day 7: anacortes to old fort townsend state park

you won't believe it. we turned down a bed and shower for tonight. what??! why? 

kitties. :-( 

I LOVE CATS, but they make my immune system go on overdrive and all i need on overdrive right now are my legs. we lost an hour of daylight going to our warmshowers.org host's house only to realize this kitty issue and the had to cycle 6 miles to the next campsite. but we got here, and it was just us. no one else was here at the hiker/biker site. i've been wanting some alone time with samuel so this was a lovely surprise. plus, i got to play fleetwood mac and dance while chopping up veggies for dinner. ahhhhh, so nice!! 

did i mention we are learning how to eat? for example, today was a bad eating day. super sweet oatmeal with a donut for breakfast = BAD, then a large thai meal for lunch = BAD, and finally chocolate milk and a veggie/tofu wrap for dinner = GOOD. 

the thai food was super tasty, but we ate everything, which means we were biking with really full bellies. instead of just fueling ourselves, we put our muscles and digestive system at war with each other (at least for 20 minutes or so). plus, we spent $33 on lunch, which is a bit steep for a meal on this trip. 

in total, we rode 42 miles today. my favorite visual part? deception pass. the bridge was spectacular, and we got to watch kayakers playing in the current like little paper boats children build and float down the street gutter.

oh yeah! two other notables: 1) i got my first flat! boo. from a staple! how does a rogue staple get on a rural island road? 2) a weathered man on a loaded bike flagged me down and said something to me in what sounded like french. i flagged down samuel and had him speak with him. while they were chatting, i observed him, his bike, his belongings. he looked like he had been out in the sun quite a bit, and his gear looked worn. later, samuel told me that he started his ride in south america and was headed towards alaska. he has been cycling for 5 months and has seen only 5 days of rain (this gave us some hope). he probably has thousands of stories, his body/mind/spirit/heart a well of treasured experiences. i asked samuel if he asked him why he was doing this, but he hadn't asked. i guess i'll only know the stories i make up about this french man. 

i'm sitting inside my tent, under tall trees i don't know how to identify. we had an awesome dinner and i keep nodding off, so good night!

tomorrow, we tackle our longest ascent through olympic national forest. lord, have mercy.