Update 5

I'm sorry to say I have little to show for the past week or so. Shortly after leaving Bend I learned my mom (who was in her 50s) had suffered a fatal heart attack back home. She had been suffering from some form of severe mental/personality disorder for over 10 years so no one was left around her except myself and her fiancee. He is taking care of her affairs and I am still struggling to find a way to make sense of it. More than anything else, I feel a sense of sadness at something having been wasted. We could have been much closer. I was very young the last time I can remember her genuinely well and happy.

Since I heard the news I hadn't found the surplus of thought or feeling necessary to make a meaningful story out the things I see or hear on the road. I can say I visited Mt Saint Helens, camped in Tillamook State Forest, camped at the edge of the Olympic National Forest, went riding on some fairly challenging muddy and rooted Washington singletrack at an OHV park outside Bellingham, and camped at Bay View Park near Burlington, WA.

The 4th of July was a bit of a psychological turning point. I took the ferry onto the Olympic Peninsula and rode through the Olympic National Forest to Neah Bay, WA. I set up camp at Hobuck Beach on the Makah Indian Reservation. Taking a cue from the locals, I drag raced my WR250R up and down the beach and finished off a bottle of wine. The fireworks went off long into the night, bright and brilliant against the star-littered sky.



Sailing out from Port Angeles to Victoria, BC, Canada in an hour.