The Olympia Connection

When visiting a new city, first impressions can be very important. The first thing I encountered on my arrival to Olympia was a bike path :) The second was a hipster on a bike saying "Way to go! You made it!"

I looked at him, puzzled.

"I see you're bike touring," he explained. "I've been there. Is there anything you need or anything I can help you with?" 

"Actually yeah. I'm looking for a map of the city."

"Well I don't have a bike map on me, but there's one at this house I'm headed to. It's also a bike shop, if that's useful."

Another befuddled look.

The free store beside the food co-op in West Olympia

"Well, it's where all the bike mechanics live," he explained. I soon found out that my new friend Alexander was at the hub (no pun intended) of the Olympia bike community. He'd also done a fair bit of touring, including a trip to San Fran. He asked me where I was staying and I told him the name of the hostel I'd booked that morning.

"Oh, I helped start that hostel! It's right near here. I'll show you."

Somehow, within an hour of arrival, I had acquired my own personal Olympia bike guru guide. Not too shabby Olympia, not too shabby.

We took a detour so Alexander could show me where the hostel was before arriving at his friends' house. Alexander warned me it was kind of a "dude" house, which I soon discovered meant lots of weed and video games. When I mentioned I was from Victoria, one of the guys asked "How's Luke?"

At first I took this to be a typical instance of American ignorance, and was in the process of explaining that Victoria had 250,000 people and that I didn't even know a Luke when I realized that I did know a Luke - the guy from Recyclistas. Oh. I explained how he had helped me fix up my bike as they nodded knowingly. Apparently bike geeks know no borders.

All of this was fortuitous, since I had come to Olympia mainly to get my bike fixed. The city was not on the prescribed guidebook route, so I decided to stop in the town of Shelton (still on my route) to ask about the best bike route into the city. As it was the labour day holiday Monday I wasn't expecting to find much. Luckily there was a very friendly cafe and bookstore open. The man inside just happened to ride his motorbike into Olympia on a regular basis, and gave me very detailed direcions on how to avoid the worst part of highway 101 (which I somehow failed to follow, but still, worth a try).  He also encouraged me to use the public cafe computer to book a hostel. This was a classic example of the small town friendliness I've encountered time and again on this trip. I am consistently amazed at how much energy people in small communities will invest to help a perfect stranger find their way. 

In addition to fixing my bike, I'd always heard that Olympia was a pretty cool town, and wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time there taking care of business - laundry, internet, supplies and bike repair. As it turned out there were a couple of bike shops open on the holdiay (the dude house seemed a bit too engrossed in video games...) As I pulled up to the first one and rounded the corner, I noticed a line of homeless people against the back wall. I later learned that this was a popular hangout due to the presence of Olympia's famous artesian well, which is reputed to spout the tastiest water in the land (the theory behind the homeless presence being that the police can't bug you for collecting public water).

Inside the bike shop, I met a single harried mechanic with more work to do than he had time to do it in. He did, however, point me to "Bike & Bike," a volunteer-run bike shop across the street which did repairs by donation. Now that's my kind of bike shop.  And, lo and behold, the volunteer there had been learning under the tutelage of none other than my good friend Alexander. Well colour me charmed. This town felt like just the right size, with a healthy helping of granola.

After getting the bike work done, I sweated up the giant hill leading from downtown to West Olympia in order to finally check into the hostel. Not surprisingly, the place was cute as can be and had everything a girl on tour could want, from laundry, to world map shower curtains, to dried herbs grown right on the premises. There were also chickens in the backyard, though I didn't get any offers for fresh eggs :(

At the hostel, I met another woman named Li Anne who was also cycling solo (and blogging!). She had just spent the last 5 weeks exploring Puget Sound, and was on her way home in a few days. She gave me plenty of cycling tips, and we exchanged blog links, vowing to follow each other's adventures.

Li Anne and I in front of our hostel, "Chez Cascadia"

I would have liked to stay a day in Olympia to explore the city, but the road was calling me. I knew I wanted to spend a few days in Portland, and was anxious to get to the Oregon border.  Guess I'll just have to take another trip!