Hello from Sequim, Washington state, USA! This is our fourth day in the US, since we crossed the border on 4 October –last Thursday.

Our last week in Canada was quite intense –exactly as the previous months had been as well. On Friday 28 September we waved Mark goodbye, since he left Hope almost an hour earlier than us, as expected. We rode some 65 km to Deroche on highway 7, which was quite more scenic and less packed with cars than highway 1. We did indeed enjoy the less demanding hills and had a look around Deroche to check for any potential nice spots to pitch the tent. We were encouraged to keep on going west by a member of the local school who had just shut the road gate. She invited us to go around it and we took the chance to ask her about any spots in the village to spend the night. After checking with the principal, she came back and gave us a couple of suggestions and we decided to give a go to the dyke just outside town.

Pak went to refill his water bottles to a farm nearby and not only was he allowed to do so but also received a confirmation nobody would be bothered by our tent or presence at the dyke that night. He happened to meet one of the dyke managers, a quite reassuring man who also announced some hard rain for the day after.

However, before the rain came we had one of the most windy nights we spent in Canada. A couple of pegs flew away during the night and the tent moved in ways we have rarely seen before. The morning after was still dry and we just had to struggle with the strong wind, which invited us to think we would have a tough ride that day. We were lucky, though, and as soon as we started cycling on highway 7 the wind stopped. And even more luckily, the rain did not come until we had already pitched the tent on Adrianne and Matthew’s lawn in Port Coquitlam –thanks once again to the warmshowers community.

Adrianne made fajitas for dinner and we enjoyed a nice chat with her and her son Eddie before we headed to the sleeping bags. Despite it rained the whole evening and night, we managed to get some rest and the morning after she and Matthew gave us very good tips on how get to the ferry terminal on Horseshoe Bay, in West Vancouver. Moreover, they recommended us to have a break at the Rocky Mountain Ice Cream on Murray street.

And so this is how, on Sunday 30 September, we entered Vancouver and cycled directly to Stanley Park. It was quite a rainy day, but were very happy to have chosen that route –the #7– to get from Hope to the ferry terminal, since it had a quite wide shoulder and there was not much traffic. Besides, it offered more beautiful landscapes than highway 1. We got to Downtown Eastside and then headed to Stanley Park, where we had a quick lunch. By 4 pm we had already crossed Lion’s Bridge and we had a hard time following a cycle lane that would take us to Marina drive. And we still had some 20 km ahead of us and a ferry to catch!

We asked around and we were pointed on the direction to Horseshoe Bay. Moreover, we were also told there was a bus, which made us reconsider our options. We ended up taking the bus and we were very happy with that decision as well. It would have taken us at least at least to hours to cycle along the winding and hilly drive to get to the ferry! We had to wait 40 minutes for the ferry and we arrived in Nanaimo by 8 pm, which meant we had to ride at night. It is rarely a pleasant experience for us to ride at night, especially when there is traffic and we are in a city.

Anyway, we arrived at Deborah and Mike’s house half an hour later. They had agreed to have us that night –tanks to the wonderful warmshowers community– and they had even made us dinner, which we greatly appreciated. We had a wonderful end of the day with the nice meal they had prepared –even their daughter Jordan was involved with a delicious dessert– and a very interesting chat about their Icelandic ancestors.

On 1 October we had breakfast with our hosts and then headed off to the library. With all the hassle of the previous day, we did not have the time to look where to spend the nights to come. Luckily for us there were several warmshowers members around the area and shortly after 2 pm we received a confirmation from Laura and Mike, who were very happy to offer us the couch in their shed in Crofton. We therefore left Nanaimo as soon as we finished lunch and hit highway 1 to then follow a bit to the Trans Canada Trail and finally take a side road to this nice town in North Cowichan.

About four hours later, we managed to get to their house, where we also met Laura and Mike’s children: Ren, Ava and Oscar. We were extremely lucky to have been hosted by these guys. First, we arrived when they just started preparing dinner. Then, we got the privilege to attend a local ‘candidates night’. They asked us if we would be interested in going with them and see how the candidates to the local council and mayorship interacted with the population at the beginning of their campaigns. We could not say no to such an opportunity to discover the concerns of the people and to discover how this kind of things take place in that part of the globe.

Besides getting a good sleep, thanks to them we also had a very nice breakfast and received a very good tip on how to get to Victoria. This is the reason why on 2 October we took a ferry to Salt Spring Island, cycled from Vesuvius to Fulford Harbour and then took another ferry to Swartz Bay. It was a tough but very beautiful ride, which ended with the wonderful Lochside Regional Trail.

By 6 pm we finally arrived at Mary and Les house, another extremely kind couple, members of warmshowers. They hosted us for a couple of days and we were fed, able to cook for them and their family and fried and also rest and visit the beautiful cycling capital of Canada! On top of that, they helped us with our organisation to cross the border to US on the ferry to Port Angeles. And we also managed to have a coffee with Lorne –aka Chas– the fellow cyclist we met in Prince Edward Island. He could find a slot to meet us again, since the day after he was heading to Alberta to ride on the snow!

Without even realising, we were having our last ball in Canada. Those last days went through flying and by the time we started to think about our achievement –WE HAD CROSSED CANADA EAST TO WEST– we were already cycling on the Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) in Washington state. Despite the excitement of this new stage in a new country, we were also a bit sad –especially Tere– we had to leave Canada behind. We had a terrific time indeed and the whole Canadian experience will be hard to forget.

On 4 October we took the 3 pm ferry and crossed the border to the United States as if it was the most common of procedures in the world. The officer at the border asked us several questions, took our pictures and fingerprints –along with our first US$12– and after 10 minutes we were already aboard.

We docked at 4:30 pm and before 5 pm we were cycling on the trail and on our way to Lonnie’s place. We had contacted him before leaving Victoria and he had agreed to had us on his 10 acres property, where he has hosted more than 2,000 people from couchsurfing, warmshowers or simply walking in. He is just some 15 km from the ferry terminal and by the trail on the way to Port Townsend, which was very convenient to us to stop and pitch our tent on his property. We were however and again even luckier and he let us sleep in one of his cabins!

After a very good sleep on a rainy night, on 5 October we left Lonnie’s house under the rain, which did not stop until we reached Port Townsend after 6 pm. Despite the rain, which was quite hard at some moments during the day, we followed the ODT and cycled it as if it was an privilege: that trail is a real and complete gem! Unfortunately, the trail came to an end and we had to continue on route #20 and we had to face several long and steep climbs, with no shoulder at all and quite an amount of cars and trucks passing us. By the time we could take the trail again at Four Corners, we decided to continue on the road and joining it again just after Glen Cove, before Mill road.

We stopped at a local supermarket –Food Co-op– we saw just after getting out of the port area and Tere tried to get some wifi connection while Pak went inside to get some supplies. We had not been lucky at all in finding a warmshowers host and we had to start looking at other options for overnighting. We found some hot soup Tere was very happy to have after such a soaking day and just when we started looking for spots where to pitch our tent a guy came to talk to us. His name was Matt and he told us he had moved back recently to the region.

He started asking the same usual question we had answered hundreds of times before but all of a sudden he asked whether we had a place to stay. Even if he had just moved a few weeks ago and his apartment was full of boxes, he invited us to stay at his place! We had to climb the last –very steep– hill but we where so glad and we felt so lucky we could not believe it. We cooked dinner together and watched Popeye –Robert Altman, with Robin Williams and Shelley Duval– while we had some nice chats and laughs. He also gave us good tips about where to go next after Port Townsend and we discovered it was best –i.e. more beautiful and interesting– to go back to Port Angeles and head west rather than go south to Olympia, which was the fastest route.

Matt had made some room for us both as well as Anacleta and FU.LA.NA and we could sleep like logs on the floor with our pads and bags –like good old times. Before getting to sleep, especially after Matt had told us we would enjoy much beautiful landscapes on the west side of the peninsula, we checked our options to get back to Port Angeles and continue on the trail –but without climbing back those hills on the 20. There was a bus coming from Seattle at 3:50 pm –also at 10 am but it was too ambitious to think we could have breakfast, pack up and clean up the mess we made in Matt’s apartment after our gear had been soaked wet the day before.

So the next morning we had breakfast with Matt and he had no problem with us leaving his place around noon. We had yet another unexpected issue with a flat tyre on Anacleta’s rear wheel. Pak tried to repair it but found no puncture. He nevertheless replaced the tube after he did not find anything around the tyre. We finished packing up and said thanks a million and waved goodbye to Matt.

We went straight to the bus station but found it closed –which is only open during the week. We then moved just across the street to a Safeway –supermarket– to get some internet and try to buy the tickets, as it seemed as if you could not get on the bus to Port Angles without having bought the tickets in advance. We tried several times and we could not get to buy them, so Pak went back to the station and tried to ask one of the local bus drivers whether he could pass a phone call to the Dungeness bus line. He was lucky and found one of the drivers finishing his lunch at the station. Pake explained the situation and he offered to call the company from his mobile phone. However, after 10 minutes being on hold, he had to give up and come back to the supermarket, to find out Anacleta’s rear tyre was completely flat again!

We distributed tasks quickly and while Tere headed to the visitor information centre to try to call the bus company again or find an alternative option, Pak replaced the rear tyre and tube. Tere found a very diligent and informed lady at the information centre who recommended to take a local bus to Sequim –#8– and then take another one that left immediately after to Port Angeles –#30. While Pak was finishing with the tyre –tube puncture included– Tere started contacting the warmshowers community in Sequim and Port Angeles. She sent several messages and we finally received a confirmation from Bonnie and Hans, who were gladly to host us in Sequim! That meant no need to change bus and simply riding some 8 km between the station and their house.

We took the bus at 5 pm and by the time we arrived in Sequim and managed to connect to a wifi network we had received a second confirmation from Martha and David, who were also happy to host us in Sequim. Tere sent a quick message to thank them and tell them we already agreed with Bonnie and Hans we would be spending the night in their house. We finally got there by 7 pm and the funniest thing happened: Hans welcomed us and showed us where to park the bicycles in their garage and then told us we would be having dinner at Martha and David’s! They not only knew each other, they were friends and Martha, Bonnie and Hans had worked together.

We had a wonderful evening and meal with the four of them, which also included some tips to resume our journey the day after. David recommended us a couple of spots and draw us a map –and later that night Hans gave us a map of the ODT. After a shower, we finally went to bed around midnight. Pak fell asleep shortly after but Tere started drafting our Canadian Thanksgiving post and she did not stop until she had it almost ready, around 2 am.

This morning we woke up at 8 am and had breakfast with Bonnie and Hans. It started raining shortly after and the forecast was not particularly good and they offered us to stay another day if we wanted to. We preferred to wait around 1 pm to check whether we could go for a short distance and in the meantime Hans gave us a lift to Walmart, so we could find a SIM card. On the way back to the house Tere started missing her more-than-eight-hours sleep she could not have the previous night and we accepted their offer to stay for the day and leave tomorrow.

We really enjoyed this day off and managed to get some rest and relax. We also had the opportunity to cook for our hosts. We cooked another Spanish omelette –by Tere– and made some allioli –by Pak.

We should be able to get back on the saddle in the morning. We will try to get to Lake Crescent and find one of the spots David told us about. But you will learn about that on our next post!

Thanks a lot again for following us on this blog or on the social world. Do not hesitate to contact us or ask any questions; we will try to reply as soon as possible. And, of course, please keep in mind you can always subscribe to our blog and/or our social media.