North to Port Townsend

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With our stay in Bremerton coming to a close, we will be heading north to Port Townsend to another Elks Lodge. Since neither of these lodges have a dump station, we need to find another option. The local fairground is just a few miles from where we are staying and they have a free dump station situated there. Fortunately we had explored the Kitsap County Fairgrounds a day before and after a bit of searching we found the fairly well hidden dump station. For future reference, it is maybe 300 feet south of the intersection of NW Fairgrounds Road and Tibardis Road at roughly N47° 37.883'  W122° 39.954'. We pulled in and nobody was around but before I was done, there was another rig waiting for us to finish. Other than being a very dusty place, it worked out well and the price was right.

It's less than a 50 mile drive from Bremerton to Port Townsend and it turned out to be a pretty easy travel day. The Elks Lodge has room for about 30 rigs. There were only 4 others there when we pulled in so we figured out the orientation of the sites and picked one that might be somewhat shaded in the afternoon. Someone from the lodge came out to tell us that the campground host was injured and we should just do the self registration envelope method.

Since we were here fairly early, we headed into downtown first stopping at the visitor's center. There happened to be a jazz festival going on so the volunteer was trying to convince us to check out some of the venues. The downtown area was very cute and fairly crowded. After finding a parking spot, we started to walk around town. We found a wooden boat workshop that lets people in to wander around unsupervised. The smell of fresh cut wood and all the hand and power tools in use made me a little bit homesick for my old woodworking shop. There were some new builds but the majority of the work was repairing old wooden boats that had damage or had seen better days.

New Boat Under Construction

Older Boat Needing Repair

A geocache brought us to the only remaining wooden bell tower in the USA. Along the way, we stumble upon a group of about 10 ukulele players putting on an impromptu concert by the fountain in town. Their name was appropriate- The Fountain of Ukes. Just up the hill from the fountain is the last remaining wooden bell tower in the USA built  in 1890. We also discovered an car shop (Bergstrom's Antique Classic Autos) that was likely in a converted fire station building. Besides having several old cars for sale, they had all manner of parts for older cars. I suspect that two of my brother-in-laws would have really enjoyed browsing around this place. We eventually decided to head back to camp with one important stop along the way. Mount Townsend Creamery is situated just outside the main downtown area. They offer cheese tastings and even have a 25% discount on certain times with the day we are there being one of them. We tried about 8 or so different cheeses and watched them making another batch through the glass windows into the cheese factory. We ended up picking two of the samples we really liked and then spotted another one that was not out for tasting but sounded good. Let's just say our "free" tasting was far from free but we came away with some really good cheeses. 

Oldest Wooden Bell Tower in US

View of Town from Above

The Fountain of Ukes

Former Elks Building - 1889

Need Parts?

1954 Corvette 

The Elks Lodge was having fish and chips for dinner that first night so we headed there. We met another couple that had just pulled in next to us and had a nice time chatting with them over dinner. The following day we dusted off the bicycles and headed into town again with Fort Worden State Park as our destination. This is on the north side of town. There is a bicycle path that can be accessed about one mile north of the lodge. It worked out quite well since it can be reached without needing to get out onto the main state route. Once on the bike path, the paved trail changes to gravel but it is a very well maintained gravel trail. It didn't take long for us to realize that the trail into town is downhill which is nice but will become a penalty on our return trip. We stop for a few of the many geocaches along the trail. One was overlooking the paper mill in town. We now know what that strange smell is we caught if the wind was just right. It isn't a horrible smell but it definitely is not pleasant. 

Port Townsend Paper Corp

Once the bike path ends in town, there are several routes to take to get to the fort. The traffic on the residential streets wasn't bad but the one we picked took us up Morgan Hill. It isn't too high, maybe 250', but it is exceptionally steep. I suspect there would have been easier ways had we done a bit more investigation. After asking for directions, we finally found out where the noon time free jazz concert was to be held. Our timing was perfect, there was a tree on a little hill where we could lean our bikes, sit in the shade and enjoy an unobstructed view of the stage. 

Good Crowd at Concert

It turned out the performers were not really a group per se, but the students of some teacher from Seattle that had come to Port Townsend for a weeklong class and this was their culmination. They were entertaining and based on some of the solo performances, there were a couple that show great promise. After lunch we wandered to the beach and found the typical little snack shack that a state park might have. I expected to get a burger that was lukewarm, dried out and required copious amounts of ketchup to make it edible. I was shocked to find it to be one of the best burgers I have ever had!

Next we headed out to Point Wilson lighthouse. Like so many lighthouses, it has been automated so the residence is no longer in use. There were some nice views of distant snow capped mountains and the many boats out on the water. They definitely have a problem with all the sea gulls landing on the roof. What should be red shingles is almost completely white. From here we headed over to the location of the gun encampments. The structures are still in good shape although all of the big guns have long been removed. What really amazed us was that many of the underground rooms were open to the public. One of the geocaches we did while here required us to find small stickers with coordinates and several of them were in the pitch black rooms. Thank goodness for the flashlight mode on the GPS. Many of the barracks have now been converted into other uses - a few shops and a woodworking school were seen as we tooled by on our bikes. 

View from Point Wilson with Mt. Baker in Distance

Lighthouse at Point Wilson

One of the Armament Batteries

Rooms to Explore Beneath

After finishing up at the fort, we ran into our first obstacle. Another short but steep hill that even I needed to walk up. Had we been in shape like for our cross country bike ride, we might have been able to make it. The rest of the ride up the bike path was gradual enough to not be much of a problem but we ended the day with over 20 miles of biking.

Beautiful Country Courthouse on Ride Back

In an attempt to appease the tired legs, we headed to the farmer's market in town the next morning. They had lots of vendors and it was very crowded. In the afternoon we drove into Old Fort Townsend State Park which is maybe a mile or so from the Elks Lodge. In hindsight, maybe we should have driven to the first fort and biked to the closer one! There is a small campground here and a dump station. In fact, we stop there to determine of a rig our size would fit or not. We guess it will so we will plan on using this on our way out of town.

The fort that used to be here is all but gone. There is a path thru the woods with interpretive signs stating that this was where the barracks were, or the commissary or some other building. But there are no remnants remaining and the fact that the trees here are a couple feet in diameter makes it hard to convince yourself there was anything ever here. At one point along the trail we came upon a small wedding ceremony. Just as we came into view, the couple were pronounced man and wife and every clapped and hollered. Never have we been greeted so warmly on a hike before.

Nice View from Fort Townsend

The next day we were ready to try out more of the nice bike trail. This time we would head generally south and west along the Larry Scott trail. The trail was nice and wide, well maintained and not too hilly. There were some people out enjoying it but not so many as to be annoying during the ride or when we stopped to search for one of many geocaches. We turned back after 6 miles but the trail continues in one form or another for many miles, possibly all the way to the Pacific Ocean. 

One of Many Horse at Farms Next to Bike Trail

Beautiful Day for a Bike Ride