Teriyaki Donut route and report
Sorry for not getting to this sooner, but we went from Gig Harbor up to the Hood Canal for a few days of camping with Emmett's kindergarten class, and I'm just now catching up. We stayed at Scenic Beach State Park, but we had been pulling to have the camping at Kopachuck State Park (almost due west of downtown), since that would have meant we could ride to the start.
I mapped out a route that hit all the checkpoints, although I was pruning low-value checkpoints even before I was done. 15 (on a deadend halfway up a hill) did not seem worthwhile, nor did 14 and 26 (near the start), and the trio of low-value checkpoints (12, 21, 22) along the water to the south, all of which would require retracing our steps up a hill. As it turned out, we got all the others, and had just enough time at the end to pick up 14 as well.
The other route choice was whether to start by heading north or south. Last year we went south, and most of the points I figured we'd have to skip were to the south, so I chose north, thus allowing us to pick up the south checkpoints if we had extra time. This also meant we would finally get to the checkpoints on the peninsula east of the Harbor, which we had always skipped in the past.
I estimated the route I mapped as 25 miles with my marked string, which was daunting, since Emmett's and my best distance together had been only around 20 miles. But my bike computer at the end said we went just slightly over 25 miles (despite gmaps), so we definitely did better than expected. It helped that this time I told Emmett we'd be stopping after certain point totals instead of at particular times, since it seemed to give him something to look forward to.
Our route: 45-44-27-35-43-52-28-33-41-53-34-54-42-32-48-31-23-51-39-47-38-26-11-37-24-13-36-46-14
We scored 920 points, although I admit to not reading the Costco question (41) correctly (I entered the per gallon price, instead of the per gallon savings).
Just before the start, I maneuvered Emmett and me to the northwest corner of the park, so we could get away without running over any pedestrians. The police blocking off traffic was, as always, very helpful. And since we were skipping 14 and 26, we didn't have a great deal of company. Some guys on skateboards kept up with us for a while, but our closest companions were a family on bikes (mother, father, daughter, or so I gather). Because we skipped 15 and 35 on the way out, we were the first ones to 43 [crab harvesters sign] and 52 [bus turnaround], and saw a number of people heading there as we were heading back.
On the way to 52, I taught Emmett about momentum: speed up on the downhills so you don't have to work so hard on the next uphill. He liked that. At 35 [park shingles] we topped the 200 point mark, so he got to eat some trail mix.
Immediately after, we hit the hardest stretch of the ride, straight west and up from the estuary. I had to get off and walk this last year with Omar, and had to do the same this year with Emmett. He took this opportunity to knock all the Scotch Broom flowers he could while walking, since this releases their pollen. Apologies to any hay fever sufferers.
By the time we got to 28 [waterfall at house], the hill was much more manageable, and I didn't have any hill-climbing difficulties after. I was slightly worried there would be a dispute at 33 [one-way roundabout signs], since there were four yellow one-way arrow signs, but only 3 black-and-white ONE WAY signs.
A runner outstripped us going from 33 to 41 [Costco], since I decided to follow the directions and take the sidewalk around the roundabout. Pedestrians, of course, can go clockwise, as well as cut more easily through the parking lot. After negotiating our next roundabout (east of the freeway) I decided the sidewalks were really only necessary for the roundabouts with 2 lanes; with one lane it's usually easy enough to find an opening to enter, even with a Trail-A-Bike.
At Costco, not only did I get the answer wrong, but I made a huge mess on the answer sheet trying to writing down a four-digit number with my pen. At first I blamed Emmett for jerking the bike back and forth, but only on the 3rd try did I realize my pen was leaking ink. I moved to the backup and didn't have any troubles after that.
At 53 [YMCA] we saw the skateboarders again, and finally passed the runner. We also saw Omar and Elizabeth while heading to 34 [church alarm permit]. I remembered that the rocky path between the YMCA and 34 caused me some trouble last year, but it was easier this time, probably because we were going down the gravel path instead of pedaling up. The gate on the road was actually pretty easy to navigate; the one near 23 [Marvin Park] gave me more trouble.
While mapping the route, I decided the road from 34 up to 54 [hospital] looked pretty easy, and indeed it was basically flat up until you entered the hospital drive. The 2-lane roundabout just east of the freeway was another matter, as it took some time to find an opening wide enough to let us merge into the left lane. On the way back, I used the sidewalk, and the cars were rather courteous. At 54, we passed 400 points, and had a more substantial snack. The family bike team was pulling up just as we were leaving, and said they were going next to 42 [Emergency Operation Center], just as we were. But I didn't see them afterwards.
42 took some time because I first pulled into the fire station to the north (very tricky). I was suspicious, though, because I thought there should have been another driveway, and soon enough moved south to the Emergency Operations Center. At this point we had 480 points and had spent about half our time.
The next stretch of riding featured long distances with few checkpoints, but was fun nonetheless. I wondered if we could have cut the corner where the Discovery School and High School were, but decided not to risk it. At 48 [pond viewing platform] we saw another bicycle team, and just after 31 [hearts on banner] we started to see a number of what must have been 3-hour foot teams making their way back.
The 'path' west of 23 (which actually looked like a street being repaired after a flood) was blocked by a metal cable I almost didn't see (boo). Once I lifted our bike and Trail-A-Bike over, I walked it over the worst part of it rather than trying to ride. At 23 [Marvin Park], we topped 600 points, and Emmett stopped again to eat, use the bathroom, and pretend to watch a baseball game. I don't remember how much time we had left, but it was clear we had enough to pick up the high-value checkpoints to the south, so we kept going on the planned route.
To get to 51 [Child Express], I cut behind the business park, a route we'd taken last year as well. The people at 39 [film festival] were helpful. As we were leaving the shopping center, I spotted a Mexican restaurant I had picked out as a potential place to eat lunch on the way home from camping (and we did, indeed stop there. Not that great, but we ended up with enough reasonable food that we thankfully didn't have to cook dinner that night).
On the path to 47 [blue plaque near benches], we saw a number of pedestrians as well as one fairly fast biker. It was nice to be able to follow the bike trail signs from 47 to 38 [plaza table] to 26 [bend in path] without thinking about navigation.
Once we got off the path, we were in very familiar territory --- I had gotten lost at the trail intersection between 37 and 24 both previous years, so I'd been here at least 4 times. By going from 11 to 37 to 24, I visited the intersection twice this year as well, although this time on purpose. At 37 [Civic Center field], we passed 800 points. I let Emmett have some more trail mix, but refused to let him off the bike since we only had about 20 minutes left and he would soon have plenty of time to eat.
The gravel path down to 24 [fire hydrant] was treacherous; I should have started riding on the grass sooner. At 24, I realized it was a straight shot to the north to pick up 13 [arrow signs] and 36 [visitors center]. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how ill-suited the path between 13 and 36 was for bikes. We had to walk, we blocked a number of people trying to go the other way, and at the end we had to manhandle the Trail-A-Bike down a skinny metal staircase.
We had about 10 minutes left to get 46 [Galloping Gertie], and 6 minutes remaining when we hit the main intersection of town at Pioneer Way, so I turned left to pick up 14 and/or 26 up the hill. The road up to 14 we had taken last year, and I thought it was a dead end then. And I was right, as it ended in another pedestrian- but no bike-friendly trail. We were used to these by now, so Emmett and I hiked up to the street and got back on. We visited 14 and made it back to the park with over a minute to spare, plenty of time to make sure I had marked all my answers this time.
My favorite checkpoint was the rebuilt structure in the estuary park [35], but I really enjoyed the rides down the peninsula, up to the hospital (minus the roundabout) and along the west side of the freeway.