Harley in Fort Townsend

A few notes from our late-September shakedown cruise, a 600-mile-long counter-clockwise ring around the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington, beginning in Tacoma, ending at Cape Disappointment, the terminus of the Lewis & Clark Trail at the sea-mouth of the Columbia River.

All in all, a nice prologue, one that featured low-mileage days and lots of time-taking to refine packing systems and hone camp-site drills. Also for me a chance to grow more accustomed to Harley’s new forward foot controls.

In Port Townsend, I got to enjoy the hospitality of old friends — Anchorage ex-pats Bill and Mindy Dwyer — at their cheery hand-crafted home on a ridge thick with ripe berries, black-tailed deer & well-fed coyotes.

There I also got to log onto the New York Times’ “How to Start Your Own Blog” course, which culminated in the launch of Travels with Harley, this chronicle of our projected 10,000-mile trip around America. (And by the way, please feel free to offer blog-site suggestions — everything and anything here can still be revised.)

Blue skies over the days that followed led to a couple of nice hikes into Olympic National Park near Port Angeles, including a pilgrimage to the lip of Elwha Dam — site of what’s projected to be the largest dam demolition in U.S. history. The goal: to restore the Elwha’s salmon runs of old and enrich an entire ecosystem dependent on that biomass. Work at the dam had just begun a week earlier (detailed post to follow).

Then on Day Six, while camping at the very sea bluff where Lewis & Clark first spotted the Pacific Ocean, our little tent camp was hammered by a huge Pacific storm. By morning the gale had grown to 60-80-mph winds that severely tested my decamping and packing in a hurricane skills. I would end up thoroughly soaked.

Crossing the slippery four-mile-long bridge to Astoria, Ore. (with wave-spray blowing over the side) was completely out of the question on two wheels, so we retreated instead to a small seaside town, finding refuge there inside the warm glow of the Mermaid Inn (cue Chapter 1 of Moby Dick) and lasted out the storm.

With the sun shining the next day, our shake-down cruise both resumed and concluded. Arrived at our home base in Portland, Ore. with an entire bag of odds and ends I knew by then I really didn’t need for the journey. Then on Wednesday, Sept. 28, another blue-sky day, Harley and I finally embarked on our trip east across the northern half of America — feeling a lot lighter and a little smarter respectively.