Port Townsend Tour: Day 9 Kitsap Memorial State Park to Illahee State Park

Today's trip has us rolling along the lovely Big Valley Road and returning to Pouslbo to resupply at Sluys Bakery.

I've been working harder than usual this day to keep up with Christine and the back end of my bike feels especially bouncy, so I deduce that my rear tube has developed a slow leak.

We stop in Poulsbo, get our baked goods and I determine that yes, I have a thorn in my tube and a bike pump that has been neglected too long. You can read the full story here.

After changing the flat in the lovely park by the marina, I strap our new, big pump (which Christine has christened "UffDa") to my rear rack and we roll out of town.

We've decided that rather than backtrack to Bainbridge Island, we'll head south and revisit Illahee State Park, where we'd camped last fall.

After going more than a year without a puncture, I manage to get my second flat of the day by running over a small tack on the road to Brownsville. It only takes a few minutes to patch the tube and a few strokes from the mighty UffDa to get us rolling again.

We'd conveniently repressed the memory of the huge damn hill we have to climb to get to the park and as we're pushing our bikes up this beastly bit asphalt, a portly fellow on a big Harley coming the other direction comments that we're "supposed to be riding those things, not pushing." Christine, who is more saintlike than me, does not reply with the first two words that come to her mind, while I mumble something about "big talk coming from a fat man with a motor." I'm sure Mr. Harley isn't really interesting in our thoughts on the matter even if he could hear us over the over the rumble of the big bike's engine.

In camp we typically run three loads of water through the Kelly Kettle, the first being used to re-hydrate the evening meal and the second two going into the thermoses for coffee and cocoa. Tonight's dinner is frugal and filling, instant Rice-a-Roni with a can of chicken tossed in for added protein. And, of course, we have bakery cookies for desert.