To put it bluntly, the ride up to the top of Hurricane Ridge from Port Angeles is hard. You see, it’s just over 30km long from the ferry to the top, which is at about 5,200ft above sea level. It’s a big freakin hill. I’ll be honest, I don’t really like doing this sort of ride purely for the exercise; I guess it’s partly the sense of achievement, but mostly it’s about the views, Hurricane Ridge is pretty spectacular.
Michelle, Kari, and I met at the Coho terminal (as in Coho Ferry terminal in Victoria) at about 5:30am to head over to Port Angeles. That’s now two weekends in a row where the alarm went off far earlier than I would have preferred. I don’t think I’ll make a habit of it, but it was pretty damn nice to roll through town down to the Inner Harbour at dawn. After about an hour and a half on the ferry we arrived in Port Angeles the starting point for our trip up the hill. From there it was up, up, up, seemingly forever, but it did eventually end with amazing views of the Olympic Mountains.
GPS Data: 74.0km – 4h52m (including stops) – about 1h48m from the visitor centre to the top – 20.8km/h (moving average) – GPS route
A 74km round-trip road bike ride from Port Angeles to Hurricane Ridge. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.
The Coho awaits in the early morning hours of July 25.
It was a pretty nice morning on the Inner harbour. That's the Johnson Street Bridge at the head of the Gorge Waterway.
More early morning Inner Harbour action, namely the Delta Hotel and some Vic West condos.
Me, Kari, and Michelle on the bow of the Coho Ferry prior to departure from Victoria's Inner Harbour.
Coho life ring. I seem to recall thinking that if for some reason I ended up in the water, my bike clothing would not offer much insulation, duhhhh.
There's probably a technical term for this... mooring line/rope?
A pretty big boat in the Port Angeles Harbour.
There seems to be a lot of metal art in Port Angeles. I don't recall seeing the same numbers of objects the last time I was in P.A.
Michelle looks giddy about the impending three hours of climbing. This was taken at the Olympic Park visitor centre.
Kari looked kind of giddy too. There were at least 10 other people on the ferry with us who were heading up to Hurricane Ridge as well.
The higher you go the better the view gets on the road up to Hurricane Ridge.
One of three short, but dark, tunnels along the way.
There's some debate about which half is harder, the first or the last. Even if the last half is easier by the numbers, it doesn't feel that way. It was mighty nice to see the lodge at the top signalling the end of the climb.
Yeah it's kind of cool, but isn't this how those man vs beast, man gets maimed videos start? In the background is the top of the ridge, on which I believe a couple of rope tows operate in the winter.
Olympic Mountains to the south from the lodge at Hurricane Ridge.
More mountain, lush looking valleys, and me.
There's apparently quite a bit of hiking in the Hurricane Ridge area. Someday, I/we will head over to do some hiking, but not after riding up the hill.
I saw it, I took photo of it. Didn't see too many dead trees on the way except for this one.
Still a few little wildflowers at Hurricane Ridge even though we're halfway through the summer.
Good work Michelle, you made it.
Heading back down in the hope of catching the 12:45pm ferry.
A somewhat torturous, several hour climb became a fun 45 minute descent.
More downhill riding on the way back to Port Angeles.
A bit of a Mt. Baker view from just above the Heart o' the Hills park toll booth. $5 per person for entry.
Lots of big trees = shade, which was welcome by this point of the ride. Still not quite back in Port Angeles yet.
With our hopes for the 12:45pm ferry dashed, it was off to the Sunday market on the Port Angeles waterfront. I guess it may not have actually been a regular Sunday thing, and maybe we lucked out, but it gave us something to do for four hours while we waited for the next ferry. Beware of the octopus guarding the port-a-crappers!
Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #1: Terminator
Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #2: IRobot
Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #3: Uhhh, Aliens and Futurama?
Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #4: any ideas?
Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #5: Star Wars
Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #6: that's an awesome Jabba the Hut
Port Angeles Harbour near the Coho terminal.
It pains me to mention cheesy vampire movies/shows, but didn't one of the characters in either Twilight or Vampire Diaries drive one of these?
MOMAR! It's capitalized, that means I'm yelling on the interwebs. Just kidding, I'm not yelling. Kari and Michelle do like their MOMAR jerseys though.
14 hours later and we're finally back in Victoria. The Port Angeles market was good, but next time I'll be aiming for the earlier ferry.
Thanks for the push at the top K! It was a pretty fantastic day
looks great. next time with more warning i might be up for the challenge.
I’ll be sure to miss this ride the next time you do it as well, not being a lover of the vertical ascents, but I can only assume that this was nothing compared to THE HILL!! I keed.
RVA, I thought you were a hill convert / lover. THE HILL was definitely harder, oh wait, no it wasn’t.