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Up the next morning for a quick ride into town,and then a ferry over to Seattle. Good views on the way.
We’re staying at the Hostelling International American Hotel, just inside Chinatown, a short ride from the ferry terminal.
Walked to REI to buy some kit. Paul has to replace his bike shorts, which have fallen to bits, and also his cycling gloves, which are old and noisome. Inevitably, we spent quite a lot and had to get over the shock by sampling a number of Seattle beers from the Pike Brewery, near to Pike Market. The Naughtie Nellie is excellent.
The transit system is amazing so we got the bus – interesting for two reasons – it’s free in the downtown area and it goes underground, completely.The next day we were tourists, no cycling, so we took the monorail to the Space Needle for great views of the city.
A bit cool and cloudy, so we went into a music museum called the Experience Music Project. It was so fascinating we had to break for lunch in the middle. There were special exhibitions on Jimmy Hendrix and Nirvana, both of which were really good. I now know more about Nirvana than is probably healthy for me.
More walking around, more beer and we noticed trees wrapped up in knitted jumpers.
We had dinner at a Mexican, and Paul decided he needed a diet coke with it. This is a medium cup. Yes, medium.
Anyway, we liked Seattle. Up early tomorrow for the ferry over to Bremerton, and then the ride continues. Pacific Ocean here we come!
Another blue sky morning and we got an early ferry from Friday Harbour. On the ferry we met a chap commuting to work in Anacortes who recommended a good route out of town. Good idea we thought, and it was a nice route along the Tommy Thompson trail avoiding some of the main road route. Unfortunately it also added about eight miles to our day, but hey, there we are.
We arrived at Deception Pass, a high bridge over a narrow sea channel with a formidable tide below.
We had lunch in Oak Harbour, in an Italian restaurant, served by an Asian gentleman who had relatives in London, and then rode on to the Keystone ferry over to Port Townsend. It was fairly perishing by this time, with a really cold wind, so we stopped to buy food and then headed off to our campsite in Fort Worden State Park, our first hiker-biker campground: that is, small and with no vehicle access.
It rained a wee bit during the night, so we packed the tent up wet and headed for Fay Bainbridge State Park, just over Puget Sound from Seattle. On the way we crossed the Hood Canal bridge, and stopped at Port Gamble for coffee and a (really quite expensive) bun.
Finally, after climbing many hills, we arrived at Bainbridge at 4:03 in the afternoon on the day when they were holding their park rededication celebration, with free hot dogs and a live band ! Result ! Good views of Seattle also: yes, one of Bill Gates’ houses is over there somewhere.
We whacked the tent up and joined in. We ended the evening cooking (canned) chili on our marvellous MSR Pocket Rocket, and then listening to the ever-increasing power of the rain which then lashed us for the rest of the night.
Seattle tomorrow !
We decided to stay for three nights on San Juan to allow us to cycle round the island and look for whales at “possibly the best land-based point for observing orca in the world”, and spend a day kayaking.
So off we went. Well, after messing around on the internet for an hour in a coffee shop checking out where we were going next, finding a bank, buying food, booking a kayaking trip and doing other such admin tasks. Eventually, we set off for Lime Kiln State Park, the aforementioned “best land-based etc etc” to hopefully see some orcas. It’s a lovely, blue, sunny day. Here’s the Haro Straits with the Olympic mountains sticking out of the clouds in the distance.
As we cut over to the west coast of the island, we see a line of whale watching boats proceeding slowly down the coast. Through our binoculars we can see orca, so we peddle furiously to Lime Kiln and drop down to the viewing point. A brief pause for a sandwich, and then five orcas swim past about 20 yards away, breaching and swimming on their backs. After ten minutes, they’re gone. We’ve timed it perfectly, completely by accident of course.
The following day we’re off kayaking, on a trip which takes us around the same area. Needless to say, we don’t see any orca, but we do see harbour porpoise, seals and eagles. It’s another lovely day.
Flat or what. Not even a ripple.
Two days in one, because we spent a lot of time waiting around for ferries, and didn’t do a lot of cycling. As we spent two extra days in Vancouver, the ferry schedule has flipped to the summer times, and so there’s not a ferry to Friday Harbour until 5:55pm tomorrow.
It rained overnight in Ganges, but mercifully stopped when we were packing up. We cooked scrambled eggs for breakfast, and then headed out for a short ride to Fulford Harbour for the trip back to the mainland.
A typical day round here: cloud low down on the trees, cold when the sun isn’t out.
Then off the ferry to our campground at McDonald State Park, a couple of miles outside Sidney. The tent pegs are persuaded to go in with a small rock, and then we head into town to look around, buy food and check the ferry times. Again.
An early evening meal and lots of sleep were on the agenda, so back to the campsite. Overnight, we had heard a MASSIVE bird call outside. It was an owl, apparently, but if so it must have been about 8 feet high. The following morning we were up at a leisurely time to cook breakfast (bacon and eggs, this time), pack up and head into town.
More hanging around, drinking coffee and chatting to the very kind and interested locals, and then finally we clear US immigration and we’re on the ferry to Friday Harbour.
A short ride from the ferry, and our destination, the Wayfarer’s Rest hostel. We’ll probably stay here for a couple of days to take in some kayaking, whale watching and riding round the island.
Not a particularly early start from the Painted Turtle guesthouse, after a jolly nice breakfast at the place round the corner.
Lovely and sunny again, and quiet roads to start with until we join Canada Highway 1, heading south. This is a large dual carriageway, but with a massive wide shoulder, and helpful bike signs ! It’s still got massive trucks carrying logs and the like on it, though, so it isn’t a particularly pleasant ride.
After a coffee and cake stop in Ladysmith (at the Town Bakery, Best Buns in Ladysmith), we peel off towards Chemainus on a quieter road, passing through Saltair, spotting eagles along the way.
A quick pitstop in Chemainus, and we’re on the final leg to the ferry terminal at Crofton.
Here, we get lost, passing our turn which is completely unsigned in our direction. After a five mile diversion and a quick chat with the locals, we arrive back at the junction and, in this direction, there’s a HUGE sign pointing us to the ferry. We arrive at about 2:10, just in time to miss the 2:05 ferry. So we have lunch, and I have a quick kip.
We arrive in Vesuvius Bay on Saltspring Island and then cycle over to Ganges. The campsite is advertised as being a kilometre outside town, but actually it’s more like a mile – and seriously uphill.
We camp, after borrowing a hammer to pound the pegs into the rock-hard dirt, then walk into town down the hill, have dinner, and walk back up again. Beer from the Saltspring Island Brewery eased the pain.
Up bright and early for a Canadian bacon sandwich to fortify us for the first day of the trip ! We started riding at about 7:45am, and here’s a picture of the first mile, Deep Cove Road, leading us into North Vancouver.
We rode along the North Shore of Indian Arm, massive shipping freight terminals on our left and the mountains on our right. (For the mountain bikers among you, it’s that North Shore, and we rode past Cove Bikes, which actually used to be in Deep Cove.) If you look closely, you can see Vancouver in the distance here, past the big storage tanks.
Eventually, we passed under Lion’s Gate bridge, the gateway to Vancouver harbour, built originally by the Guinness family to open up the North Shore for property development. The areas they developed are still known as the English Properties.
After this, we rode round the coast to Horseshoe Bay, the ferry terminal for the Vancouver Island ferry. And yes, people, the white bits on the mountains in the distance are snow.
And then over to Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. The weather was cool, but sunny throughout.
By the way, the Canucks lost the hockey game.
On to the Gulf Islands tomorrow.
Bikes boxed, panniers packed, off to Heathrow for our flight to Vancouver.
We’re staying with friends in the rather beautiful Deep Cove, part of North Vancouver. It’s on Indian Arm, which is where you get to if you pass through Vancouver Harbour and keep going up the inlet. It is water-sports heaven.
We’ve spent the time since we arrived reassembling the bikes and making a few last-minute purchases. Our friends are keen sailors, and have a lovely yacht, so they took us out sailing around Vancouver. While we were out in English Bay, just outside the harbour, we came across these guys staging a mock sea battle.
This orca statue is at the new convention centre at Canada Place in downtown Van.
So, we’ve had a test ride and we’re ready to roll tomorrow morning: destination, Nanaimo on Vancouver Island !
We were supposed to go two days ago, but we decided to stay to watch the Vancouver Canucks, the local much-loved ice-hockey team, play in the finals of the Stanley Cup against the Boston Bruins. They play the best of seven games alternately in Boston and Vancouver, and the series is tied at 3 games all. It all comes down to tonight’s game in Vancouver. Things are tense: Vancouver haven’t made the finals since 1994, so there’s a lot riding on tonight’s game as well as much beer to be drunk !
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