It’s another gorgeous day as we pass through Sekiu and start riding along the ocean. It’s a nice little twisty road, but it’s not in the best condition so we take it easy just moseying up the coastline past Shipwreck Point eventually getting to Neah Bay. 
The road to Cape Flattery doesn’t continue up the north side of the penninsula, but instead heads south and then loops back to the tip of the state. After a dumb GPS needless detour on a dirt road, we come to the end of the road. It’s a half-mile hike down to the cape so off we go,
after taking a picture in the big adirondack chair at the start of the trail. It’s a lovely hike down but as usual for this trip I wish I had less clothes on. You have to bundle up riding on a motorcycle, but it makes for some hot hiking. As we get closer to the point, the views to the ocean are spectacular. 
This picture to the right reminds me of scenes from the Cyan game "Riven" (remember, I'm a computer guy). Anyways, we meet some nice people along the way including a young family with a precocious boy and girl that was fun to talk to. The parents are both firefighters. 
At the end of the trail there’s a nice platform for looking out at the ocean and Tatoosh Island where the no-longer-used lighthouse still sits. The island can only be accessed by permission from the Makah tribe.
The penninsula doesn’t have shortcuts so we have to backtrack all the way to 101 the way we came. We pass through Sappho and Beaver before stopping in Forks for lunch. Or breakfast as it were, because we found a nice restaurant that served breakfast all day so it was omelets for lunch! 
But in no time at all were wer back on the highway that runs along the ocean and what a sight that is. We stopped at the beach near the Kalaloch Lodge to see the "tree of life". 
It’s a tree where the underlying ground has been eaten away by the tides leaving it anchored on either side. It’s still alive and a small tourist attraction. Pretty cool looking actually. I like the fact that I’ve ridden my motorcycle to the Pacific Ocean.
Today's destination is my sister’s house in Bay Center. We take 101 riding past Lake Quinault and through Humptulips, Hoquiam, Aberdeen, Bay City (near Westport), Raymond, and South Bend before getting to Bay Center. It’s a nice ride and traffic is suprisingly unexpectedly light. Bay Center sits on the south end of Willipa Bay so Kathy and Arnie get some really nice sunrises and sunsets. We rode in at about 5:30pm where we found my sister cooking up some beef stroganoff for dinner. Instead of tents we slept in their 39 foot travel trailer and that was a nice change. We did our laundry and had a great time catching up with what’s going on with them and their kids.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
