Kalaloch to Lake Quinault: Olympic Peninsula

By Dave Briggs · Published 2009-09-24 · Last updated 2026-07-18

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Whilst the day's cycling from Kalaloch to Quinault was fine, I had issues with my tent when setting it up when a pole snapped. The joys of bike touring!

Leaving Kalaloch

(Blog post written: Sep 24 2009) - Continuing my cycle ride along the west coast of the USA as part of my bike tour from Alaska to Argentina.

I got away without paying for the nights camping - Thank you very much wallet-guardian-angel! Perhaps karma came back to bite me on the ass later though.

Today's ride would see me cycle from Kalaloch to Quinault, a distance of about 33 miles on the Pacific Coast Highway 101, although it didn't follow the coast for much of the distance!

A couple of steepish climbs today, but nothing too challenging, and in fact, until the memory of the mountain climbs from Lillooet has faded, I doubt much will seem like hard work for a while!

Cycling Snacks at Quinault

At a store just outside of Quinault, I bought some strange deep fried thing that had melted cheese in it.

It was the sort of thing that brings on a heart attack just by looking at it, but also the sort of thing that cyclists on tour are constantly drawn too.... So I had another!

Staying at Willaby Campground, Quinault

I called it a day at Willaby campground just outside the settlement of Quinault, and overlooking the lake. As I was putting the tent up, another pole snapped on the opposite side of the one that went before. Joy of joys!

Actually, there was a little bit more swearing involved than that, and I managed to string thirty two obscenities together before I ran out of breath.

Vaude Tent Problems

To say that I have found this Vaude tent a disappointment is a massive understatement, and I will never buy one again.

So, on to repairing the tent - Fortunately I had found a length of steel alloy tubing on the side of the road some weeks before (as you do) which was just the right diameter to make a bridging piece.

Cutting it with a Swiss Army knife was no small challenge however, and the tent got called a few more names.

I managed to get it to the right length, and the tent got up, but I am pretty resigned to the fact that it will fail me again at some point in the very near future, and I will have to replace it with something else.

Coffee and Internet

After that was all dealt with, I cycled down into Quinault to have a coffee and use the internet to check on a few emails I was expecting.

With a bag of skittles in hand, I went back to the camp, where I saw my first snake of the trip, but was too slow fumbling around with the camera to capture it on film.

I did manage to take a picture of a spiders web though!!

Dave Briggs
Dave is a UK travel writer living in Athens since 2015. With 20 years of firsthand travel experience and over 80,000 km of bicycle touring across six continents, he's been blogging at Dave's Travel Pages since 2005. Every guide is based on places he's actually been.

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