On May 21st, 2023 I set out at 7:00 a.m. with about 48 other people to begin the Cross Washington Race, XWA.There were a few brave men who decided to go for the 3 hour and 1 minute time bonus by dunking themselves fully in the Pacific Ocean on the shores of La Push, Washington. The rest of us opted to just roll a front or rear bike tire into the surf. A group photo on the beach and then we were off. The day was cloudy but not rainy-yet. As we pedaled along the pavement the 15 miles from La Push to Forks the mist started. No one really thought it would rain so no one stopped to put on rain jackets. Before we knew it we were all soaked.
Day 1- La Push to Port Angeles. 93.7 miles, 6525 feet climbed
My riding buddy, Keri Bergere and I were originally planning to go about 75-80 miles that first day and then camp. After getting thoroughly soaked by the rain we changed plans and decided instead to push all the way to Port Angeles and get a hotel room, about 94 miles. The rain came down for about 5 hours but by the time it stopped our minds were already on a nice dry bed in Port Angeles. We made good time that day and got into Port Angeles at about 7:30 p.m.. Another rider friend, Sarah G., was already in town and offered to share her room with us and split the cost. Overall my body felt better after this first day than it did last year. No major saddle sore issues yet.
Day 2- Port Angeles to Quilcene. 69.2 miles, 7654 feet climbed
The next morning we got going by 6 a.m.. Today’s route started along the Olympic Discovery Trail to Sequim. Then we headed up into the Olympic mountains to climb over Bon Jon Pass. It’s a fairly demanding climb of about 10 miles but honestly, we climb so much on Cross Washington that I lose track of how long each climb is. The good thing was there wasn’t any snow that we had to walk through this year. The bad thing was that it started raining again near the top. Once again we opted to try and get a room in Quilcene, our destination for the day, rather than camp.
After climbing over Bon Jon Pass we made our way down to the Big Quilcene trail. This is a single track mountain bike trail that is very rooty, rocky, and a bit precipitous. Neither Keri nor I wanted to ride it. Last year someone told us it was 4 miles long but I thought they were exaggerating. So I clocked the mileage this time. It was 5 miles and we walked every bit of it!! While walking added to our time for the day, we still made it into Quilcene by 6:30 p.m., enough time to get a room and some dinner before the only restaurant closed. After eating yummy burgers we went to the convenience store and resupplied our food for the next day.
Day 3 Part 2- Quilcene to the Kingston ferry. 51 miles
Tuesday morning was a bright and early start. Really, the sun was shining at 5 a.m. when we took off. Today’s ride would involve a very circuitous path to the ferry to take us off the Olympic Penninsula and over to Edmonds. We had a bit more single track through the Port Gamble Forest and Kitsap Heritage parks and then a mad race for the ferry because we could see a ferry at the dock. When we arrived, we realized that the ferry we saw was in dry dock! The next ferry would be along in about 30 minutes. Still we were making good time and got to Edmonds at about 3 p.m., leaving us plenty of daylight to tackle the suburban segment of XWA. We had just ridden 51 miles that day to get to the ferry and now we would try and add another 30 or so.
Stay tuned for more……
Annie Bikes 
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