2022 XWA Grand Depart

Bikepacking

Jun 7

I got very little sleep despite staying in a hotel in Forks the night before the Grand Depart. My brain kept constantly running through all sorts of things and my primary worry was did I have everything that I needed?

I arrived at La Push courtesy of fellow racer David W. (DW) at around 6:30AM and made some nervous last adjustments to my gear. All of the racers assembled on the beach for the mandatory tire and/or toe dip in the Pacific Ocean. It was a larger group than I was expecting. We got the pre-start beach photos/videos taken care of and then hauled our bikes back up into the parking lot for a neutral roll-out. During this roll-out it was interesting to think about the many unique journeys that each rider would face in the days ahead. Some riders were on the “Lite” route, some were on the “XWA” route and some were probably doing their own thing. Some riders were going to shoot off the front with very little kit and others like me would take more time riding hard, but getting a full nights sleep each night. I couldn’t help to ponder, which of these folks would make it all the way to Idaho and what would their individual journeys be like?

Soon the roll-out parade ended and the pace picked up on the paved road heading away from the beach towards Forks. I settled into a comfortable pace, but with all the excitement I’m sure I was riding naively fast for the day. I got immediate feedback here on the advantage of aerobars and my disadvantage of not having them. The day was picture perfect and I was thankful to be riding in the rain forest with no rain. We followed the beautiful Calawah river for a few miles and then turned uphill for the first long climb of the route. This went up and over the Olympic foothills and then dropped into the Sol Duc river drainage. I ended up riding the entire first climb as my legs were feeling good. The views up on the ridge were fantastic. After the climb it was a fun fast descent into the North fork of the Calawah and eventually onto the Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) following the Sol Duc River. Next it was onto the first bit of fun short single-track on the Mt. Mueller trail and then joining back up with the paved Spruce Rail Trail along Lake Crescent. I stopped to fill a water bottle in one of these cascading streams flowing into the lake, the black flies were really bad here when I stopped. I brought iodine as my water treatment so I set my stopwatch to time the 30min treatment period. Next it was onto the Olympic Adventure Trail (OAT) Route, 25mi of single-track trail that is quite enjoyable on a non-loaded bike. My first hike-a-bike of the trip was the steep hill starting off the OAT. The OAT was challenging with the loaded bike and I didn’t recall so much climbing but I kept telling myself that trails are way more fun than roads. Eventually I popped out onto Hwy 112 and looked back to turn on my rear blinky light to find that it was gone (likely lost somewhere on the OAT). As I headed onto the ODT and made my way to Port Angeles I decided that I would try and make it to the bike shop before closing to get a new blinky light. I arrived at the Bike Garage about 15min prior to closing and they hooked me up with a new rear light. I knew that this was essential for the sections of roads that I would be on in the coming days. After getting the new light I rode back down to the waterfront to fill water bottles and continue on the ODT towards Sequim. I had planned to resupply at the gas station along 101 at Carlsborg. I saw one of these has a sandwich shop so I was looking forward to that. Steve (SL) was there before me and was already chowing down. The sandwich shop was closed so I had to settle for gas station junk. I loaded back up and caught up to Steve on the big climb. I was on track to make it to camp right as it was getting dark, but I had a navigation error on the unsigned FS roads and ended up climbing extra elevation and adding miles to my first day. I corrected the mistake and bombed down into camp in the dark. I quickly set up my tent and conked out for the night.

DAY 1: 122mi, 9900ft elev. gain, 15.5hrs