Ibike
USA/Canada Program
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Photo essay: Rolling the Islands of the Salish Sea: Port Townsend |
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Poulsbo to PORT TOWNSEND (70km, 43mi). We pass a string of mill
towns that were boom towns a century ago. |
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![]() Bicycling backroads of Bainbridge Island |
The backroads of the Kitsap Peninsula / Kitsap County don't have much traffic so they make for good cycling. Kitsap County was initially named Slaughter County, in honor of Lt. W.A. Slaughter. He was killed by Indians, near Puyallup, in 1855. Local residents voted in the next election to rename it Kitsap, a local chief and medicine man who fought against the settlers in the Indian wars, but whose warning also saved the settlers in the Puyallup Valley from a massacre. The translation of Kitsap means "brave." | |
![]() Pt Gamble General Store and Sea & Shell Museum |
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![]() Pt Gamble main street |
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If you averse to hills and/or highways the most pleasant route into Port Townsend is the Larry Scott Memorial Trail. The trail is named in honor of Larry Scott, one of the original High Priests of the "Church of the Rear Derailleur." He helped start the Peninsula Trails Coalition, whose number one goal was to develop a trail from Pt Townsend to Port Angeles, along the old RR right-of-way. This is the Pt Townsend end of the corridor. | |
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The trail invited lingering. In fact, bicycling was too fast a mode of travel for appreciating the tranquility. We stopped about every quarter mile to appreciate the scenery, take advantage of a nice photo ops and enjoy a little rest. | |
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Here is a Tsunami warning sign. The graphic little man, running for his life up a cliff, looks like he's going to get swallowed up by the wave -- it is not a very encouraging message. He should be on a bike so he can make a quicker escape! | |
![]() McCurdy Building, Pt Townsend |
The Native Americans called Pt Townsend "Kah-tai", meaning "to carry" or "pass through" (i.e. portage avoiding Point Wilson). Founded 1851, it looked for a while like it would be an important town. It was a full fledged boom town for part of the second half of the 19th century: The U.S. Customs district headquarter moved from Olympia to Port Townsend in 1853. It became the official U.S. Customs point of entry Chinese. In 1860, there was formal Hawaiian consulate (then independent). 1888 to 1890 were its biggest boom years but in Nov 1890 the boom went bust. In 3 years, 4 of 6 banks disappeared and population dropped from 7000 to 2000. For the next century not much happened; nothing was built, but just as significant, little was torn down. By the time people became interested in Pt Townsend again there was renewed interest and value in historic buildings and preservation was the strategy of the day. Pt Townsend became a bit of a living museum. | |
![]() Hastings Building |
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![]() Old ferry dock on the central waterfront of Port Townsend |
This old ferry dock on the central waterfront of Port Townsend, is the dock used in the movie "Snow Falling On Cedar" when the Japanese families had to leave their belongings and lives behind and were being expelled from the island. There is a novel of the same name, nominally set on Bainbridge Island, where we had bicycled the day before. The new ferry dock is a half mile away, more on the south edge of downtown. | |
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