A 3km hike to and from the top of Mt. Wells near Victoria. Click on the map to see detailed GPS data on the Garmin website.

It's the Humpback Reservoir, except it's not really, it's just a utility building or something at the reservoir.

Looking towards Langford partway up the trail to the top of Mt. Wells.

In the middle of the summer it's pretty dry on Mt. Wells, which seems to enhance the likelihood that one will end up on their ass due to the marble-sized pebbles on the trail. Ahhh, maybe that's why the put in the handrail.

Marbles aside (actually I didn't mind the marbles) the views from the upper reach of Mt. Wells are pretty good.

Looking towards Humpback Reservoir and Mt. Finlayson from Mt. Wells.

Another view from the top of Mt. Wells, this time to the south.

The group, minus one (me), at the top of Mt. Wells. Another great night for a hike.

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.

A 7km hike at Goldstream Park near Victoria. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

I like the forest, it's good. It was pretty warm today by Victoria standards, which when combined with lots of hills resulted in mega sweatiness.

A log crossing on the Prospector trail at Goldstream Park.

Can't remember the last time I posted a picture of an Arbutus tree. Well, actually, it probably wasnt' that long ago.

Michelle demonstrating parkour au naturel while taking the scenic route under the highway.

Oooh, a cave or tunnel or something. I'm not sure where which trail this was on, probably Arbutus Ridge Trail or Goldminer's Trail.

A note at the cave / tunnel entrance. Apparently, evidence of gold mining activity.

Railway trestle near Niagara Falls. Glad we didn't have to cross it; probably not supposed to anyway.

Heading downhill to the top of Niagara Falls. Slightly shady looking safety railings.

Niagara Falls and some other hikers/admirers.

The pond at the bottom of Niagara Falls in Goldstream Park.

My first underwater photo. You'd think with a waterproof camera that I might have tried something earlier.

A 3km hike at Cattle Point and Uplands Park in Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

Wednesday sailboat race spectating, or is it shop-talk?

Heading around the south end of Cattle Point towards Willows Beach.

Damn, foiled by the autofocus again. Oh well, could be worse I suppose. Nice flowers at the south end of Cattle Point.

I'm no tree master, but I think it's a Garry Oak. I know for sure that it resides in Uplands Park.

More sailboat action from a high point in Uplands Park.

Mmmm, blue sky. Uplands Park is pretty flat, but there are a couple slightly elevated, rocky spots like this one.

Sheena, one of the hikers in our group, was particularly interested in this statue for some reason.

War memorial in Uplands Park and more nice sky and clouds.

Yeah, more sailboats. Apparently, there are regular Wednesday night races out of Oak Bay Marina or one of the nearby ones.

As usual, it was nice to hang out near the water. There appeared to be a fog bank up towards Sidney.

What is this idiot doing? Looks like some kind of parkour, jazz-dancer freak. Oh wait... that's me... why's my delete button not working... ahhh, crap.

11-12km walk route through parts of Portland.

Part of a long stretch of greenspace called the 'South Park Blocks' in Portland.

Looking southwest along the 'South Park Blocks' in Portland.

Steph and Vince have feet of steel me thinks. Michelle and I had to wear running shoes to protect our dainty feet during our 12km walk-a-thon.

I think we passed through one of the nice parts of town while heading west towards Washington Park.

The Southwest Park Place entrance to Washington Park.

Sacajawea, a First Nations woman who apparently aided the Lewis and Clark expedition.

A Washington Park water reservoir and Vince doing stair sprints.

Thistles in Washington Park in Portland.

Michelle and Steph checking out stuff at the reservoir in Washington Park.

I wonder how long it took to make all of these curly steel/iron things.

Magnolia flowers are big!

There are lots of roses in the Rose Garden at Washington Park in Portland, but being short on flower identification skills I can't say for sure that these are roses as well.

Part of the rather large Rose Garden at Washington Park in Portland.

More Rose Garden with Portland in the background.

Be careful Michelle, you might fall in the water.

Ahhh, isn't that cute, the crows are having a special moment.

We didn't have time for an extensive excursion in Washington Park, but did manage to find some actual non-paved trail in addition to the roads and paved walkways.

Fancy neighbourhood action near Washington Park. Lots of interesting things to look at.

I think I've mentioned it before... I'm not really a flower person, but I do appreciate their presence.

Hmmm, that place is pretty nice so long as you don't mind the stairs.

Lots of memorial monuments in Washington Park including this Holocaust memorial; it was thought provoking.

More flowers... very nice.

Heading out of Washington Park on the way back to downtown Portland.

Billboard ad for the Newport Oregon aquarium. Michelle and I have visited said aquarium on a previous trip; Michelle was impressed with the mini-sharks.

Pardon the reflection, but I thought this vintage Michelin Man and some of the other collectibles in this non-descript building were kind of cool.

On the whole I thought downtown Portland had more going for it in terms of variety of architecture than many other places I've been lately. Note: I have not been that many places lately.

Kiddie bike art in downtown Portland.

Maybe I should know what this is, but I don't. Has the Pillsbury dough boy become an Indian deity?

Muffaletta for lunch at the Everett Street Bistro. It was good, but maybe a bit pricey for what it was.

Michelle's Everett Street Bistro burger.

Portland apartment/condo building.

Cupcake Jones #1: The Pearl.

Cupcake Jones #2: Downtown Cupcake Brown.

Cupcake Jones #3: Velvet Painting.

Cupcake Jones #4: Strawberry Shortcake.

Cupcake Jones #5: Peanut Butter Cup.

Cupcake Jones #6: Raspberry Truffle.

Remnants of a pillar near Isabel restaurant. It's art now.

Is it a cockroach? That would just be bad, although I'm not sure that giant moth is much better.

Hello beast. The Chinese Gardens in Portland claim to be the most authentic outside China. We didn't check it out.

A peephole view of the Portland Chinese Gardens through the fence.

Steph, Vince, and Michelle outside the Portland Chinese Gardens.

I'll probably remember Portland's Steel Bridge for a while since it came at the end of the longest bike ride I may ever do.

Saturday night after the Seattle to Portland ride. This is Director Park out front of the Paramount Hotel in Portland. I'm not sure what the building in the background is.

Restaurant #1: French cuisine at the Brasserie Montmartre. Pretty tasty, and table-side magic as a bonus. I know, it sounds cheesy, but it wasn't really. Live music was good too.

Director Park in the dark. There appeared to be some sort of programming controlling the lights since they were doing some colour changing type stuff around dusk.

The Multnomah County Library in Portland.

Portland has trams! We didn't ride them much, but they brought back memories of Amsterdam for me. It's probably premature to say since I still don't know Portland that well, but I'm pretty sure Amsterdam has them beat on the public transportation front.

Restaurant #2: Isabel. Maybe it's actually Isabel Pearl as in Pearl District, Portland. Breakfast awaits within.

Coconut French Toast (or should I say Freedom Toast - no, we're in Portland) at Isabel. That side of eggs and bacon is mine too. Hey, I supposedly burned about 14,000 calories yesterday on the STP ride. Yes, the toast was as good as it looks. I might have to check out the Isabel cookbook sometime.

Fueled by Isabel breakfast, the shoe-shoppers among us were fired up to get down to business. Ahhh, shite... shoe shop closed:(. I wonder if Imelda is a reference to a certain wife of a former Philippine president.

A lonely looking Land Rover, or is it Range Rover near Powell's Books.

Didn't see any snakes in the Snake Grass.

One of the entrances to the rather large Powell's Bookstore. Michelle and I did a whirlwind tour. It seemed like it might be a good place to spend part of a rainy day... will keep in mind for a future visit.

Apocalypto the bookcart at Powell's Books in Portland.

Blue sky and what looks to be a bit of middle eastern architectural influence. Of course I know next to nothing about architecture, so feel free to correct me.

Older and newer in the Pearl District in Portland.

Some of the Portland skyline viewed from the bank of the Willamette River.

The greenway along the west side of the Willamette River in Portland is pretty nice by my reckoning. Lots of bridges, some nicer than others.

Michelle is obsessed with telling me to parkour various things in the urban landscape. Nice to see her trying it herself, not that you could really call this parkour.

Bridges on the Willamette River in Portland. I told you there were a few.

A paddlewheeler/museum at the Portland waterfront (Willamette River waterfront).

Sunday and seemingly several other days of the week are market days in the Pearl District of Portland. Silver dudes are so awesome.

'The white lightning of catnip'. I guess there's nothing wrong with feeding your cat narcotics... fanny packs, however, are wrong.

Lots to see at the Portland market vendors, some cool, some not cool. My non-scientific observations lead me to the conclusion that I should not pursue a career in caricature drawing.

There seems to be quite a bit of brick on the roads and in the buildings in Portland, which I find agreeable for no particular reason.

Not too shabby looking archways in Ankeny Square in Portland.

I showed you some ground brick, and here is some building brick near Ankeny Square.

Tram-a-licious. Ok, that makes pretty much no sense at all, I'm sorry.

I suppose if we were more committed tourists we would have waited in line for a legendary Voodoo donut, but we didn't.

Stumptown coffee joint bears a striking resemblance to Habit in Victoria, or is it the other way around? Either way, the coffee was good.

There seem to be lots of dead and living neon signs in Portland. This dead or living retail establishment claimed to be either, the largest boot maker in the world, or the maker of the largest boot in the world, I can't remember which.

Older and newer, part 2, in the Pearl District of Portland.

Some how this tree reminds me of bondage... naked and chained. For the record, I know not of such things, other than some pop-culture imagery that has lodged itself in my memory banks.

Nearly empty department stores are a bit creepy to be in. The closing/moving deals were surprisingly bad.

Lots of reflection photography possibilities in Portland. This is one of my attempts.

Yep, it's still pretty dark at 5am. The camera makes things look a bit darker than it actually was, but not far off. This is just after the start near the University of Washington in Seattle.

As the day got brighter, and we got further south in Seattle, the crowds started thinning slightly, but there were still lots of riders in front and behind. I think this might have been somewhere near Renton. It was too dark to take photos earlier in the day, while we were riding along Lake Washington - it was rather nice though.

The second rest stop in Kent was a busy place and ended up being the source of my breakfast since I didn't pack a cinnamon bun like Vince. Fruit and energy bars were ok, but peanut butter tortilla rollups were not quite as good. Cool stop though with a bit of a party atmosphere.

I don't think Vince had much time make himself up this morning so he may not appreciate this somewhat candid photo. Looking hot in bike gear with a wack of crap in your pockets is generally pretty difficult anyway.

Being from Canada we don't see to may signs like this public park sign in Puyallup. Actually, there are signs like this in Canada, but they typically don't include point number 2.

'The Hill' just after Puyallup. Yeah, it's a hill, but to be honest it wasn't that bad, not really any worse than some later on in the ride.

Just what everyone needs to see - people lined up for the port-a-crappers. The rest stop in Spanaway was really good food-wise, there was even a pizza truck. A good portion of our three hour non-moving time during the ride was due to waits like this; not complaining though. The first 5 hours of the ride were under overcast skies and cool temperatures. There was literal teeth-chattering when we left this rest stop.

Vince was powered by chocolate according to his shorts. Actually, I'm pretty sure Vince didn't eat any chocolate during the ride, although there may be a photo of him somewhere on the interwebs with some chocolate flavoured power gel on his face. This stretch was fast and relatively fun on the way to Roy.

I think I may have an aversion to honey from this point forward. This rest stop was in Yelm if I recall correctly.

We spent a good chunk of time on the Yelm-Tenino trail, a former railbed. I was expecting something more barren and industrial, but the whole length was really nice, it even had some lake views.

Getting close to halfway through ride. This is the Tenino rest stop. Some dude was yelling out the rest stop offerings to arriving riders; pretty sure he was heading towards a few days of laryngitis.

Nice roads on the way towards Centralia, and for that matter most of the way. Definitely not the I-5.

Finally, the midway point in Centralia. This approach to parking one's bike seems reasonable, but more often than not seemed to end up with bikes falling over.

Sunscreen touchup and Darigold Cow consultation in Centralia. I was happy to avoid the cow's solicitations.

In my opinion this is the safe way to park your bike (as opposed to the option shown previously). Derailleur up! I suppose someone could still step on, or fall onto, your bike causing issues, but generally I figure this is better.

Sweet, about halfway done... oh god, still need to ride another 160km.

Vince trying to intimidate other riders with his triceps in the food line at the Centralia rest stop.

Some of the rest stops like the one in Centralia had massage therapy available. We didn't take advantage, fearing more unwanted pain.

A couple velomobiles at the Centralia rest stop.

Gourmet? No, but after chowing down on energy bars etc. for a while, something even as minimalistic as this sandwich tastes ok.

Finally, albeit somewhat hesitantly we got back on the bikes and headed out of Centralia into the farm land to the south.

After a 160km under grey skies things had not improved much. Aside from the 5-10 minutes of warmup required after every rest stop, the temperature was tolerable. Thankfully, during the cold spells I had a giant sticker covering some vents on the front of my helmet.

More scenic or boring (depending on your perspective) agricultural scenery. I liked it.

Finally, some sun... and a rad rooster in Winlock.

I'm not really sure this is the world's biggest egg, but maybe I'm wrong. I seem to recall a pysanka (easter egg) somewhere in Alberta that's bigger than this one in Winlock.

It felt rather good to leave the Winlock rest stop without shivering. The rest of the ride was under sunny skies.

Best food on route... Vader Taters (baked potato) and banana bread. Ordinarily, these might not be standouts, but by this point of the ride both were welcome changes to the stuff we had been consuming previously. $10 donation, check.

Another shot from the Vader rest stop.

Corner store in Vader, Washington. Thanks for the taters, Vader.

From Vader onwards we had some cool winding roads through mostly treed countryside. Again, different strokes for different folks, but I really like this sort of stuff.

Cool, some sort of rocket/missile thing outside the Castle Rock High School, one of the last stops in Washington.

Castle Rock moo cows. By this point I'm pretty sure both Vince and I were finally fairly sure that we were going to make it to Portland.

Last stop in Washington at Lexington. About 235km done, roughly 90km to go. Some pretty decent peanut butter and banana sandwiches here. Salty tortilla chips were probably even better though.

Heading towards Kelso and Oregon along the Cowlitz River.

Oregon at last. Well, not quite. Need to get over the Lewis and Clark Bridge first.

Looking west along the Columbia River from the Lewis and Clark Bridge.

First town in Oregon was Rainier. We were definitely feeling good about finishing at this point although we were also starting to feel the effects of a long day in the saddle.

There was lots of this sort of thing on the side of the road today. The first occurrence was within 1km of the start and there were people fixing things within 5km of the finish. No problems for us thankfully.

The St. Helens rest stop was the last major stop for us and was about 45km from the finish line. There were notable signs of fatigue amongst the rest stop visitors, but everybody seemed content and ready to finish it up.

Hard not to smile when the end is near. The road from St. Helens into Portland was not the most inspiring (wide and sort of busy), but on the plus side it was mostly downhill and we had a tailwind.

Portland... we're almost done except for a few more kms of stoplights and city traffic.

Oh so close. The Steel Bridge over the Willamette River in Portland.

Vince and myself moments after finishing the longest ride either of us may ever do. I would not have guaranteed at the beginning of the day that I'd be walking at this point, but both of us felt pretty good, relatively speaking.

A one-day 327km bike ride from Seattle to Portland. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

Round 1: Full healthiness kind of. You got some protein and some other good stuff. Most importantly not too much bad stuff.

Round 2: There might be some crap in there that I didn't need to consume, but I think I'll be ok. Note to self, the pasta on the ferry always looks better than it tastes.

Round 3: This looks way bigger than it actually was. Fruity sugar was probably not necessary and the Florentine was far from necessary. Please don't make me pay later for eating you.

Token view out the back of the ferry while attempting to exercise restraint at the Pacific Buffet.

A 5.1km hike at Mt. Douglas (Doug) near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

Michelle, Christine, and Sheena heading starting the final ascent to the summit of Mt. Doug. Maybe that's overdoing it on the mountaineering lingo, I'll be more conservative in the future.

I think Bill forgot his hiking poles , but he seemed to manage fine without them.

One of the steeper parts of the trail on the last stretch up to the top of Mt. Doug.

Looking in a southerly direction close to the top of Mt. Doug. That's part of the Blenkinsop Valley down below.

A view to the north near the top of the Doug (Mt. Douglas). I'm pretty sure that's James Island and Sidney Island off in the distance.

Christine, Irina, and Bill at the top of Mt. Doug. Yeah, it's usually worth celebrating in whatever way you see fit.

Mt. Baker viewed from the top of Mt. Doug (looking to the east).

The view to the north or northeast from the top of Mt. Doug. What an awesome night for a hike.

Part of the distance/direction guide to other locales in the turret at the top of Mt. Douglas.

Looking south towards Victoria from the top of Mt. Doug. The Olympic Mountain Range is visible in the distance.

Midsummer dustiness on the trails at Mt. Doug.