We set off a bit late - the offer of free coffee plus a kettle delayed our start. At 11am we were on the road. Once again we were directed away from the traffic on the 20 and instead cycled through a rather dappled woodland that was worth the extra miles. Once again we saw a road cyclist out for a run around the lanes. We saw a rather classy old building that seems to be the last remaining bit of Hamilton's former school - with 'Hamilton Gymnasium' picked out on the front. We saw spreading clumps of tansy again. We pushed on via Lyman, Sedro-Woolley, a bit of a sprawl, and Burlington - Burlington was where we stopped for a quick lunch break in a park near the shopping area and the railway tracks, a good's train lumbering by. The State Road 20, which we've been cycling along for some days (we joined it at Ione, several hundred miles ago - and it includes our last four or five mountain passes) has become a packed snarling dual carriageway, very cycle unfriendly apart from the hard shoulder. Then on via a large bridge - Mount Baker was coming into view from behind smaller mountains - a volcanic snow capped dome that's 10781' high.
Then lots of bikes as we went along the dedicated cycle route into Anacortes, Americans do much prefer to cycle on a dedicated bike path, then oil tanks (Sinclair petrol stations) and a refinery, new motor boats for sale in a long line, my back wheel sounding a bit odd as if a leaf was trapped in the mudguard, but no leaf could be seen, then finally a push towards Washington State Park along Sunset Avenue because we know there's a hiker biker area which is unlikely to be full.... yes there was space, in fact no-one else was there. Later a hiker turned up - doing 20+ miles a day on a trail that takes in the Washington coastline - he's put up a neat small tent. My back gatorskin tyre has finally started to disintegrate after over 4000 miles - that was the odd sound that the back wheel was making. Hooray for the spare, carried a thousand miles or so, which I'll fit tomorrow. I did the ritual dip of my wheels in the salty sea at the boat launch here - a lovely spot with views of the ferries between Anacortes and the San Juan islands - which we will visit on the way to Seattle. Then we shopped at Old Salts Grocery (no apostrophe...) and a Founder's Porter beer was drunk to celebrate reaching the sea. Our mileage for this trip is 4346 miles crossing the USA but we've got some miles meandering down to Seattle so I'm hopeful of 4500... The photos are of my wheel dip and the tall pines lining the quiet road near Hamilton. We are here.