This was by far the best day of the ride. We started off with another couple of expresso stops. We descended from Forks and descended down to the Washington Coast line at Kalaloch Lodge. At Kalaloch I decided that taking an alternate route down along the coast was needed. So we jumped off hwy 101 and road around 3 miles on the beach from Kalaloch to South Beach Camp ground. The skinny tires did great on the hard packed sand and it was a lot more fun and scenic than riding along the busy hwy with winnegagos and logging trucks. At South Beach we climbed up a steep embankment and rode back up to the hwy. We caught up with 3 riders and decided to form a pace line to make the 108 miles a little easier. Pretty soon there were just the 3 of us as we continued along the hwy. Then another detour for a swim in Lake Quinault. Definitely the highlight to the trip. The detour ended up being a little longer than expected but worth the effort. Quinault Lake is incredible. Its a large lake surrounded by the steep ridges of the Olympic Range. The water was warmer than I thought it would be. It felt great to relax and take a long swim in the lake on such a hot day. After a leisurely time we took off again and found an alternate route back up to the hwy which put us closer in the direction we were heading. We met up with a few other riders and formed pace lines along the way to Hoquim. It was a long day but definitely the best day of the trip. At Hoquim we camped at another school ground. That night we had our raffle for swag and awards. We had awards for the oldest riders. Some of which were in their 70s. There were also a few young riders. The youngest I believe was 12. I was impressed with both the older riders and the younger ones. Then they had awards for helmet decorations. I had picked up a butterfly visor at Kalaloch. I figured it would be a great hemet decoration and my neice would probably love to have it at the end of the trip. We all won.

It was an early night since we had another 100 mile day on day 6.

Next: RAW Day 6