Day 69 – Concrete,WA to Anacortes,WA

Date: 06.07.2018

Altitude: 941.6 ft (287 m)

Distance: 58.22 mi (93.70 km)

Total Altitude: 133300.5 ft (40630 m)

Total Distance: 4616.33 mi (7429.26 km)

Wow I made it to the end of the Northern Tier route and reached the west coast, after 69 days or rather 64 days biking. I can't believe that I actually made it. When I started a little bit over two months ago I wasn't sure what lies ahead of me and if I will actually be able to do it. Now that I finished the Northern Tier, I have to say it was an amazing trip and I really enjoyed it. But it is not quite time for the final conclusion on the trip, because I still have to get to Seattle and since I still have three weeks until I fly back to Germany I will add a few miles to my trip and go around the Olympic Peninsula. This will add a few days on the bike, but I will still have 10 days in Seattle to do some sightseeing and relax for a while on my vacation.

The route today, wasn't really long or hard so I could relax a bit on my last few miles to the west coast. It was a pretty much flat day, I could still see the mountains by my side. The route followed for the most part Washington state highway 20, but left the highway whenever possible. The ride on WA20 was not as enjoyable as the last few days, because of all the traffic. So it was nice whenever the route left WA20. I continued following the Skagit River, but only cycled right along the river a few short times. The closer I got to the coast the more I was going through residential areas and the more annoying the traffic became. It has been a while since the last time I had been cycling in a residential area. The last few weeks I manly cycled through nature,  with the occasional small town. So I had to adjust to that a bit. The last few miles into Anacortes I could use a separate bike path and was able to avoid the traffic, which was quite nice. Before I started the search for a motel, I went to the Washington Park on the west side of Anacortes, to take the obligatory picture with the front wheel in the water. After a short break and the picture I started to look for a motel, which wasn't too easy. After I found a motel with a room at a reasonable price, I had again an issue with the credit card. Due to maintenance on their system, the bank is currently unable to unblock the card. I'm really getting annoyed by that and I still have to deal with that for another three weeks. Luckily the motel took cash which doesn't happen often. Now I have a place to stay for two nights and relax a bit before I will continue my trip on Sunday.

Conclusion for the day:

I made it!