Thoughts on Washington

Here are my initial conclusions about our time in Washington.

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1. The Olympic Peninsula might be better enjoyed as a backpacker, not a road bike tourist. None of the paved highways actually go THROUGH Olympic National Park, so any visit to the park is a 20-40 mile detour. Taking the highway means days of depressing tree farms.

2. Even though none of the terrain has ever reached even close to the altitude we encountered in the Colorado Rockies last year, I find biking in Washington to be more difficult. Even the most formidable Colorado mountains still maintained a low grade up the climb. In Washington it's like they just plugged in a road wherever it was the straightest shot, with total disregard to massively steep hills. 

3. There are mosquitoes on the West Coast, which I find to be very rude since I am clearly here on vacation from Florida and do not want any interaction with mosquitos. Luckily, these bugs are more attracted to Travis than they are me, they don't really bite that much and are slow and easy to kill. 

4. I was not impressed with Washington's local breweries. Most of the homegrown brews I tried tasted like homebrews. The exception was Elysian Brewery out of Seattle.