If you guys want to get out of the city and onto the Olympic Peninsula try the Port Townsend/Chimacum area which is my home. (I agree that Hurricane is worth the exercise). We have some beautiful rides on mostly country roads.

If you want your climbing yaya's here's a route for you: Start at Chimacum schools & head out West Valley road which is a pretty farm and woods lined road and come out at Center Valley heading toward Quilcene (down and around the bay at Quil is my favorite ride), then take the Daybob/Coyle road and climb for about 5 miles up and along the Coyle Peninsula. You'll be able to see the Hood Canal and the Olympics at the same time from the top, but it rolls and rolls through the trees. Then take the turn past Silent Lake and down Thorndike road (a fast, fast drop) then climb and decend your way toward the Hood Canal Bridge where you'll take the road out to the main highway 101 and travel 1/2 mile to Teal Lake road. Teal Lake goes up and more up and then goes up a while longer and then cuts some of your heart out. At the top you'll wind down through new homes in the Port Ludlow development and drop down to the Tide nine at Pt. Ludlow.

Next you'll find yourself at a turn on Paradise Bay road where you'll take a left and follow the road along the bay into Pt. Ludlow. You'll continue to Swansonville Road and climb up over that ridge (your legs should be a little soft by now) and then decend to Beaver Valley road (becareful it's got the most traffic in the area) and turn right toward Chimacum until for about 3/4 a mile then turn left onto Egg & I road.

The road is named for the Ma & Pa Kettle stories (and you'll pass the old homestead) and starts with a short but killer hill, but once your up it in a while there is a fast decent and another (stop for a beer at "Hole in the Woods" [my place]) and then take a right on Center Valley and 4 miles back to the school on gentle roll. The whole ride is probably 42 miles, but I bet that even a good climber will find it a decent workout. I know it kicks my butt on a regular basis, but I'm old & slow with the vision of a 30 year old kid in my brain.

There are plenty of nice places to stay in Port Townsend, camping at Fort Worden, good restaurants, music and festivals.

Whatever you do, stay AWAY from the Whisting Oyster in Quilcence!

Whatever you do, stay AWAY from the Whisting Oyster in Quilcence!

Always a good policy--the Gooeyduck (sp) in Brinnon is more user friendly.

Never been there. We used to do a lot of hiking up near Mt Townsend, et. all. Even poached the Mt Walker downhill on my mountainbike one February day. After a long day in the Olympics we'd hit up the Whistling O. Good beer, WIERD clientele (other than us, of course!)

God, I miss Washington...

I know what you mean by weird--I married the owners daughter in my youth, he carried a pistol around and threatened to shoot me--that was in my hippie days. I grew up in a logging family & knew all the locals; now everyone is nice to me when I do my favorite cycling route around the bay there.

I do the Silver Creek trail on the back side of Mt. Townsend at least once a year; going fishing out to the West End this next week. The back side of Walker is a nice fast ride on a road bike. This is the time to be in Washington.

Hey all. Figured I'd jump in on this thread. I will be moving to the Sequim/P.A. area in the next month or so. What other rides might you all suggest? I am exclusively a road rider, and not the greatest climber, though I don't mind a challenge. Thanks!

Gotta do H-ridge, of course. You may not be a climber but 17 of miles of descent is a pretty good payoff. I passed several slow-poke cars coming down.

Lots and lots of mtb stuff up there. Mount Mueller on the far side of Lake Crescent is really good. Gold Greek/Dungeness trail can be epic. There's even a great little technical ride over by the casino, off East Sequim Bay Rd, I think. Goes all the way to the Straits to a neat little secluded beach.

Enjoy the area. That part of the world is great!

I second the above; Sequim has several nice relatively flat routes along the old Olympic highway & although I haven't ridden it there is a newly completed trail route all the way to Port Angeles. Hurricane is fun and the decent is a flier--you'll like Sequim although it is expericencing the fastest growth in the area. Let me know if you get down to the Chimacum area and maybe we can do a ride.