Day 1: June 22 Seattle to Montesano 89 miles

Monday, 6/22/81
Lake Sylvie State Park, Monsanto, WA

I began by ride by catching the ferry to Bremerton. Said good-bye to my dad and girlfriend. It started raining near Shelton and drizzled on and off all day. Someone threw a beer bottle at me south of Shelton. Camping at Lake Sylvie State Park, where I camped during my practicve ride around the Olympic Peninsula.

The rain didn’t let up till 9:00 the next morning. This was the largest volume of rain I experienced the entire trip. Due to the rain, this was the first of three or four times I was forced to use my tent. Usually, I slept in the open.

A little background

When I was 26 years old, I was headed to graduate school at Kansas State University. Knowing I was headed for a tedious academic setting, I decided to have an adventure on the way. So, I rode a bike from Seattle to Kansas!

Good-bye party from my fellow janitors at Unico Properties.

During the journey, I took photos with a cheap camera. After I finished the journey, I wrote a letter (in longhand) about my journey. The wife of Jack, one of my co-riders, kindly typed it up for me, and now I have transcribed it to computer, with the addition of some current commentary. The photos have faded terribly. I scanned them all and cleaned them up and they are included here too, but they are pretty low quality.

Little did I know, that this would be my first of many travel stories! I hope you enjoy it!

Note: Black text is the description I wrote from my notes when I finished my journey. 

Blue text is comments I added as I created this blog in 2013.