Tag: ferry

August 15, 2018. Oak Harbor to Port Townsend.

Another motel continental breakfast got a bit of food and coffee in my system. I left the motel and found a route that would intercept the official PNT right near the coast. I perhaps owe an explanation. There was a state park where I could’ve camped in my tent. It was about another 6 miles. However, with a perfectly good town nearby, I grabbed a motel and a cooked meal.

The route I chose did walk me through this military-based town. I went by huge walls of blackberry plants and finally encountered people harvesting these beauties. Back home, I would probably pay $5 for a pint, but out here the plant is a nuisance and it is amazing to see so much ripe fruit just waste away on the vine.

When I reached the beach, the tide was high so I walked the nearby road. It was fairly boring. In another unique PNT moment I was walking along and a car came towards me, looked at me, and slowed down. In about a minute it had turned around and crept up beside me and the lady inside asked if I was a PNT hiker. She was the local trail angel and she and her husband hosted hikers, including the Brits currently.

She offered a lift and encouraged me to stop by. I stuck to the road walking and reflected how nice it is that people are actually keeping an eye out for hikers.

Once again I found myself near the dreaded Highway 20. Fortunately, there was a nice bike path that was parallel and I took that until I could cut over on farm roads towards the ferry. I was walking down a quiet Engle Road and was about two miles from the ferry terminal when a small local transit bus went flying by. It braked hard. It started backing up. I shook my head, indicating I was not looking for the bus, but still it backed-up the road. The driver asked if I was going to the ferry, I said yes and before I could explain that I wanted to walk, he got urgent and said we could just make the next one but I had to hurry. There was another, older couple on the bus. The driver was a little edgy, like he had downed a lot of coffee, but he got us to the terminal just in time.

I kind of like ferry rides. Even though this one is short and despite the smoke in the air, you could still see the outlines of islands. Port Townsend appeared as we docked and I was close to a motel and a zero day.