On day four we left Twin Harbors State Park in the warming sunlight - the mist and rain from the night before vanished by 10:00. We saw our first expansive views of the Pacific Ocean, beaches and mud flats along Hwy 101. Most of our 40 mile day was spent biking around Wallapa Bay - an area of logging and fishing villages. Sander usually bikes about a mile ahead of me as he is a little faster and at one point when he was ahead of me, I saw two or three black dots on the road about 100 feet ahead. I stopped immediately when I realized it was two baby black bears and mama bear. The mama reared up on it's back legs looking at me as the little ones scurried across. She realized I wasn't a threat and followed quickly after. Of course, fumbling for my camera I missed getting a picture, but they were the first black bears I've seen in the wild.
Sander walking out on the mud flats.
Stopping at a nice scenic view of the Pacific Ocean.
In the evening, passing oyster fisheries.
I caught up with Sander along the mud flats and he decided to walk out on them - I chose not to as I knew I wouldn't have a good way to clean my feet. The sun was wonderful and only a light breeze pushing us along from the north.
Raymond, Washington was our mid-point where we bought some bread, jam, peanut butter, meat, cheese, chips and apples for a lunch. It was already about 4:00 so we took off around the southern coast of Willapa Bay. Raymond was a depressed little village, but Bay Shore (Oyster Capital of the World) seems to have turned it's oyster business into tourist business. Alas, it was Sunday and many places were closed - so we kept going to our turnoff for the KOA or Bush County Park. At the turnoff we found a nice little farm with cows (or cattle, I don't know if they were for meat or milk) and faced a stiff headwind along the bay's shoreline.
When we got to the intersection for the KOA, we were right next to a bar - Bay Tavern or something like that. They had a live band and a lot of locals who pointed us towards the county park (they said it would be cheaper than the KOA and they were right). A lot of people in this part of Washington seem very poor and rough - in fact the bar owner told us that Weyerhaueser had pulled out of Raymond completely in the last year hitting their economy hard. Overall, southwestern Washington is fairly isolated from big population centers and although beautiful, a bit depressing.
Two dogs made friends with us at Bush Count Park and I successfully made a campfire (I cheated and used some of Sander's white gas - but I kept it going). After eating Sander went to bed almost right away, but I wasn't tired so I stayed up a little later. The showers at the county park here were free (the Washington State Parks we were in cost 50 cents for 3 minutes of hot shower).
Sander walking out on the mud flats.
Stopping at a nice scenic view of the Pacific Ocean.
In the evening, passing oyster fisheries.
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