settling into it now, I think I’ve found my “touring legs” and you’re likely to find me singing my way up the hills of the Pacific Northwest. Mitch is enjoying a new pair of clip-in pedals which have been a game-changer (and thankfully no sideways falls through 90 degrees when coming to a stop, yet).

I continue to meet many weird and wonderful people, the latter category including a magic couple from Alaska with whom I cycled and camped for a glorious few days. Also a heroic lady who saw us sheltering from a downpour, pulled over to ask us if we were hungry and miraculously started spooning hot jambalaya into our hastily-retrieved tupperware.

One fifth of the route complete, navigation gets simpler; now just need to take a left turn at the beach and keep the sea to starboard.

Love, Elishka