Motoadventures2up: Vancouver Island Bike Tour

I hate to use clichés but 'I love it went a plan comes together'.

A trip to Vancouver Island has been on our go to list in B.C. for a while, being about the only place Ken and I have not traveled together. With lots of friends and family to see along the way I was wondering if 2 weeks would give us enough time. The time was good and left us wanting just a little more so we will leave that for another time.

Some say that the end of May and early June is definitely not the time to be planning a motorbike trip to Vancouver Island but as usual Ken and I threw caution to the wind and loaded up the Super Tenere and left for Vancouver. With our riding gear zipped up tight, rain suits packed in the panniers and a thunder storm brewing all around us there were a few moments of indecision but they didn't last longer than Hope where things brightened up and from there 'there was no looking back'.

Always a nice way for us to start a trip is hanging with Shari (Ken's sister) for a few days, living in heart of downtown...walks in Stanley Park, good food and great company are always on the agenda.

Off to Victoria where we stayed in a "tent and breakfast" (only 3 sites allowed). We pitched our tent at the small hobby farm with chickens, a big garden and a good cook who made us breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast (homemade bread) with homemade jam, waffles with fresh compote and whipped cream. All this brought to your campsite first thing in the morning along with a thermos of hot coffee and tea. It does't get much better! While in Victoria topping the must do list was fish and chips, a walk around the waterfront and a tour of the Parliament building. It just so happened that a couple of Kens school friends, Danny Ashton and Terry Lake were hard at work in parliament but Danny found time to give us our own private tour from top to bottom...thanks a lot Danny.

From Victoria we traveled north up the coast to Port Renfrew and across to Lake Cowichan on a forestry road that was always gravel and had only been paved a couple of years earlier. It made a great short cut over to the east coast. Nanaimo is the new home of our friends Patricia and Pierre (neighbours on the beach in Baja) so we stopped in to checked out their new digs. After a chin-wag we jumped a ferry to Gabriola to check out one of the smaller islands and do sunset kayak tour with Patricia's daughter at Silva Bay Kayak Adventures...a great way to spend the evening!

After landing back on 'The Rock' (Vancouver Island) we headed north through Coombs, with the goats feeding on the roof of one of the General Stores, to Port Alberni where we stayed with Jim and Gloria (more friends from Baja). Port Alberni was a bit of a surprise to us, the first surprise was how economical it is live there...you can still buy a nice house for $250,000 (definately not the Okanagan). The second surprise was the weather, temperatures are always the warmest on the island and relatively dry to boot. While visiting Port Alberni we took a day to ride out to Ucluelet and Tofino and back...great ride and great places for lunch, coffee and a walk on the beach but boy are they touristy towns(oh well, I guess that's what we were, right?). The next day, which was a little drizzly (thank goodness we were sleeping under a real roof) we took a boat ride, actually a working freight boat, out to Ucluelet and back. This was a great full day experience, leaving at 8 am and returning at 6 pm. We enjoyed the scenery of the Alberni Inlet as the barge stopped in at communities and resorts that are only reached by water, delivering mail, groceries etc., a good day on the water. A good time in Port Alberni.

We were back in the tent as we headed to Comox to catch the ferry back to the mainland and thankfully the weather was back on our side. Before we caught the ferry we took a quick trip out to Gold River, a nice ride on the Island Highway South to Campbell River and then Gold River Highway out to the Upper Campbell Lake, along the way we passed the road to Westmin Mines, where Ken worked back in the 80's. The night before the ferry we stayed at a great R.V. park, the Salmon Point R.V. Park about 20 minutes north of Comox. The park sits on a beach on the Strait of Georgia and is complete with kitchen, entertainment room, pool and hot tub and a pub close by for diner when you don't want to cook...which I didn't.

I saw my first Orca on the crossing to Powell River, pretty far away but still a big dorsal fin came out of the water several times before finally going down and parting our company. We rode north of Powell River to Lund which is the end of the pavement on the Sunshine Coast Highway then turned around and headed south to spend the night at Egmont and see the Skookumchuck Tidal Rapids, I will tell you they are impressive! The speed and amount of water that goes through that channel is amazing.

We ended our trip at Joanne (Kens sister) and Bruce's place on Bowen Isand, staying five days to catch up on a little R and R (ha ha). We enjoyed walks in the park and were able to attend a pizza party they were hosting, yummy! Their place is beautiful, they are great hosts and we always have a good time when we are there. The addition the guest studio was nice and made it even harder to leave.

The first of many ferry rides on our trip.

The Parliament Buildings were built on what was once a bog, let's hope we don't have a big earthquake our government could crumble.

'The Floating Boardwalk' on Lake Cowichan at the municipal campground.

Looking out over Silva Bay on Gabriola Island.

There are some VERY BIG trees on the island.

Drumberg Provincial Park on Gabriola Island, it is easy to see that these are volcanic islands.

The group before our 'Sunset Paddle'.

A mumma seal (very pregnant) and another smaller seal sticking it's nose up out of the water just hanging around a lighthouse on a very small rock outcropping.