Fresh off the crash and celebrating Captain’s 1 year Canceriversary, we were soon back on the trail with our eyes on the finish at the Pacific Ocean. We still had about 35 miles to go (70 round trip), but I was finally starting to believe that we’d make it and that Captain would get to do the whole trip. The remaining miles were all on paved roads without any real climbs, so we were planning on some smooth sailing. It was also yet another celebratory day, my 41st birthday; I figured this was the perfect way to spend the day, out in the woods exploring with the pups.

I hadn’t slept very well the night before and didn’t eat much for breakfast as everything was still closed and the gas station I thought I’d be able to buy some snacks at turned out to just be an automated pump with no store to buy anything at. Oh well, I’d done rides before without eating; they aren’t fun, but I figured this was only going to be about a 25 mile day, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

Our next segment was pretty rough as well as our path rejoined the super busy highway 101 for the entire day, was in an absolute downpour, and included several small bridge crossings that had no shoulder, so we were in the middle of the lane with traffic.

We passed through the town of Forks, WA which was made famous by the “Twilight” series depicting romance and rivalry between vampires, werewolves, and people. The books were set in town and the surrounding forests and parts of the movies were filmed here as well, so “Twilight Tourism” is a big draw to the area. Forks wasn’t much of a draw for me though as I was already travelling with 2 werewolves of my own and because at the end of the day, our monstrous regiment was only 6 miles (12 roundtrip) from the end of the trail in La Push.