The winding road and the cool mountain air refresh your mind after a long week. The visual contrast of the Olympic Mountains and the pristine waters of the Hood Canal help to awaken all your senses and realize how beautiful our earth is. The occasional glimpse of a bald eagle, majestically searching for prey, reminds you of the strength and independence you feel when you are astride your mount.

We normally start from Poulsbo, a short drive from the Bainbridge Island ferry. North of our starting point along SR 3 is the Four Corners Tavern in Lofall. The owners are local chapter members of ABATE and are very biker friendly. Free pool and chili dogs on Sundays! After a quick stop there, and gassing up across the street, we are ready to ride.

Two miles up the road is the Hood Canal Bridge. The original floating bridge sank during a storm in 1980, and still remains on the bottom. This bridge has a steel grating deck, so you must be careful going across. We have remained lucky as a group, and not been held up at the bridge for a Trident Submarine to pull out of her berth at Bangor Submarine Base, located about 6 miles south of the bridge.

There’s an opportunity to overtake the slow moving traffic as soon as you get to the other side of the bridge, as there are two lanes going up hill. It is basically a straight line to the Quilcene turnoff road (beware the tight turn!). This road is a wonderful ride through rolling hills, sweeping turns, and little traffic. We soon wind up in Quilcene. Taking US 101 south, we travel through town. For those that are still thirsty, there is the Whistling Oyster Tavern located on the sweeping turn out of town. (note: The Whistling Oyster management and patrons, while they do not refuse to serve bikers, will serve them very slowly, i.e., this place is biker-unfriendly, and I won’t go there unless forced). We decide we can wait until Brinnon, Washington.

The ride from Quilcene to Brinnon is magnificent. This is the mountainous portion of our ride, with the Olympics towering on either side of us as we quickly climb from sea level. Mountain streams are so close to the road you can smell the water as you thunder by. The road is wide and graded well, even our inexperienced riders have no trouble maintaining speed with the group.

Quickly we come down again to sea level, and into Brinnon, Washington. We must stop at the Geoduck, a tavern known for both it’s good food and wonderful view off of the deck. On a summer’s day, many bikers stop by to quench their thirst and relax. Eagle watching from the deck is a popular pastime.

The ride now hugs the Hood Canal, running over tributaries from the Olympic mountains into the canal. We normally must slow down in this area because of the amount of campsites along the road.