August 6 | Seattle
We begin the Olympic Peninsula Loop just like every other Bike the US for MS ride—with a team orientation meeting. We spend a couple of hours introducing ourselves and going over logistics, map reading, safety protocols and schedules.
The makeup of this group of 33 riders and seven route leaders is overwhelmingly alumni of other BTUSFMS journeys, so the meeting has the feel of a family reunion. There are several people I know from my first BTUSFMS ride eight years ago; and others who I’ve ridden with much more recently. It’s a great group—widely diverse and uniformly excited to be here.
A few are still in their 20s, I think. Some of us are in our 70s; with most filling in that half-century gap.
Tomorrow, we ride from the hotel to the ferry, which we’ll take on the 1-hour crossing to Bremerton. From there we have about a 50-mile ride to our first campsite at Old Fort Townsend State Park on the Olympic peninsula.
Until this year, BTUSFMS has only done coast-to-coast or full coastal (Florida to Maine and Seattle to San Diego) routes. This Olympic peninsula loop is their first shorter regional ride. We’ll spend six days circling the peninsula. It will take us roughly 400 miles and cover about 20,000 feet of climbing before we return to our starting point in Seattle.
If you’re interested in learning more about Bike the US for MS and the work they do, visit http://www.biketheusforms.org.
tadpolejourneys 
Glad you have this opportunity to immerse yourself in the energies of nature for a few days. Though they are always our (mostly) silent companions all the time (or we are deaf to them), how nice to slow down, see and hear them and say “hello.” Safe and wonder-full traveling ❤️
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Thank you! ❤️🙏
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Thank you! ❤️🙏
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