Worth cycling around Olympic National Park on Pacific Route??

[johnsondasw]

I would do the Olympic loop for sure.  It is one of the best tours I have done, and I took few detours.  I thought it was beautiful, the traffic light, the drivers courteous. The logging trucks actually would slow down and wait for an opportunity and then go way out into the other lane to give us room.
We did the Astoria bridge at dusk in the rain, and had no problem.  It's the only place I've ever seen a roadkill starfish. A mirror is nice!

[Daveymac]

Hi! Thank you for the reply!
That is great that you enjoyed the Olympic tour...
I will have to work out if the loop & back onto the standard Pacific Route will add much more mileage?!

Dublin Dave.

[adventurepdx]

I will have to work out if the loop & back onto the standard Pacific Route will add much more mileage?!

Yes, it does. Google Maps (and yes, I know it isn't always the best, but it gives you a guideline) shows the distance from Port Townsend to Aberdeen via the inland route as 120 miles, and going around the long way is about 220 miles. It's 100 miles longer and that's before adding on any side trips.

The big questions is: How long do you have? You indicated earlier in this thread that you want to get from Vancouver to San Diego in about a month. Is that how much time you have allotted for doing it, or can you spend more time? A couple more weeks means more time to do things like this.

[Daveymac]

Hi! Yea, the plan is to do the trip in approx 1 month... but I could extend it to 5 weeks if needed...
I plan on getting down to Mission Beach & then relax somewhere near San Diego for a few days, before packing up & flying home!

I suppose if I take lots of detours, the time & miles will add up very quickly.....
Dublin Dave.

[staehpj1]

Hi! Yea, the plan is to do the trip in approx 1 month... but I could extend it to 5 weeks if needed...
I plan on getting down to Mission Beach & then relax somewhere near San Diego for a few days, before packing up & flying home!

I suppose if I take lots of detours, the time & miles will add up very quickly.....
Dublin Dave.

One thing to consider is that if you want to use the state park hiker biker sites (which I recommend) it will to some degree dictate your choices of how long your days are.  So you may need to do longer or shorter days than you prefer to hit a state park at the end of the day.  That said averaging 60 miles per day works out well in my experience there.

FWIW, if I was going to do the PCH again I might skip Washington state.  I took the ferry from Seattle and rode the ACA route in Washington from Bremerton and while the ferry ride was nice Washington was far and away my least favorite part of the tour.  So, especially if you are limited on time, maybe consider starting in Astoria.  Oregon and Northern California were awesome in my opinion.  On the PCH you really don't need to have a super firm end point.  If you get close to running out of time you can typically hop on a regional bus to get to the town you want to end up at.  Also, that works to either lengthen or shorten your tour.

I found the route interesting enough that I didn't feel much need to do many detours.