Thursday 9 July

The ride today started out in damp conditions. Not really raining but thick dew.  My glasses needed windshield wipers and every time I stopped they fogged up. Todays ride continued along the coast.  Lots of the trees in this area have a burl groth on them. There was a path that went through a grove of Spruce trees.

To give you a relative size on the size of the trees and these burls, there is a root going between the two trees directly behind the information sign. The ocean is located in what appears to be a clearing behind the trees.

Elsewhere along the road on a path that lead to the ocean was this Hemlock growing out of and over a Cedar log

The log is about 3 foot in diameter

The road today, in some cases had a very narrow sholder

or would go away at bridges

I stopped at a saw mill that made Cedar shingles. I got a tour of the process.  It is very labor intensive. The mill buys the wood precut into 16 and 18 inch lengths.

There are 6 work stations like this one. The guy on top cuts the shingles from the log. The guy below him, cuts the imperfections from both sides and sorts the shingles into Grade 1 (only streight grain) or Grade 2 which is everything else. The guy on the bottom stacks and bands the shingles. There  no protective guards on any of the saws. The foreman said it is a very dangerous job.  Anyone working there more than 6 months has lost at least one digit. 

A few miles from where I was planning on staying the fog/mist started to roll back in. 

This is Lake Quinault

I was going to camp on the south shore of the lake but as I approached the south side it started drizzling. Being a whimp camper I found a room instead. The room was nice and the people gave me a few rag towels so I could clean the bike.  It all worksout in the end. At the restauranti ate at for dinner I met two guys from Seattle that were cycling around  Olympic Peninsula.  One of the guys had a broken shifter for his rear derailleur. I told them of the bike shop in Hoquiam that Steve found for me. We will probably meet there early Saturday morning.