Day 130 - 10th October, Bainbridge Island - Suquamish - Port Gamble - Kitsap Memorial State Park, 25.69 miles

Ráno nás čakajú výborné raňajky, potom sa ešte dlho rozprávame s Ronom a Poly o všetkom možnom. Obchádzame severnú časť ostrova, vo Fay Bainbridge State Park je kopec naplavených kmeňov, ostrov je fajn, malé kopčeky, skoro žiadna premávka. Prechádzame do indiánskeho mestečka (takmer bez indiánov) Suquamish, kde je pochovaný náčelník Seattle, tuleň tu kráľ rybárom ryby a na stromoch pískali orly bielohlavé, potom sa cez lesy a ďalšie kopčeky dostávame do prístavu Gamble a spíme v Kitsap Memorial State Park.

Morning: tasty breakfast with Polly & Ron and good discussion about environmental issues, permaculture and self sustainability.
Noon: we biked around north part of the Bainbridge island (Fay Bainbridge State Park with many  logs - driftwood) to Suquamish (grave of the Chief Seattle, seal was eating fish from fishermen nets, bald eagles were sitting around and made noises like chicken)

Evening: biking to port Gamble and camping in Kitsap Memorial State Park, nice evening, we slept between quite big trees, found many mushrooms for diner and spoke with SJ.

Day 129 - 9th October, Seattle - Bainbridge Island, 17.54 miles

Dnes sme opustili Seattle, rozlúčili sa s Alyssou, Alexom a ich spolubývajúcimi a pohodlne bicyklujúc po cyklocestách, sme sa dostali do centra a našli trajekt cez Puget Sound na ostrov Bainbridge. V prístave už čakala kopa cyklistov, pri vylodení to vyzeralo ako na nejakých pretekoch, len čo otvorili trajekt vyvalil sa z neho peletón cyklistov, my uprostred, bola to dosť sranda, ale zároveň som mal pocit že každú sekundu musíme spôsobiť nejakú fatálnu hromadnú zrážku, my sme boli jediný ťažko naložený diaľkari. V Bainbridge Baška získala nové osemkolečko (s robotou za 50$), to staré už malo svoju štvrtú reťaz a už to robilo neplechu. Dnešný cieľ bol malý kemp na severe ostrova vzdialený iba zopár míľ. Ale kým sme opustili Bainbridge zotmelo sa. Do kempu sme nedorazili, bo na jednej z križovatiek nás odchytil akýsi chlapík-cyklista (volá sa Ron) a po krátkom rozhovore, obávajúc sa o našu bezpečnosť, nám povedal, že môžme prespať na jeho záhrade. Neváhali sme, tiež sa nám veľmi po tme bicyklovať nechcelo, aj keď bola pekná hviezdnatá noc. Keď sme už mali postavený stan, prišla Ronová žena, Polly, a keď nás zbadala iba zalamentovala “máme tento obrovský dom a on vás nechal spať vonku na záhrade?!“ Takže dnes sme mali opäť raz strechu nad hlavou, sprchu a výbornú domácu večeru. Ron a Polly sú výborný ľudia, naša krvná skupina, tiež prebicyklovali cez polku USA do Severnej Dakoty a Minnesoty. Každý rok sa účastnia miestnych indiánskych slávností, keď sa zídu všetky miestne kmene na jednom veľkom splave s nádhernými zdobenými člnmi. Ron je dosť dobrý fotograf, takže všade na stenách mali fotky z týchto slávností.

Today we left Seattle, said goodbye to Alyssa, Alex and all amazing people from theirs house. Using the bike trails, we got very easily to the downtown and found ferry across Puget Sound to Bainbridge island. Ticket for both of us was about 15$. But first we took our bikes to the ferry terminal to buy a tickets and after we pushed our bikes through whole building, got to the second floor, then, we saw small notice that bikes are not allowed in the building and we had to go out. Why there wasn't any sign on the entrance doors? :-) They had special line for bikers outside. When the ferry arrived there was maybe 30 bikers. From ferry we could see very nicely Seattle and also Cascades & Olympic. When ferry arrived to the Bainbridge Island all bikers were ready, standing one next to the other, on the foredeck and when ferry staff opened the gate, all bikers just flew out from it. It was like a race, we where in the middle, bikers just passing around us. Baška's chain was still jumping on her cassette which is already worn out, it's it fourth chain, luckily we were passing around bike shop which was still open, so we spend another 50$ and changed it. But then it was nearly dark and closest state park with campground was about 6 miles away. So again, biking with the stars, we were heading there. On one interception some another biker was shouting something on us. Baška was close, so she stopped and spoke with him. That guy, his name was Ron, was asking us if we have a place to stay overnight and invited us to camp at his backyard. Ron's house was just near by that interception, so why not? We built our tent in his backyard and then his wife, Polly, arrived and when she spotted us and found out what we are, she just yell out "we have this huge house and he let you sleep outside?!" So we packed our tent and move in, had nice shower and Polly with Ron prepared amazing dinner and tea, we spoke a lot about our and theirs trips (they also biked cross country to North Dakota and Minnesota). Ron is excellent photograph, so everywhere in their house are photos of aboriginal people from local coast tribes, during their annual canoeing gathering celebration.

Day 127 and 128 - 7th & 8th October, Seattle

Dával som do poriadku naše bicykle, Baška išla pozrieť s Alyssou neďaleký park. Potom sme ešte trochu pracovali na Blogu, fotkách a pod.

Working on bikes, Baška went somewhere to the park, last day we worked on our blog, pictures, letters...

Day 126 - 6th October, Seattle, 20 miles

Ráno dlho vyspávame, okolo obeda vyrážame s Alyssou do mesta (je neděle jde se do města). Ženieme sa všetci traja na bajkoch, Seattle je na bicykle ako stvorený, plno cyklociest alebo aspoň jazdných pruhov na cestách, ktoré sú len pre cyklistov. Veľmi rýchlo sme si toto mesto obľúbili, asi najlepšie mesto aké sme zatiaľ navštívili. A tá panoráma okolo, všade sú hory. Na severe trčí niečo z Kanady, z juhu na nás z vysoka poškuľuje Mt Rainier, na východe je neuveriteľná, zubatá hradba Cascades a na západe je zase hrebeň Olympiku, trocha pripomína naše tatry. No a všade tu sú jazerá, zálivy, ostrovy, je tu krásne zeleno, celé mesto je na malých kopčekoch. Všade sa to tu hemží cyklistami a cykloobchodmi (nikde žiadny trafení korčuliari), mostami, loďkami, jachtami, hydroplánmi, podivnými týpkami, trávou (tu je legálna), pod jedným z mostov majú trolla... Skrátka fantastické mesto. Prešli sme jeden lokálny trh, zopár cykloobchodov, kúpil som nové reťaze, staré blatníky, treba dať trochu bicykle do poriadku. Na ďalšom trhu, v centre, som sa nechal zlákať a kúpil som okarínu, hádam dopadne lepšie ako mandolína, rozhodne je skladnejšia. Večer sme sa stretli s Alyssinými priateľmi, všetko horolezci, bola tu aj jedna partia akurát na “road“ tripe okolo USA. Fajn večer.

Today we explored a little bit of the city. First we went to local version of Farmers Market, bought delicious lunch there, later I bought some parts for our bikes, we have to change chains, tires, break pads... Alyssa, even she is also new in this town, was our guide, she showed us where is Seattle's troll and then we went to downtown. Traffic was quite crazy there, but Seattle is very good for biking, it has a lot of bike lines, bike trails. And scenery around Seattle is spectacular, Olympic, Cascades, Mt  Rainier, Puget Sound, hills, ships, boats, hydroplanes, a lot of people on bikes... We visited another Public market in downtown, I bought small ocarina :-) Mt Rainier was watching us on our way back home. In the evening there was a small gathering of Alyssa's friends in their house, the most of them were climbers and outdoor people, it was nice to met people with similar interests. Everybody prepared some food, Baška together with Alyssa prepared salads, Baška's garlic-cheese-yoghurt spread (Yogeese) was very successful.

Day 125 - 5th October, Riverbend - Issaquah - Woodinville - Seattle, 68.95 miles

Ďalší krásny deň, po chladnom ráne sa pekne oteplilo, nezvyklý to pocit. Pokračovali sme ďalej po cykloceste až kým sme sa nedopracovali k mape všetkých cyklotrás v Seattli a za pomoci jedného miestneho bajkera sme naplánovali, síce mierne dlhšiu, ale za to krajšiu cestu ako sa dostať do centra, kde býva Alyssa. A hlavne je to takmer stále mimo ciest. Ešte nás čakal jeden divný most, z ktorého sa dalo zliezť iba po strmých schodoch (s naloženými bajkami to bol zážitok), zvyšok cyklociest bol úplná paráda, skvelo značené a takmer všetko asfaltky. Zavolala nám SJ, je opäť na joga ranči a zdá sa že sa má celom dobre (aj keď jej chýba bajkovanie). V Issaquah bol Lososý festival (teraz akurát tiahnu z mora), ale videli sme tu len tlupy amíkov napchávať sa hranolkami. Zvyšok dňa sme strávili na cyklocestách okolo jazier Sammamish a Washington. Od jazera Sammamish sme po prvý krát uzreli Mt Rainier. Neskutočný to kopec, zaberal dobrý kus južnej panorámy, osamotený, obrovský kopec, celý pod snehom, vyzeral ako namaľovaný... Na cyklocestách okolo jazier sme stretli more bajkerov (skoro všetci tu nosia Ortlieby ako máme aj my) a medzi nimi aj jedného Martina, švéda žijúceho teraz tu, tiež prešiel naprieč USA (aj cez švédsko), veľmi sa mu páčil náš výletík a dal nám zopár dobrých rád ohľadne Olympic NP. Potom už bola zrazu tma a to taká, že to pomotalo aj môj (už dosť unavený) orientačný zmysel, takže sme si trochu zašli (cez most mŕtveho muža), ale čoskoro sme sa našli a ďalej už pokračovali bez problémov. K Alysse, sme dorazili až okolo jedenástej. Dobrá to duša, čakala nás s výbornou večerou a keďže sme boli už mierne zničený, za chvíľu sme išli späť. Ale predtým ešte teba povedať, že... SME TU, SME V SEATTLI!!

Another nice sunny day. Biked on Snoqualmie Valley bike trails, after cold morning, it got warmer very soon (unusually feeling, after soo many cold days). Found map of bike trails in Seattle, after small discussion with one local biker, we chooses trails around lake Sammamish and Washington, it's a little detour, but nearly without traffic. Before we got on the trails we had to carry our bikes from the bridge (on Snoqualmie Valley bike trail) down very steep stairs. SJ called, she is now in the Ranch and she is doing very well. There was Salmon days festival in Issaquah, well, we saw a lot of people and even much more stalls with deep fried foods, we didn't notice nearly any signs that this event is about salmons. From the Sammamish Lake we saw for a first time Mt Rainier. That's really spectacular mountain, it looks like if it isn't real, so huge and high, covered by snow, so dominant... Rest of the day we spent biking around lakes, met Martin, Swedish guy, long distance biker, now living in Seattle. It was really pleasure to speak with him about biking and he gave us some good tips for Olympic National Park and was really exited about our journey. Than, the night came very suddenly, we were still somewhere near Woodinville and sending texts to Alyssa that we will come later and later... And then got lost, only a little bit, but still it took about half an hour to get back on trail. Finely we arrived to Green Lake, were Alyssa lives, at about half past ten. Alyssa welcomed us with good dinner and after swapping some stories from or trip we, very tired but very excited that we are here, went to sleep.

Day 124 - 4th October, Easton - Snoqualmie Pass - Riverbend, 45.2 miles

Day with big D. Everything was so perfect, peaceful, amazing ... Foggy in the morning, though. And cold as usually. Still continuing on the Iron Horse Trail. Slowly, gently getting higher and higher. Suddenly in one moment, fog disappeared and we saw huge Cascade Mountains, snowy white, right in front of us. Snow and blue sky and dark rocks. We met two bikers, they gave us some interesting information about government shat down and also about Mexico, good news. Than we met two hikers, they came through Pacific Crest Trail, hiked more than 2400 miles from Mexico border. They were forced to go down from mountains because of snow, now they headed to the Hwy #97 and to hitchhike to Canada. Than we got to the Keechelus Lake, with nice views to the Cascades. After Hyak there is the longest tunnel in whole USA for the non-motorized vehicles, 2.3 miles long, and you can literally see the light on the end of the tunnel :-) When we went out, we were already on the west side of Cascades, after dry, east side with desert, this was something absolutely different. Everything was green, trees covered by moss, water everywhere. And the best were trees, huge and so tall. And judged by old trunks which remains here after the old forests, they were just very small, tiny... How amazing was this country before somebody started to cut down all trees...
Downhill ride was very nice, with many bridges, views to the valley and on the mountains. Only disturbing thing was highway, roaring down on the bottom of valley like one huge airport. Iron Horse Trail ended by Cedar Falls (near Rattlesnake Lake without rattlesnakes, they never lived here). Here we changed for Snoqualmie Valley Trail and even we hadn't enough water we successfully camp before absolute dark. Other thing which changed was that here was much warmer than on the east side. So it's unbelievable but we are nearly in Seattle, tomorrow we are heading nearly to downtown to meet Alyssa, Stacey's daughter (Stacey is director of CVEEC, were we worked). She moved to Seattle just recently so we are very lucky that we can meet with her. Universe still works.

Day 123 - 3rd October, Cle Elum - Easton, 20.92 miles

Today we took a day off. It was sunny, but very windy, for a while nearly warm weather. So we dried all our wet clothes and spend whole morning in the tend finishing third book of Harry Potter :-). While we packed and did some grocery shopping it was nearly 6 pm. So to the Easton we came again after dark. There we camped in the Lake Easton State Park. Nice campground is there, with huge coniferous trees.

Day 122 - 2nd October, Ellensburg - Cle Elum, 29.04 miles

Day on the Iron Horse Trail. Freezing cold in the morning persuade us to buy booties for our shoes. We found really cool bike shop (Bicycles Recycle Shop Inc.) in Ellensburg downtown. People here were very nice, they let us in, even it was about half an hour before opening and help us promptly to find what we needed. The booties help us to warm up nearly immediately. From Ellensburg we headed to the Cle Elum on the Iron Horse Trail, it is with gravel, but we biked worst already. It was nice to stay away from traffic for a while. And there were small bonuses like wild plumbs with soooo sweet fruits, tunnels, huge basalt cliffs, Yakima river or alive rattlesnake long as my arm. That rattlesnake was amazing, looked so deadly, dangerous ... even it was getting slowly away and was very noisy, we went around it with big respect (and in big curve).
In the afternoon started to rain, not very hard, but without pause. And in one moment, in the middle of nothing, suddenly, without warning my front rack broke. First I didn't get it what happened, luckily we rode very slow, because of the rain and gravel, so nothing horrible happened, only rack was on pieces, paniers survived without harm, even I run over them. Ortlieb is really good. So after a few minutes, in the rain, cursing like an old sailor, I fixed it. With tape and some rope you can fix nearly everything. To Cle Elum we got after dark. Again. And even it stopped rain for a while before we found place for tent it was again raining. In nearly freezing temperature it wasn't very pleasant evening. During the night it started to freezing. When I had to go out, I had to fight with zipper on the tent, it was completely frozen. At least rain stopped an sky was full of very cold stars :-)

Day 121 - 1st October, Quincy - George - Ginkgo Petrified Forest -Ellensburg, 57.49 miles

Freezing morning, when we left Quincy Lakes we saw car wreck, well not wreck, car was probably ok but it was complete disassembled (wheel missing, etc...), it wasn't here yesterday, so while we slept (quite far from that spot) somebody was very busy. We also spotted small rattlesnake, roadkill unfortunately. From George we biked on Freeway # 90, very busy road with many trucks, but with good shoulder. Luckily we didn't spend a lot of time on this road. There was one nice viewpoint to Columbia River Canyon (flooded by Wanapum Lake/Dam), then crazy downhill ride and through the bridge (we were lucky because for a while there were no trucks).
Gingko Petrified Forest was very interesting, but without forest, all tree trunks are buried deeply in the basalt lava underground, only a few is lock in the cages as if it is in zoo, probably the biggest and the best petrified trees you can see in front of souvenir shop, close to Visitor Center. But desert around was amazing, cloudy day slowly changed to clear blue sky, wind was blowing into our faces. Nice, crystal afternoon and evening, but also very cold. And we had to climbed quite high hills. It was long uphill ride in the golden light and fresh wind. When we got to the top of the hills, sun was just sinking down into the clouds, somewhere behind Cascades Mountains. Downhill ride was much colder and in the dark. The Owl was looking at us and we were looking at it. Two intruders breaking the dark with weak light beams of their headlamps.

Day 120 - 30th September, Wenatchee - Rock Island - Stan Coffin Lake, 41.01 miles

Dnes opúšťame Wenatchee a pohodlie Joshovho domu. Za oknom máme dúhu, ale inak sa počasie mení každých 5 minút. Okolo desiatej sa však vyjasňuje, vonku je ale riadne chladno. Hore na horách vidíme sneh. Po menšom nákupe vo Wenatchee, opúšťame toto mesto, najprv po peknej, ale krátkej cyklotrase, potom po ceste #28, sledujúc Columbia River na juh. Nad nami sa vypínajú obrovské skalné steny z bazaltových stĺpov, rieka tu vytvára široký a hlboký kaňon. Všade naokolo je púšť, ale aj tak prechádzame cez množstvo sadov, takže máme zabezpečený prísun čerstvých jabĺk, na zemi ich vždy nechávajú kopec dobrých, nechápem prečo ich len tak nechávajú hniť, možno pre nás :-) Večer spíme pri Quincy Lakes. Je riadna kosa, obloha je plná hviezd a náladu dotvárajú zavýjajúce kojoty.

Woke up into sunny morning with rainbow behind window. But till 10 am the weather was changing mood every 5 minutes. Today we left Wenatchee and Josh with his amazing family. Thank you again for everything. Biked down from Pitcher canyon in sunny but cold day. Up in the mountains is already snow... After some grocery and gear shopping (Baška bought new zipper for her camera case), we left Wenatchee first on nice, but short bike trail, then on the Hwy #28, heading south following the Columbia river. Very soon behind Wenatchee, the Hwy #28 entered to the huge, wide canyon. Above us were high cliffs and rocks and because Columbia River cut through lava flows, everything here is from huge basalt columns. Strange thing, east side of canyon is dry and yellowish, but further down to the south the west side is bright green, like if it spring. Still passing through orchards with apples, which is good, they left so many apples on the ground that it isn't problem to find nice and good ones. Is nice to have fresh fruit... More we got south, more the Columbia river canyon is amazing and bigger. For night we camp at Quincy lakes. Night was pretty cold (not in our sleeping bags), full of stars and coyotes hauling.